I’m really grateful for the path I took in getting where I am today.

I wasn’t always hanging out on an island trading and covering the stock market.

I put in my time. 

I started my career in the Big 4, auditing some of the largest financial institutions in the world.

I spent long nights ticking and tying financial statements and testing derivative valuations for companies like Morgan Stanley and Interactive Brokers.

I know the strangest things about these companies' fundamentals and their history. I made friends and memories I’ll never forget. I was in the room for some historic market events. When I think back on some chapters of my early adult life, they were literally set in these offices. 

But none of the non-public information I learned at these places back in the day is relevant or material now. I have an insider's understanding of these businesses, but no special information about them. 

And I don’t need it. I’m a long-term bull on a lot of these companies simply because of the people who run them. Some have been great mentors over the...

We've been obnoxious about our natural gas trade recently, and we still think it has tremendous upside from the current level.

That's why we outlined the coal industry and our favorite miner last week.

But that's not all. We're also stalking the agricultural inputs industry, which is levered to the price of natural gas, for a breakout.

Our Fertilizer Index is an equal-weight basket of 11 stocks from the agricultural inputs industry like Corteva $CTVA, Nutrien $NTR, and Mosaic $MOS.

The price fell to a new cycle low in December, but the bulls quickly stepped up and created...

Today's relatively short-term trade has an earnings catalyst, and I'm betting it will propel us to profits.

The stock has already had a stellar run over the past 52-weeks. Will the upcoming earnings mark the top? I doubt it.

Here's a one-year chart of a technology company that specializes in mobile app growth and monetization solutions -- Applovin Corp $APP:

As strong as this stock has been, it looks like it's setting up for another leg higher. And the upcoming February 12th earnings report just may be the catalyst the market needs to send this stock flying again. 

Of course, earnings can be a wild card, so it'll be important to define my risks.

Here's the Play:

I like buying an $APP February 400/450 Bull Call Spread for an approximately $11.50 debit. This means that I'll be long the Feb 400 calls and short an equal amount of the 450 calls. This debit I pay today is the most I can lose in a worst-case scenario:

I'm going to hold this trade, no matter what, through the February 12 earnings event.

On February 13th, my stop becomes $400. If $APP is below $400 per share, I'll close the spread for...

The S&P 500 just made its first new all-time high of 2025.

This came after Donald Trump told business leaders at the Davos World Economic Forum that he would demand lower interest rates.

Although this isn't likely to come to fruition, the market loves this guy's attitude.

*click the image to enlarge it

Union Pacific $UNP reported mixed results but rallied over 5% with a reaction score of 3.60. The company plans to repurchase between $4 and $5B during 2025.

Elevance Health $ELV reported mixed results but rallied nearly 3% with a 1.29 reaction score. The market loved to hear that the quarterly dividend was increased by 5% to $1.71 per share.

Freeport-McMoRan $FCX reported mixed results and fell 1.51% with a reaction score of -1.27. The market didn't like to hear that the management team revised capital expenditures higher or that copper production is being revised down because of mill maintenance.

GE Aerospace reported a double beat and rallied 6.60% with a reaction score of...

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Our Hall of Famers list is composed of the 150 largest US-based stocks.

These stocks range from the mega-cap growth behemoths like Apple and Microsoft – with market caps in excess of $2T – to some of the new-age large-cap disruptors such as Moderna, Square, and Snap.

It has all the big names and more.

It doesn’t include ADRs or any stock not domiciled in the US. But don’t worry; we developed a separate universe for that. Click here to check it out.

The Hall of Famers is simple.

We take our list of 150 names and then apply our technical filters so the strongest stocks with the most momentum rise to the top.

Let’s dive right in and check out what these big boys are up to.

Here’s this week’s list:

*Click table to enlarge view

We filter out any laggards that are down -5% or more relative to the S&P 500 over the trailing month.

Then, we...

In today’s Daily Digest, we’ll review the following:

1. No new positions today.
2. Rolled XLV position to March options.
3. Closed XLC at Profit Target.
4. Current status of open campaigns.
5. Volatility Snapshot.

Let’s dig in!

The replay of this week's LIVE video Conference Call is available for Premium Members of ASC Research. 

Click here to sign up and catch up on the replay, download the 100+ charts and review each of the new trade ideas.

One of the greatest market indicators of all-time is the January Barometer.

Brought to us by the good folks at the...

Today’s top moves come via two significant 13G filings.

Point72 Asset Management boosted its stake in Syndax Pharmaceuticals $SNDX from 3.25% to 5.00%.

This increase signals growing confidence in the company’s prospects from one of the most high-profile hedge funds in the market.

Here’s The Hot Corner, with data from January 23, 2025:

Dimensional Fund Advisors disclosed an initial 5.30% position in Academy Sports and Outdoors $ASO. 

A 13G is a passive stake filing that reveals when an investor takes a large position (over 5%) in a company.

It’s often a sign they see solid potential in the stock and are placing a bet on its future growth.

At the top of the list is the Crypto Industry Innovators ETF $BITQ.

What captures our interest is if Bitcoin successfully resolves higher from this 100,000 consolidation band, this group could provide serious alpha to investors.

It's returned investors just shy of +600% since 2023.

Today's number is... 0.0%

After a brief pullback in the larger trend, the bulls have regained control and pushed the S&P 500 higher. The S&P 500 now has a 0.0% drawdown, which means that it's at an all-time high. So, the bull market continues!

