I make quick decisions.

Is that because I’m a trader? Or am I a trader because I make quick decisions?

Over time, I think I’ve come to the conclusion that being a trader has instilled in me a knack and preference for quick decision-making. I wasn’t always like this. 25 years of trading has taught me to work with only 75% of the information I might want, and that is good enough to take action.

The phrase “invest, then investigate,” as Stanley Druckenmiller said, comes to mind.

Outside of trading, this can also affect my day-to-day decision-making. I think it frustrates my wife when I make decisions so quickly. In her mind, she probably thinks I’m being irrational, emotional, or acting on impulse. She, in contrast, is very deliberate. Cautious. Analyzes every detail…

...

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

The market was in a standstill today, awaiting the CPI print on Wednesday.

The indices held on.

Tomorrow might give a clearer picture near term.

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

Dollar bulls hold the line.

The US Dollar Index $DXY is clinging to the 100 level, refusing to let go despite new 52-week highs for the British pound and a steady rise in the euro.

I’ve laid out numerous ways to play the dollar in recent months and what will confirm a DXY breakdown. None of that has changed.

But one chart caught my eye.

I was struck over the weekend by the resemblance between the commercial position in gold and DXY.

Check it out…

DXY sits up top with the commercial or smart money position in gold in the lower pane:

I don’t know why this strong positive relationship escaped me in the past. But the correlation between these two charts makes sense.

Smart money buys gold as the dollar rises.

Remember, a strong...

The weakness in Small-caps has been well documented by now.

Look at the performance since the beginning of 2022.

While the Dow, S&P500 and other major indexes are pushing up near 52-week highs, the Russell2000 is down near 52-week lows.

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

The largest insider transaction on today’s list comes in a Form 4 filing by Ares Management.

The firm revealed a $7.5 million purchase in Frontier Communications Parent $FYBR.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

$QQQ hit a fresh high yesterday, and this morning we're pulling back.

We could be in a standstill until tomorrow's CPI data. 

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

There’s a mountain of bullish evidence supporting an upside resolution in gold. 

But gold hasn’t broken out. Not yet!

Gold has been running this race for months... at least, that’s how it feels.

Perhaps it’s simply making its way to the starting line…  

I believe that’s the best way to view gold and precious metals at this stage of the game. Before I get ahead of myself – marking a series of upside objectives – I want to highlight a key level that defines my intermediate- and near-term risks…

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Welcome to our latest Minor Leaguers report.

We've had some great trades come out of this small-cap-focused column since we launched it back in 2020 and started rotating it with our flagship bottom-up scan, Under the Hood.

For the first year or so, we focused only on Russell 2000 stocks with a market cap between $1 and $2B.

That was fun, but we wanted to branch out a bit and allow some new stocks to find their way onto our list.

We expanded our universe to include some mid-caps.

To make the cut for our Minor Leaguers list, a company must have a market cap between $1 and $4B.

And it doesn't have to be a Russell component — it can be any US-listed equity. With participation expanding around the globe, we want all those ADRs in our universe.

The same price and liquidity filters are applied. Then, as always, we sort by proximity to...

Week starting May 8, 2023 | Edition No. 10 

Our mission at The Buzz is simple: to identify and profit from the most-talked-about stocks on social media. 

Every week, we compile a list of stocks trending tickers that are experiencing a large increase in the investor interest. We use social media data from our partners at Likefolio. 

In each weekly report, we outline 1-3 actionable trades. We also take a closer look at a few other charts from our list. Some weeks will have more actionable setups than others, as we don’t want to force trades. 

With any bottoms-up scan, many of these stocks are at the mercy of the broader market. We will always consider the current market environment when identifying our long/short ideas. 

None of these setups are guaranteed to work. Profitable trading requires you to take small losses and let your winners run. If price closes below our risk levels, we want to take the small loss and move on, to preserve capital for future opportunities. 

As always, feel free to reach out to me at Patrick@thechartreport.com...

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

It was a real tug of war today for the indices.

$AMD really pushed through, moving more than 5%.

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

There’s a mountain of bullish evidence supporting an upside resolution in gold. 

But gold hasn’t broken out. Not yet!

Gold has been running this race for months… at least, that’s how it feels.

Perhaps it’s simply making its way to the starting line…  

I believe that’s the best way to view gold and precious metals at this stage of the game. Before I get ahead of myself – marking a series of upside objectives – I want to highlight a key level that defines my intermediate- and near-term risks…

Last week, gold futures came within five dollars of breaking to new highs:

Close, but no cigar.

There’s still plenty of overhead supply at those former highs at approximately 2,089. But bulls remain in control based on the bullish momentum regime and the clear uptrend off the October 2022 lows.

The three-point bearish divergence on the 14-day RSI might not paint the most bullish picture. You could even argue the momentum divergence increases the likelihood of a correction.

But I want to give the bulls the benefit of the doubt as long as price holds above...

Full Disclosure: I'm a Buffalo Bills fan. As such, I'm excited about this upcoming NFL season. This is the year! Does this fact color my interest in today's trade? Maybe.

I get all my speculative juice in the financial markets. But there is a growing number of Americans who are jumping into online sports betting. The increases in both participation and dollars wagered is skyrocketing.

Today's trade is a bet on a continuation of this trend that will likely be driven by the next NFL season.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

We held our May Monthly Strategy Session last Monday night. Premium Members can access and rewatch it here.

Non-members can get a quick recap of the call simply by reading this post each month.

By focusing on long-term, monthly charts, the idea is to take a step back and put things into the context of their structural trends. This is easily one of our most valuable exercises as it forces us to put aside the day-to-day noise and simply examine markets from a “big-picture” point of view.

With that as our backdrop, let’s dive right in and discuss three of the most important charts and/or themes from this month’s call.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza and Alfonso Depablos @AlfCharts

While financials and cyclical areas of the market have been under pressure the past few weeks, technology and other leadership groups have been resilient.

In fact, despite the latest banking sector volatility, we continue to find plenty of opportunities in growth stocks.

However, it's not just growth. We're seeing strength from risk-on groups like homebuilders, in addition to consumer stocks from both offensive and defensive industries.

Overall, we continue to see healthy rotation from the broader market.

Today, we have a consumer discretionary name everyone should be familiar with. Let's get into it.

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

The largest insider transaction on today’s list is a Form 4 filing by Alphabet Inc.

The tech giant reported a $19 million purchase in GitLab $GTLB.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

What a move on Friday!

But we must stay on our toes: We've got CPI this week. 

It's now or never.

The Russell2000 Small-cap Index is back down near last Summer's lows.

If there was ever a time for buyers to step up, it's right now.

And funny enough, relative to the Large-cap S&P500 Index, the Russell2000 is back down to the 2020 lows.

Again, if there was ever a time for buyers to step in, now is the time: