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, a company must have a market cap between $1 and $4B.
From the Desk of Steve Strazza @sstrazza and Alfonso Depablos @Alfcharts
This is one of our favorite bottom-up scans: Follow the Flow.
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.
I’ve had the pleasure of driving cross country multiple times, covering every inch of I-10.
I made so many memorable moments on those drives …
I pushed through white-out conditions in Kansas. (My brother had an appointment with the State Department in Washington D.C., and we couldn’t stop.)
I "accidentally" crossed into Juarez, Mexico, which turned into one helluva time!
And I picked up more than one speeding ticket on the reservation (highway patrol doesn’t play in Navajo country).
I somehow made it coast to coast every time.
While many details of those treks slip away with the years, I’ll always remember the Alamo.
I know, it’s funny. I didn't even go inside.
To be clear, my memory of the Alamo has nothing to do with the historic battle or the revisionist histories that have been written and rewritten since.
Instead, I picture a meager fort in the twilight – nothing more. A truly humble beacon of strength.
The understated image resurfaces in my mind's eye this week as I plan and plot the best way to trade gold.
As I mentioned last week, we're in an environment where we want to be collecting delta-neutral options premium. Unfortunately, we can either pick instruments that are in well-defined ranges or we can sell high implied volatility, but it's getting increasingly hard to find both.
With this in mind, today's trade is in an instrument where options pricing may not be as elevated as it was earlier in the year, but it's still giving us a lot of room to be wrong.
I’ve had the pleasure of driving cross country multiple times, covering every inch of I-10.
I made so many memorable moments on those drives …
I pushed through white-out conditions in Kansas. (My brother had an appointment with the State Department in Washington D.C., and we couldn’t stop.)
I “accidentally” crossed into Juarez, Mexico, which turned into one helluva time!
And I picked up more than one speeding ticket on the reservation (highway patrol doesn’t play in Navajo country).
I somehow made it coast to coast every time.
While many details of those treks slip away with the years, I’ll always remember the Alamo.
I know, it’s funny. I didn’t even go inside.
To be clear, my memory of the Alamo has nothing to do with the historic battle or the revisionist histories that have been written and rewritten since.
Instead, I picture a meager fort in the twilight – nothing more. A truly humble beacon of strength.
The understated image resurfaces in my mind’s eye this week as I plan and plot the best way to trade gold.
