From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

When investing in the stock market, we always want to approach it as a market of stocks.

Regardless of the environment, there are always stocks showing leadership and trending higher.

We may have to look harder to identify them depending on current market conditions… but there are always stocks that are going up.

The same can be said for weak stocks. Regardless of the environment, there are always stocks that are going down, too. 

We already have multiple scans focusing on stocks making all-time highs, such as Hall of Famers, Minor Leaguers, and the 2 to 100 Club. We filter these universes for stocks that are exhibiting the best momentum and relative strength characteristics. 

Clearly, we spend a lot of time identifying and writing about leading stocks every week, via multiple reports. Now, we're also highlighting lagging stocks on a recurring basis.

Welcome to the Short Report.

We'll publish this...

From the desk of Willie Delwiche.

Key Takeaway: Investor moods will change as prices fluctuate but they seemed to follow word with deed in May. The AAII asset allocation survey showed them lightening up (perhaps only briefly and modestly) on their equity exposure. By month-end, we had evidence that the $4.5 trillion in money market funds (more of a molehill than a mountain when adjusted for total market value) was being put to work in both stocks and bonds. Bearish investors are not so much disgruntled with stocks, but disgusted by the price action they have experienced this year. It didn’t take much of a move off the lows for optimism to start building again. Rallies that are initially despised (or at least viewed skeptically) are more likely to have staying power than those that are quickly embraced. Sentiment is at levels from which rallies tend to emerge - positioning, however, is not.

Sentiment Report Chart of the Week: Investors Take Some Action

AAII asset allocation data shows that investors trimmed their...

This is the video recording of our June 1, 2022, Inside Scoop Weekly Strategy Session.

It's that time again -- monthly candlesticks!

Longtime readers know how much we love new monthly candlesticks. They force us to zoom out from the day-to-day noise and focus on what's really taking place.

In the case of Bitcoin $BTC, it can't get any more defined than 30,000.

Remember this time last summer when we were obnoxious about this level every week?

We play with the cards we are dealt. There is nothing else we can do. We cannot employ willpower to create market conditions into being the way we'd prefer them to be. They are what they are, it is what it is. So we work with what we've got.

And what we've got right now are a bunch of badly beaten up stocks. Many still off 60%+ from their recent highs.

Dumpster diving isn't my favorite way to find new ideas to trade. But my man Strazza enjoys the exercise from time to time and recently, he's uncovered some notable insider buying and unusual options activity in some former highflyers, most notably Zoom $ZM.

But first, let's survey the damage. This probably isn't new to many of you, but look how far ZM has fallen from its recent perch atop Momentum Mountain:

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

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

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

It reveals an additional purchase of roughly $7.8 million in Insight Enterprises $NSIT, as ValueAct continues to increase its position in the tech stock.

From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @IanCulley

The US dollar is on the ropes as global currencies bounce back.

After failing to hold its breakout earlier in the month, the USD looks vulnerable against a growing number of currencies.

The pound and euro are catching higher. The Swiss franc is rebounding off its recent lows. And the commodity-centric Australian and Canadian dollars remain resilient.

We can add the Mexican peso to this list, as the USD/MXN cross broke down to fresh 52-week lows yesterday. This breakdown supports the near-term bearish argument for the dollar.

And it also offers a great trade setup. 

Let’s take a look.

Here’s a chart of the USD/MXN pair:

While the Mexican peso has chopped sideways since late 2020, we believe the trend is shifting to the downside.

Last week, prices punctured the range lows as the USD/MXN hit...

Key Takeaway:

• After bounce, trend environment still trying.
• Health of the economy hinges on the desire and ability of consumers to spend.
• Risk On case needs to prove its point.

These are the registration details for our Live Monthly Candlestick Strategy Session for Premium Members of All Star Charts.

This month’s Video Conference Call will be held on Thursday June 2nd @ 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 Thursday evening:

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

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

We've adjusted a position in the Paid-to-Play portfolio today:

Last week, George Soros filed a 13G revealing the purchase of 9,425,000 shares of the small-cap automotive semiconductor company indie Semiconductor $INDI.

This brings Soros Fund Management's total interest to 9.20%, making it the largest shareholder of the company.

The magazine cover on the left, describing how Bitcoin was "Storming Wall Street" came just a few weeks before Bitcoin put in a historic top in late 2017. Immediately after this cover story, Bitcoin went on to have one of the most epic crashes of all time.

Investors got wiped out right after the one on the left.

And now here we are after Bitcoin got cut in half, and many of the altcoins are down 70-80% if not more.

There's no denying that the market action over the last month has been hectic.

From the collapse of Terra $LUNA to the crash in governance tokens, not to mention the macro headwinds that have played their role in crypto markets.

With all this noise, let's zoom out and focus on how we're viewing the current situation.

Nifty Auto has been gaining strength over the past week. We're seeing some follow-through there and hence, today's post will discuss a stock from the same sector.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza.

Welcome back to our latest Under the Hood column, where we'll cover all the action for the week ended May 27, 2022. This report is published bi-weekly and rotated with our Minor Leaguers column.

What we do here is analyze the most popular stocks during the week and find opportunities to either join in and ride these momentum names higher, or fade the crowd and bet against them.

We use a variety of sources to generate the list of most popular names.

There are so many new data sources available that all we need to do is organize and curate them in a way that shows us exactly what we want: a list of stocks that are seeing an unusual increase in investor interest.

Watch this video for a behind-the-scenes look at our process.

Whether we’re measuring increasing interest based on large institutional...

From the desk of Steve Strazza @sstrazza

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.

They’re doing so for one reason only: because they think the stock is about to move in their...