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

Our International Hall of Famers list is composed of the 100 largest US-listed international stocks, or ADRs. We’ve also sprinkled in some of the largest ADRs from countries that did not make the market cap cut. 

These stocks range from some well-known mega-cap multinationals such as Toyota Motor and Royal Dutch Shell to some large-cap global disruptors such as Sea Ltd and Shopify.

It’s got all the big names and more--but only those that are based outside the US. You can find all the largest US stocks on our original Hall of Famers list.

The beauty of these scans is really in their simplicity.

We take the largest names each week and then apply technical filters in a way that the strongest stocks with the most momentum rise to the top.

Based on the market environment, we can also flip the scan on its head and filter for weakness.

Let’s dive in and take a look at some of the most important stocks from around the world.

Here’s this week’s list:

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The largest insider transaction on today's list is a Form 4 filing by LGP Management.

The firm reported a purchase worth roughly $12 million in the mid-cap electrical company WESCO International $WCC.

Just as we’ve been wondering if that was it for Warren Buffett and Occidental Petroleum $OXY, the largest insider buy on today's list is a Form 4 filing by Berkshire Hathaway $BRK.A.

Buffett revealed another purchase in OXY, as he continues to build his position in the energy stock.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Welcome to the 2 to 100 Club.

As many of you know, something we've been working on internally is using various bottom-up tools and scans to complement our top-down approach. It's really been working for us!

One way we're doing this is by identifying 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...

This is the video recording of our September 28, 2022, Inside Scoop Weekly Strategy Session.

We continue to see insider activity in Adobe $ADBE this week.

This time, director David Ricks filed a Form 4 reporting purchases worth roughly $336,672.

ICONIQ Strategic Partners LP filed a Form 4 reporting the purchase of roughly $3.7 million in Braze Inc $BRZE.

The fund now has a total stake in BRZE of more than 28.70%.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @sstrazza and Alfonso Depablos @Alfcharts

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 the stock is about to move in their direction and make them a pretty...

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.

This year, 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 new highs in order to focus on the best players.

But, instead of all-time highs, we're sorting by 52-week highs these days, as we don't want to discriminate against energy or other cyclical stocks.

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From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Check out this week's Momentum Report, our weekly summation of all the major indexes at a Macro, International, Sector, and Industry Group level.

By analyzing the short-term data in these reports, we get a more tactical view of the current state of markets. This information then helps us put near-term developments into the big picture context and provides insights regarding the structural trends at play.

Let's jump right into it with some of the major takeaways from this week's report:

* ASC Plus Members can access the Momentum Report by clicking the link at the bottom of this post.

Macro Universe:

• Our macro universe was negative this week as 91% of our list closed lower with a median return of -4.00%.
• The Volatility Index $VIX was the winner again, closing with a 13.76% gain.
• Meanwhile, the biggest loser was Lumber $LB, with a weekly loss of -9.60%.
• There was no change in the percentage of assets on our list within 5% of their 52-week highs – currently at 6%.
• Only 9% of our macro list made fresh 4-week...

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Our Top 10 Charts Report was just published.

In this weekly note, we highlight 10 of the most important charts or themes we're currently seeing in asset classes around the world.

A Quarter Century of Sideways

We like to use the Value Line Geometric Index as a representation of how the average, or median stock is making out. While the S&P might be a better illustration of the performance of an average portfolio, the Value Line shows us the performance of the average stock.

With prices cratering back beneath key prior-cycle highs, it’s not painting a very bullish picture for the broader market. These dot-com bubble and financial crisis highs ~510 are as important as any level in the stock market right now. If we’re below there, downside risks are elevated, and we’re on the sidelines. The fact that the median stock price has made zero progress since its 1998 peak almost 25-years ago tells you all you need to know about the damage the overall market has already endured. As long as VLG is below these former highs, we want to be prepared for more to come.

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The largest insider transaction on today's list is a Form 4 filing by Daniel Durn, the CFO of Adobe $ADBE.

Durn reported a purchase worth roughly $936,357. He was appointed CFO this time last year.