From the Desk of Steve Strazza @sstrazza and Alfonso Depablos @Alfcharts

This is one of our favorite bottom-up scans: Follow the Flow.

In this note, we simply create a universe of stocks that experienced the most unusual options activity — either bullish or bearish, but not both.

We utilize options experts, both internally and through our partnership with The TradeXchange. Then, we dig through the level 2 details and do all the work upfront for our clients.

Our goal is to isolate only those options market splashes that represent levered and high-conviction, directional bets.

We also weed out hedging activity and ensure there are no offsetting trades that either neutralize or cap the risk on these unusual options trades.

What remains is a list of stocks that large financial institutions are putting big money behind.

And they’re doing so for one reason only: because they think...

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

This is one heck of a seesaw.

$SPY came very close to a gap fill at 438.40 then dropped rapidly.

And the dollar is back up!

The next new position in our Paid-to-Play portfolio is:

Buyers drove home their precious metals stance for a second week.

Gold and silver posted wide-bodied bars, rocketing higher on the open and closing near the day’s peaks. 

Bullish momentum thrusts like these tend to spark sustained rallies.

That’s right!

It could be off to the races for these shiny rocks, especially given the crucial levels recovered last Friday…

Gold futures ripped higher, gaining more than 3% Friday while reclaiming a critical area of former support at approximately 1,910:

Buyers stepped in, answering the call to adventure and promptly repairing the damage.

The path of least resistance now leads toward former all-time highs.

Are we witnessing a classic failed breakdown in gold?

Can it be that simple?

Absolutely.

I’m tracking a swift move in the opposite direction (higher), much like the dollar’s bounce this summer, to indicate a legitimate bullish reversal.

The former 2011 high – marking gold’s previous commodity supercycle peak – represents my line in the sand.

Gold and other precious metals deserve the benefit of the doubt as long as gold holds above those former...

From the Desk of Steve Strazza and Alfonso Depablos

The largest insider buy on today’s list comes in a Form 4 filing by Artal Group.

The firm reported a purchase of $15 million in Scholar Rock Holding Corporation $SRRK.

Have you noticed how everyone forgot about Healthcare stocks?

All it took was 2 years of no progress for everyone to lose track of just what a monster this trade has been for so long.

Just to put things in perspective, here's what Healthcare as a sector has done over the past 20 years:

From the Desk of Steve Strazza and Alfonso Depablos

The largest insider buy on today’s list comes in a Form 4 filing by Artal Group.

The firm reported a purchase of $15 million in Scholar Rock Holding Corporation $SRRK.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

$SPY is in a tight consolidation area.

I'd like the 432 level held in order to head to 438.40.

I don't like this market. It can't make up its mind. Things were starting to look promising last week, then Friday happened. And even today, intraday, we're seeing weird, indecisive trading action.

So I know I'm a broken record, but as long as this sideways slop continues, I'm looking to stay delta neutral and sell premium. And with earnings event risk all over the place, it is probably best to stay with liquid ETFs.

Today's trade is in the Oil Patch.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

$SPY and $QQQ held on to their respective support.

But we did see some intraday volatility.

We had a resting GTC order filled at our profit target in the Paid-to-Play portfolio today:

The next new position in our Paid-to-Play portfolio is:

From the Desk of Steve Strazza and Alfonso Depablos

The largest insider buy on the list comes in a Form 4 filing by Working Capital Advisors (UK) Ltd.

The investment advisory firm revealed a purchase of $166,774 in Funko Inc $FNKO.

How come so many investors get mad that an index, which was designed to buy more of the best stocks and less or none of the worst stocks, owns more of the best stocks and less or none of the worst stocks?

The S&P500 is up over 21% since the October low last year. In fact, last week marked the 1 year anniversary of this bull market.

Meanwhile, the Nasdaq100 is up 40% over the past 12 months (because it's a bear market?)

During this time, Technology is up 46%, Communications is up 42% and Industrials are up 22% - representing the 3 best performing groups of stocks.

These are the registration details for our LIVE Mid-month Conference Call for Premium Members of All Star Charts.

Our Live Call will be held on Tuesday October 17th @ 6PM ET. As always, if you cannot make the call live, the video and slides will be archived and published here along with every other live call since 2015.

Here are the details for Tuesday night:

From the Desk of Steve Strazza and Alfonso Depablos

The largest insider buy on the list comes in a Form 4 filing by Working Capital Advisors (UK) Ltd.

The investment advisory firm revealed a purchase of $166,774 in Funko Inc $FNKO.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

The indices are pointing higher for now.

We'll see if they're flagging to trend higher.

From the Desk of Alfonso Depablos @Alfcharts

One of the relative trends we must regularly evaluate is the relationship between large-caps and small-caps.

Sometimes large-caps outperform. Other times, it’s the little guys leading the way. 

This ratio tells us which ones we should be focusing on. 

The chart below shows the Russell 1000 Large-Cap ETF (IWB) relative to the Russell 2000 Small-Cap ETF (IWM) breaking out of a monster-basing formation.

This is the weekly post that aggregates all the charts we put together throughout the week and organizes them all into one, easy to flip through deck.