From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

Our precious metals index is hitting fresh 52-week highs despite the waning strength in gold and silver.

Only three markets comprise the index. That leaves only one possible culprit – platinum!

First palladium, now platinum?

It doesn’t matter whether you consider platinum or palladium true precious metals. The industrious side of the family is chipping in, supporting a new structural uptrend for the entire space. 

Let’s check it out!

Before we dive into the levels…

Commercial hedgers are unwinding their net-long position after reaching extremes last year. Similar positioning in 2018 marked a key inflection point, resulting in a multi-year rally.

The bullish sentiment of commercial hedgers supports a sustained rally (much like the positioning in palladium).

Whether platinum catches higher in the coming weeks and months partially depends on a further unwind in commercial positioning. 

Remember, commitments of traders positioning reflects sentiment. It’s not a trade signal. But it does reveal critical aspects of the market environment. In this case, it’s...

In an effort to provide some much-needed portfolio diversification, I'm adding a delta-neutral credit spread to the mix.

There aren't a whole lot of juicy premiums out there (thank you plummeting $VIX!), but there is an ETF in a sector that looks set up for some sideways digestion over the near term that should play nice with a short Strangle.

P.S. We do trades like this regularly. If you'd like to leverage Best-in-Class technical analysis into smarter directional options trades, try out All Star Options Risk Free! Or give us a call to learn more: 323-421-7991.

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

Today’s Hot List is a short one.

The most significant insider transaction is a 13D filed by Perceptive Advisors.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

We have a big week ahead of us as far as earnings go.

The indices have been holding on for the past two weeks, but we've barely gone anywhere.

You want to talk about trends?

The biggest trend I see is that stocks keep going up in price, but investors are more pessimistic than ever.

I don't understand...

What are people so angry about? Why are they so scared?

Barron's latest Big Money poll shows that out of the 130 managers polled only 6% of their clients were bullish.

lol 6%?

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.

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

The increased selling pressure across grain markets might not be on your radar. 

But pay close attention: The soybean complex, corn, and wheat are edging toward their respective year-to-date lows as demand wanes. 

Even if you don’t trade these ag contracts, fresh multi-month lows – especially in wheat – carry broad implications for equities and cyclical assets. (Hint: It has to do with crude oil.) 

That’s why I’m on high alert for a potential breakdown in Chicago wheat…

Wheat has been in a strong downtrend since its March 2022 peak, entering a bearish momentum regime last summer.

Notice it's currently carving out a potential multi-month reversal pattern below a significant polarity zone.

But the bulls have their work cut out for them, as the bearish momentum profile suggests sellers are still in control of the market. 

When I take a closer look, I see a...

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

Today was monthly options expiration, and it was slim pickings.

Fridays are always hard to trade, as you can see below: not much movement.

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

With earnings season underway, financials are making a statement this week.

The first few weeks of reporting are always heavy with banks and financial stocks. As these are the market laggards, we knew we would get some critical information from their earnings reactions.

While it hasn't been fireworks to the upside by any means, there also hasn't been much downside from these stocks.

It is never a bad thing if the bears can't take down the weakest stocks. That's what is going on right now.

Meanwhile, more and more bullish setups keep crossing our desk. It's all very constructive.

Let's talk about two we like right now.

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

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...

Finally, a setup I love that has earnings out of the way! There's light at the end of the tunnel. And no surprise I find this setup in a strong sector that wants to lead the market higher.

We're going to leverage some cheap options to position for a breakout to 52-week highs in this big cap name.

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:

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:

The largest insider buy on today’s list comes in a Form 4 filing by Cormorant Asset Management.

Cormorant revealed an additional purchase of $58 million in Ambrx Biopharma $AMAM.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

What a week, though we've been pretty much range-bound.

Yesterday we started to dip in the late afternoon.

I’m in the process of creating a formal “business plan” for one of my trading strategies.

In 2002, I went through an arduous experience of creating an operating agreement, disclosure documents, and strategy explainers to attract investors as I built a small commodities hedge fund from scratch. Ignorance was bliss.

It was a chore, but a worthwhile investment in my time and energy because I ultimately won the business and started the fund. Success!

Now I’m entertaining the idea of managing OPM (other people’s money) again, and I’m reminded of the rewards of this process.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

Wild action again today...

We were down in the morning, then we rallied for a bit till about 2:00 p.m. ET, then we had a complete fade into the close.

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

What caught my attention following the SVB collapse wasn’t the headlines so much as how the markets handled the news and the stress that followed.

It’s difficult to find the silver lining of one of the largest bank failures since the financial crisis. But I’m more of a glass-half-full kind of guy.

Despite the relentless barrage of negative headlines, it’s undeniable that risks have been contained, and the markets have weathered the storm – at least for now.

Investors ditched equities and ran to the safety of US Treasury bonds as the saga unfolded. It was like the good old days when stocks were risk assets, and bonds acted like – well, bonds!

Now that the dust has settled, I believe the renewed classic intermarket relationship between stocks and bonds and the familiar patterns of risk-on/risk-off behavior bodes well for the overall market.

Especially when you consider easing volatility…

Here’s an overlay chart of the Bond Volatility Index $MOVE and the S&P 500 Volatility Index $...