From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Welcome to The Minor Leaguers.

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.

Nowadays, 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 new...

Short sellers are under pressure, and it’s starting to show.

They’ve been caught leaning the wrong way and are scrambling to unwind their bets.

That’s when we like to step in with our Freshly Squeezed strategy, right as the squeeze begins.

Here's our latest scan: 

As you can see, Phathom Pharma $PHAT, Tango Thera. $TNGX and AST SpaceMobile $ASTS are at the top of the leaderboard. 

Over the last 10 trading sessions, they've rallied 150.4%, 111.3%, and 66.3%, respectively.

The squeeze in Sezzle $SEZL is continuing to unfold. The stock is up nearly 60% since we bought it last month.

We also have tables sorted by short interest and days-to-cover.

Now let’s break down today’s setup and...

Welcome back for another Top Down Trade of the Week. 

This one’s a classic leadership scan.

We start with the best sectors, then drill into the subgroups. We pick one, and then take a look at the top stocks in it. 

This week, Energy is the big standout—jumping to the top of our sector rankings. 

Healthcare and utilities also made a big move up on the leaderboard as growth sectors faltered. 

Here is a look at our overall industry rankings, which shows oil & gas cracking into the top 10.

It’s not a surprise to see it there—crude oil has been squeezing higher, posting its best week since October 2022.

That kind of price action tends to light a fire under energy stocks, and that’s exactly what we’re seeing.

Crude oil just ripped higher with its biggest 3-day rally since March 2022.

And the timing couldn’t be more interesting.

The energy trade looked like it was unraveling.

But the bulls are stepping in and repairing the damage.

Valid tops have turned into "not tops" and bear traps.

This burst of upside momentum comes right as crude is bouncing off a major support zone, both in absolute terms and relative to the broader market. 

Energy stocks have been under pressure for months, but this looks like a potential turning point.

Not only is the price action improving, but positioning is also offside. 

Short interest in the Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF $XOP just hit its highest level in years.

A lot of the individual stocks have the highest short interest ever.

The unwind could fuel a powerful move higher across...

Let’s get one thing straight… I’m not some sort of defense industry perma bull.

Trust me, those people exist.

They hang out in the same circles as the ‘end-of-days’ folks, national debt doomers, and gold bugs.

It’s just not for me. I’m an optimist.

However, I’m also a good old-fashioned trend follower.

And these stocks have taken on a new leadership role, so we’ve been buying them. Here is Aerospace & Defense relative to the S&P 500:

This base breakout is in the books, and the path of least resistance is now higher for this ratio. All that means is expect more outperformance from these stocks over longer timeframes.

But I’m most interested in making money right now. This week, this month, this quarter.

And as I flipped through the A&D components today, there was one chart that I just...

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...

“Look kid, if you hear the missiles are flying, you buy them. You don’t sell them.”

— Art Cashin, Wall Street legend.

No doom and gloom here. That’s not our style.

We don’t get caught up in hot headlines or silly narratives. We follow trends — regardless of what’s going on in the world. 

And right now, one of the clearest, most durable trends on the tape is in Aerospace & Defense.

And maybe it’s because of this war here, or the geopolitical issues there. Or maybe it’s just because industrials are the leaders and this is a bull market.

Here’s the thing… There will always be wars, and fear will always have a significant impact on human behavior. 

I can tell you we’re buying these stocks because of some headlines out of Russia… but that wouldn’t be the truth. 

We’re...

The multi-year distribution patterns in energy are failing and hooking higher.

And from what I understand, it’s been confusing for some people.

I get that. If you’re one of them, keep reading; we’ll unpack it all.

But first, here’s something from a note I wrote on energy last month.

“I’m making the bet that crude scoops and scores here. I think it should look a lot more like its derivative plays soon, back in its old range. And I think we can get a fast move back toward the upper bounds from there. I’m talking about a big rally that sends crude back to the 80s or 90s”.

Why in the world was I feeling so warm and fuzzy about crude oil? 

It was just completing a massive top. What a naughty technician I must be. What was I thinking?

We’ve been pounding the table on the rotation taking place across Asian equity markets. Vietnam, Taiwan, Thailand, China—you name it. 

The message is clear: the tide is turning and participation is broadening across Asia. 

It’s no longer just Japan. Everything else is starting to work.

One of the key forces driving this rotation is a weak US Dollar. When the dollar stumbles, emerging market currencies catch a bid—and local equities tend to follow. 

Here’s the latest in the mix, the Korean Won:

Like many Asian currencies, the Won spent over two years grinding lower in a steady downtrend. Earlier this year, it undercut key support. But instead of breaking down, it snapped back violently. 

It’s a...

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Welcome to The 2 to 100 Club.

In this scan, we look to identify the strongest growth stocks as they climb the market-cap ladder from small- to mid- to large- and, ultimately, to mega cap status (over $200B).

Once they graduate from small-cap to mid-cap status (over $2B), they come on our radar. Likewise, when they surpass the roughly $30B mark, they roll off our list.

But the scan doesn't just end there.

We only want to look at the strongest growth industries in the market, as that is typically where these potential 50-baggers come from.

Some of the best performers in recent decades – stocks like Priceline, Amazon, Netflix, Salesforce, and myriad others – would have been on this list at some point during their journey to becoming the market behemoths they are today.

When you look at the stocks in our table, you'll notice we're only focused on Technology and Growth industry groups such as Software, Semiconductors, Online...

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza.

Welcome back to Under the Hood, where we'll cover all the action for the two weeks ended June 6, 2025. This report is published bi-weekly, in rotation with The Minor Leaguers.

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.

Click here for a behind-the-scenes look at our process.

Short sellers are getting squeezed, and it’s plain to see.

They’ve been caught offside and are being forced to cover their positions.

They’re feeling the pain, and that’s exactly when we like to strike with our Freshly Squeezed strategy.

Here's our latest scan: 

As you can see, Phathom Pharma $PHAT, Applied Digital $APLD, and LZ Technology $TZMH are at the top of the leaderboard. 

Over the last 10 trading sessions, they've rallied 110.9%, 85.3%, and 66.9%, respectively.

Our long Sezzle $SEZL trade has also been ripping higher. The stock is up over 50% since we got long last month.

We also have tables sorted by short interest and days-to-cover.

Now, let's discuss today's setup and why we...