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, which you can check out here.

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.

And here’s how we arrived at it:

• We filter out any stocks that are below their May 10, 2021 high, which is when new 52-week highs peaked for the S&P 500.
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From the desk of Willie Delwiche.

Stocks attempted to rally this week. Following Tuesday’s abortive attempt to regain the considerable ground lost on Monday, the S&P 500 posted its best daily gain since 2020 on Wednesday (+2.65). The S&P 500 is still down on the week as I write this, but if the right headlines cross the wire this afternoon, anything could happen. That’s the kind of environment we are in. One filled with plenty of day-to-day noise. Stepping back, the S&P 500 attempted to rally off the lows in both January and February as well. Then, lower highs were ultimately followed by lower lows. The consistent theme as the indexes have moved lower off of their early year highs has been weakness beneath the surface. The number of stocks making new lows has been persistently higher than the number of stocks making new highs. When that changes, and we see evidence of meaningful improvement in breadth, we can take a more constructive view of rally attempts. For they deserve skepticism. Let’s make it a mantra (or at least a T-shirt): “No Thrust? No Trust!”  

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This is the video recording of our March 11, 2022, All Star Charts Crypto Weekly Strategy Session.

We continue to see insider buying in a lot of the same names.

And the Baker brothers are making an appearance on The Hot List, as we suggested during our recent webinar. 

From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Grant Hawkridge @granthawkridge

Sideways has been the theme for most risk assets since they peaked in the first half of last year. Markets have become increasingly messy in the time since.

If we’re talking about US equities, the market is as bifurcated as it’s been in years.

All we mean by this is that depending on what group a stock is in, it could be in a nice uptrend, but it could also be in an ugly downtrend. Stocks and other risk assets are literally moving in opposite directions these days, and doing so with some serious momentum.

At the index level, you can see this split market reflected by trendless ranges. 

When we look to our risk-appetite ratios and indicators for information, we’re not getting much as the vast majority are still stuck in the same ranges they’ve been in for the better part of 12-months.

So, risk assets are a mess and most of our risk indicators are also a mess. Makes sense, right?

Let’s...

This is the video recording of the March 10th Weekly Town Hall w/ Willie Delwiche

03/10/22 2:00 PM ET

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Welcome to the first issue of The Inside Scoop.

We’ve seen a lot of interesting insider activity since we started publishing our scans last week.

So far this year, commodity stocks have been in a league of their own. Energy and cyclical names have continued to rally higher, while just about everything else – especially growth – continues to slide lower.

In the spirit of this split market, today we’ll discuss a number of stocks showing leadership that we think have more upside in the tank. But we’ll also cover a lagging growth stock that we think we can book some quick gains in on a mean-reversion move.

Also, make sure to check out our Hot List Radar report, which includes all the stocks we’re watching that recently experienced bullish insider buying.

Let’s dive in.

From the desk of Willie Delwiche.

This isn't a post about nuclear Armageddon or a survival guide for a post-apocalyptic world.

But it is about recognizing when something has ended.

In rare cases, we know when an end is coming and can try to prepare. This was the case with my son's final grade school basketball game. The season-ending tournament was on the calendar months in advance. But even still, there were a few tears when the final buzzer sounded.

In other cases, we might not know in advance that an end is coming, but can quickly recognize that it has arrived. Think about going home from the office for the last time as the COVID crisis was intensifying in Spring 2020. Few knew when they shut their computers down for the day that it would be weeks or months (if ever at all, in my case) until they returned. Though unexpected, that reality became obvious in short-order.

You hear that?

I certainly do.

"Chop, chop, chop..."

It's the sound of tilted traders getting chopped up.

It's a tale as old as time: people playing the market like it's trending, when it's nothing more than ping-ponging.

Price is in a really well-defined range, and there's no point getting hyped by any moves - up or down - before we actually get confirmation of a real break.

This approach of remaining completely neutral has done a great job of protecting us from the tilt of getting chopped up.

Just look at the recent price action.

