Despite another CPI report and the latest job numbers reflecting easing inflationary pressure, markets are a mess!
Indecision and uncertainty are running high. Investors simply aren't able to get a read on the economy and the Fed's next step.
I don’t blame them.
If you’re focusing on the Fed comments du jour or lagging economic data that will likely be revised in the future, confusion and pain are the higher probability outcomes.
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.
Everyone is talking about an imminent economic downturn and the next stock market crash.
You hear it on the news and in the streets – talk of the banking crisis, the Fed, inflation, and China pervades the narrative. Even my doctor assured me the world is headed for dark times during a routine appointment earlier this week.
Bearish sentiment is obviously alive and well.
But, as a chartist, I prefer to visualize these rumblings...
It's been broad based appreciation in stock prices since that October morning.
Every US Sector is positive and many are up over 20%, just since October alone. The numbers are even better when you anchor back to when the new 52-week lows list peaked in June.
Historically, during bull markets you see more and more stocks going up and making new highs. In bull markets you see more sectors participating to the upside and more countries around the world breaking out.
This is exactly what's been happening for about 10 months now.
All these uptrends you're seeing in most stocks is not a new phenomenon.
Did you know Motorola has been around since long before the cellular phone?
In the late 90's and early 2000's, Motorola was one of the go-to cell phone manufacturers. I owned several, personally. To this day, I still maintain that I've never had a clearer signal with zero audio delay than I did with my Motorola StarTac phone circa 2001.
This all came up this morning when internally, while discussing the setup in the $MSI stock, we were all kind of surprised that Motorola, based in Chicago, is a one-hundred year old company! Wow.
Clearly, this is a company that has gone through many pivots to lead new technology development.
Of more immediate concern to us options traders is we've got two potential catalysts that can drive some quick gains for us.