The largest insider buy on today’s list comes in a Form 4 filing by Bihua Chen, the CEO of Cormorant Asset Management.

Chen revealed a purchase of $16.7 million in MoonLake Immunotherapeutics $MLTX.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

We saw a swift reversal down in the indices yesterday after the Fed's rate-hike announcement.

Now we need to see if we stabilize in here to trend back up or break down.

We don't have bull markets without Financials.

Go back and check for yourself.

So this one, by definition, has to be the chart that matters the most.

Look at the Financial Sector Index currently retesting its former highs from before the Great Financial Crisis:

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

When investing in the stock market, we always want to approach it as "a market of stocks."

Regardless of the environment, there are always stocks showing leadership and trending higher.

We may have to look harder to identify them depending on current market conditions. But there are always stocks that are going up.

The same can be said for weak stocks. Regardless of the environment, there are always stocks that are going down, too. 

We already have multiple scans focusing on stocks making all-time highs, such as Hall of Famers, Minor Leaguers, and the 2 to 100 Club.

We filter these universes for stocks that are exhibiting the best momentum and relative strength characteristics. 

Clearly, we spend a lot of time identifying and writing about leading stocks every week, via multiple reports.

Now, we're also highlighting lagging stocks on a recurring basis.

Welcome to the Short Report.

We had a resting GTC order filled at our profit target in the Paid-to-Play portfolio today:

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

It was a sleepy morning for the market...

And, of course, that changed as the day went on.

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

Fed Chair Jerome Powell spoke this afternoon after the central bank announced a 25-basis-point rate hike. 

The fed funds futures were all over the place, from pricing in a 25-basis-point increase to a double-hike. They settled in around a single hike, with a slim chance of a pause.

Exhausting!

It’s clear we can expect increased volatility going forward.

But, instead of guessing the Fed’s next step or parsing Powell's words, I’ll rather sit back, wait, and prepare to trade a decisive breakout.

When I think about the latter stages of the hiking cycle or a potential pause, my mind immediately turns to one currency in particular…

The Japanese yen.

Since the Fed began raising rates last spring, the yen has been one of the strongest trending markets. It stands to reason it could experience a significant trend reversal as the Fed changes course.

Luckily, we have a clear level to set our alerts and define risk. 

Check out the chart of yen futures:

The next new position in our Paid-to-Play portfolio is:

The largest insider buy on today’s list comes in a Form 4 filing by Steven Klinsky, a director of New Mountain Finance Corporation $NMFC.

Klinsky reported a purchase of roughly $1.1 million.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

It's a big day today.

Will the Fed raise by 50 basis points or 25 basis points? Or will it do nothing? I'm thinking 25 basis points.

However it turns out, expect volatility.

The shorter my timeframe, the shittier the market. ~ Brian Lund @bclund

That quote was uttered during a Twitter spaces I hosted yesterday in which we discussed the emergence of “0-DTE” options and the opportunities and challenges they are spawning.

As Brian brought up, the phrase “0-DTE” which stands for “zero days until expiration” is a bit of a misnomer as options that are expiring today were not necessarily first listed for trading on the same day that they expire. Regarding SPY or SPX options, some of these “daily” options are first listed for trading as far as two weeks from expiration day. So if you were to look at the options chain for SPY, you would see options expiring every day over the next two weeks.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

It was a nice day in the market overall.

We gapped up but didn't pull back into yesterday's high on the indices.