Going country by country all over the world is one of the best tools that we have as market participants. The value that I’ve gotten over the years from looking at the behavior of all of the countries, instead of just the U.S. is a huge factor in why I am such a top/down weight-of-the-evidence guy. There are signs of strength and weakness that we see from international markets that might not be so obvious in the S&P500, for example.

Last September, I promise you that the reason I got bullish tactically was not because of what I was seeing in the United States, but what was happening around the world. There were simply too many bullish momentum divergences and downside objective achieved internationally to ignore. Something was up, and in fact, the counter-trend rally that we got in the U.S. actually exceeded my expectations.

When we talk about leadership in the market, I think it's important to go sector by sector to see where the leaders are and where the laggards might be. To help with this study, we take a look at each of the 10 S&P Sectors and compare them to the performance of the S&P500. This Relative Strength Analysis is one of the best ways to see sector rotation and changes in market leadership.

I have just updated all of the Sector vs S&P500 charts in the ChartBook and here are some of my notes:

As you guys know very well, we have wanted to be short the majority of the U.S. Sectors and Sub-sectors coming into the new year. While we still have much lower downside targets from a structural perspective, tactically speaking, many of our targets were hit this week. This is where we wanted to be covering short positions and, for the most part, looking to reinitiate short positions if and when we get a corrective rally. I have just updated all of the U.S. Sectors and Sub-sectors and they can be seen in the ChartBook.

Dear Members,

Thank you to everyone who registered for the new All Star Charts membership. I'm super excited to have you guys as part of our team. Remember, we're all in this together trying to navigate through this market day in and day out. It’s a puzzle that is constantly evolving and what we’re here to do is look for major trends around the world and then break those down to find more intermediate-term investing opportunities based on those structural setups. The new All Star Charts was an idea we’ve been working on for a long time, so we couldn't be happier to finally be able to share the ideas and the homework that I already do with all of our new members. Welcome to our club!

For the past 2 months I’ve been very vocal about how there’s been no reason to own the major U.S. Stock Market Averages. If there’s been any trade to be made, it's

definitely been on the short side. So far this has worked out well, obviously, as the S&P500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average are both down since October 23rd. If you recall, this was the day that they each first crossed above what was then, and still is, a flat 200 day simple moving average. Anyone who knows...

Dear Readers,

We have to trade and invest in the market that we have in front of us, not the one that we want. Therefore we have to be able to approach the market from a completely unbiased perspective. We don’t care if the market doubles in price or if it gets cut in half. We want to try to take advantage of moves in both directions. This is America after all.

I know it’s not sexy, but since October 23rd, we have wanted to approach the major U.S. stock market averages from a more neutral perspective. This is the day that both the S&P500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average first got above what was then, and still is, a flat 200 day simple moving average. Securities in that sort of environment create headaches, for both the bulls and the bears. The reason is because

there is no trend. Sure enough, prices this week are exactly where they were on October 23rd. This should not be a surprise and in fact, should be expected. But what does stand out is the dramatic underperformance in

Dear Readers,

For the past few weeks I’ve been writing a weekly open letter to readers about what I’m seeing across the stock market, bond market, commodities and currencies. The feedback I’ve received has been unlike any other time in the 5 year history of All Star Charts. I want to thank all of you for that. I think this is something that I will have to continue to do and make it a regular part of my routine. I’ve done this sort of thing in the past while managing money in order to keep our investors up to date on how we want to approach the marketplace. The format you’re seeing here is no different. Please feel free to keep emailing me and contacting me via Stocktwits or Twitter on how it can improve and what sort of things you guys want me to talk about.

Starting with the U.S. Stock Market, this as a group continues to be in no-man’s land. When price is near a flat 200 day simple moving average, the market is suggesting that there is

a lack of trend. Whipsaws in both directions should be expected creating a very frustrating environment. By getting involved, you’re signing up for a headache. So it should not be a surprise that the S&P500 is...