We have a couple of billionaire sightings toward the top of today’s Hot List.

And we also have some congressional activity in the energy space to report.

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 publish...

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

Benchmark rates around the world have been rolling over as uncertainty sweeps across markets.

Despite the growing pessimism among investors, global yields are digging in at critical levels and bouncing higher in recent sessions. 

We discussed how international yields – particularly those in developed Europe – confirmed the new highs in US rates earlier in the year. 

Today, we’re going to check in on some of those same yields and see if this is still a piece of confirming evidence for rates here in the US.

With the US 10-year hovering around its breakout level at last year’s highs we’re looking for any clues we can get for whether or not these new highs are here to stay.

If the new highs in global yields are holding, that would go a long way in supporting the upside resolution in the US 10-Year.

On the other hand, if we start to see more and more yields around the world fail and roll over, the US will likely follow.

Let’s start with the US 10-year yield:

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It's refreshing when we finally have a potential breakout to talk about when the market's been a total mess over the last few months.

The crypto "new highs" list has been so quiet and empty that you can almost literally hear the tumbleweeds dancing.

But here comes Terra $LUNA trying to bring back some life into that list. Gotta respect that.

So, is this the real deal?

Are we finally going to get that setup we've been waiting so long for?

From the desk of Willie Delwiche.

Key Takeaway: Put/call ratios are high, there are more bulls than bears on both the AAII and II surveys (a rarity over the past decade) and active investment managers have slashed equity exposure. If the conditions that have been in place since the Financial Crisis lows (which occurred this week in 2009) are still in place, it is hard to argue that sentiment is not a meaningful tailwind for equities and is fuel for a rally. Two cautions: Sentiment is a condition, but rarely a catalyst. This means price action needs to improve to bring bulls back on board. But more significantly, there is still evidence that the speculative unwind that began last year is still ongoing and strategic positioning indicators show little improvement that would indicate longer-term risks are subsiding. Those get exacerbated as the Fed starts to raise interest rates and withdraw liquidity.        

Sentiment Report Chart of the Week: Liquidity-Fueled Speculation Now Unwinding

Fed rate cuts in 2019 primed the...

I'm sounding like a broken record about elevated options premiums and my desire to be a net seller of options, and for good reason: $VIX continues to hang tight in the 30's. And when volatility is this high, it tends to favor the premium sellers. Not every time, but most of the time.

So during our morning Analyst meeting, me and the team were kicking ideas around for putting an options trade on today. And while there are some tempting candidates for putting delta-neutral credit spreads on -- we all coalesced around the idea of leveraging the high prices of put options here into a long position in Nucor Corp $NUE:

We’re probably not going to follow Nancy Pelosi into American Express $AXP or PayPal $PYPL.

And Warren Buffett’s recent purchase of a large stake in Occidental Petroleum $OXY doesn’t necessarily indicate an opportunity for us, either.

Moves by these big names are just good information.

Commodities have been at the center of our analysis for over a year now. There have been times when base metals have done well. And here have been times when agri commodities have done well. But every single time, precious metals stayed out of it.

Precious metals have been the worst place to be in over the past one and a half years. But it looks as though things are about to change.

Why?

Gold and Silver seem to be interested in jumping on the bullish bandwagon. Are they there yet? Let's take a look!

Precious metals have been the worst place to be in for the longest time. But with commodities across the globe taking off, precious metals finally got the memo. The cargo is on the move, folks!

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

US dollar strength is broadening as global currencies lose critical levels against it.

Last week, we outlined crucial support levels in the EUR/USD pair. Those levels have since given way, as sellers have taken control of this major forex cross.

Today, we’re going to highlight two other USD pairs that recently sliced through key levels, further paving a path of least resistance that favors the US dollar.

First up is the British pound, GBP/USD:

The pound has been carving out a distribution pattern for the past year.

Yesterday, it completed that pattern by violating a key level of former resistance turned support found at the 2021 lows around 1.32.

Momentum is also registering overbought conditions, confirming the recent breakdown.

As long as it’s below those former lows, we...