Here is a bar chart displaying all S&P 500 bull markets since 1950:

(right-click and open image in new tab to zoom in)

Let's break down what this chart shows:

• The blue bars represent the percentage change of each bull market.
• The red dots represent the total number of trading days for each bull market.
• The blue horizontal dashed line indicates the average percentage change across all bull markets, while the red horizontal dashed line indicates the average number of trading days in bull markets.
• For the data nerds, I have added the data table for each bull and bear market. 

The Takeaway: I define a bull market as a rally that rises by 20% or...

Bears just can’t seem to score any points lately.

They continue to struggle at breaking down even the worst areas of the market. We keep seeing it.

Solar stocks are the latest example.

The whole group was bid up today with some huge moves from the heavily-shorted names. 

Here’s the Solar Index $TAN:

TAN suffered its worst single day performance since the 2020 crash following the election in November. It fell over 10% to new cycle lows.

However, there has been little follow-through in the time since. And today, we saw a nice pop off the pivot lows from last month.

Also notice how TAN hasn’t been oversold for more than a year now as selling pressure has waned. I think bears are slowly losing control. 

They are also positioned way offside when it comes to this basket of stocks. Some of the largest short positions in the market are in the indexes components.

And we can’t finish the bullish argument without discussing the obvious political tailwinds under the new Trump administration.

While I’m...

On today’s call we discussed rolling some positions that have entered the theta decay window. When we still like a setup, but we didn’t buy enough time, we simply buy more calls further out. 

Remember, this is what we did with SOUN. It was a zero before it was our best trade of the year.

Right now, HIMS is coming out of a perfect pattern as bulls regain control of the tactical trend.

We are going to game this roll a little bit and hold onto our existing calls for now. I think we’re coming out of this coil and can get more for them soon.

But in the meantime, let's position in new calls that give us a better shot of winning big.

We’re...

Here's the replay and chartbook from the January 23 Weekly Strategy Session.

Be sure to join us on Thursdays at 11 am ET and maximize your return potential.

With Bitcoin closing in on fresh all-time highs, our crypto-related trades are playing out just as planned.

Our $CORZ 2/21 $17 calls just hit a high of $1.12 this morning.

We put them on Friday for $0.55.

Depending on your entry price, you might already have a double on your hands.

If that’s the case, it’s time to take action—we’re locking in some profits today and letting the rest ride risk-free.

We’re also keeping a close eye on $APLD and $CSCO, as both are approaching double territory.

With CSCO trading at new highs right now, I think we could get the move we need by today’s close.

Set your alerts and be ready for it!

Steve

In today’s Daily Digest, we’ll review the following:

1. New position in XLB.
2. No adjustments are needed today.
3. No exits since the last report.
4. Current status of open campaigns.
5. Volatility Snapshot.

Let’s dig in!

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

We love our bottoms-up scans here at All Star Charts. We tend to get really creative when making new universes as we want to be sure they will deliver us the best opportunities the market has to offer.

However, when it comes to this one, it couldn't be any simpler!

With the goal of finding more bullish setups, we have decided to expand one of our favorite scans and broaden our regular coverage of the largest US stocks.

Welcome to The Junior Hall of Famers.

This scan is composed of the next 150 largest stocks by market cap, those that come after the top 150 and are thus covered by the Hall of Famers universe. Many of these names will someday graduate and join our original Hall Of Famers list. The idea here is to catch these big trends as early on as possible.

There is no need to overcomplicate things. Market cap is a quality filter at the end of the day. It only grows if price is rising. That's good enough for us.

The bottom line is it is a bull market. We...

We just heard from 14 of the largest corporations in the world.

The biggest winner was Netflix, $NFLX, which soared higher after a top- and bottom-line beat. The company said it added 19M paid subscribers, the most in its history.

It was a glorious day for the NFLX bulls, but that wasn't it.

Let's go over what else happened on Wednesday.

*click the image to enlarge it

Teledyne Technologies $TDY rallied 6.42% with a reaction score of 3.80 after reporting a double beat. 

The company also issued upbeat guidance for 2025.

Johnson & Johnson $JNJ beat its expectations but fell nearly 2%, with a reaction score of -2.52. 

Stelara sales, one of JNJ's most significant revenue sources, are declining because of biosimilar competition. Management expects that trend to continue, and the stock is declining because of it.

Procter & Gamble $PG rallied nearly 2% with a reaction score of 1.31 on the heels of a double beat. 

The company is continuing to return cash to shareholders rapidly. During the quarter, PG returned...

Let’s kick off with UnitedHealth Group $UNH, where Director Timothy P. Flynn made waves by purchasing 1,000 shares, a buy worth $511,575. 

That’s a confident signal from inside one of the healthcare giants.

Here’s The Hot Corner, with data from January 22, 2025:

Meanwhile, over at Home BancShares $HOMB, Chairman, CEO, and Co-Founder John W. Allison put his money where his mouth is, snapping up 10,000 shares. 

That’s a bold vote of confidence from the man who built the bank from the ground up.

The stock has carved out a massive base for the last eight years. Price is pressing against the top of the range as buyers work on absorbing all the overhead supply at this resistance zone:

If we get a decisive breakout above 30, the path of least resistance will switch higher.