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.

To make the cut for our Minor Leaguers list now, a company must have a market cap between $1 and $4B.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

We held our February Monthly Strategy Session last week. ASC Premium Members can click here to watch the replay and download the chartbook.

Non-members can get a quick recap of the call simply by reading this post each month.

By focusing on long-term, monthly charts, the idea is to take a step back and put things into the context of their structural trends.

This is easily one of our most valuable exercises as it forces us to put aside the day-to-day noise and simply examine markets from a “big-picture” point of view.

With that as our backdrop, let’s dive right in and discuss three of the most important charts and/or themes from this month’s call.

Healthcare continues to lead to the upside. While we already have a bullish bet on a sector ETF, it's time for us to drill in a little deeper in search of more beta if this trend is going to continue.

Today's trade is in a name that has been performing great off its December lows and has also been in a longer-term bull market. But only just recently has it begun to outperform against the broader stock market.

Check out this chart of Merck $MRK:

In today's Daily Digest, we'll review:

1. No new positions today.
2. Adjustment to XRT.
3. An exit in KRE.
4. Current status of open campaigns.

Let's dig in!

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

I’m fed up with precious metals. 

I’m tired of all the failed breakouts and the sideways chop.

So, please, spare me the silver-surfer stories about undervalued silver or how it will outperform gold 16-to-1 during the next bull run. 

I’m tired of it – all of it!

But the diehard gold bugs continue to rally the troops – and maybe they’re on to something.

After all, gold is trading less than a hundred bucks from its all-time high. Is there still a chance for a clean breakout soon?

Let’s take a cold, hard look…

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

I’m fed up with precious metals. 

I’m tired of all the failed breakouts and the sideways chop.

So, please, spare me the silver-surfer stories about undervalued silver or how it will outperform gold 16-to-1 during the next bull run. 

I’m tired of it – all of it!

But the diehard gold bugs continue to rally the troops – and maybe they’re on to something.

After all, gold is trading less than a hundred bucks from its all-time high. Is there still a chance for a clean breakout soon?

Let’s take a cold, hard look…

Check out gold’s four-year base:

From the Desk of Steve Strazza and Alfonso Depablos

The most significant transaction on today’s list comes in a Form 4 filing by Aon plc $AON director Lester B. Knight.

Knight reported a purchase of 50,000 AON shares, equivalent to $15 million.

There are a few questions that need to be answered before proceeding as an investor of any timeframe.

These questions apply to longer-term investors, day traders, and everyone in between.

Good morning,

Welcome to your daily crypto clarity

In last week’s letter, we argued that a once-crowded bullish sentiment had cooled down in a bull market reset. We also put forward the case that crypto markets were at an inflection point between capitulation or reacceleration. Over the last week, we’ve seen Bitcoin sharply rally to the high 40,000s, indicating that this period of consolidation is ending with an upward resolution.

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

Two of our energy trades from July recently hit new all-time highs. Heating oil also broke out Friday following crude’s buy signal that triggered in January. 

The market is beginning to reward investors for rotating into oil and gas. 

With that in mind, let’s track the next emerging breakout in the energy space.

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.