From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

$SPY opened near the middle of yesterday's move at 393.50 and trended higher.

The market held on into the close, a nice way to end Options Friday.

This is the video recording of our January 13, 2023, All Star Charts Crypto Weekly Strategy Session.

From the Desk of Willie Delwiche.

Money supply is unchanged over the past year and has fallen at a never-before-seen 5% annualized rat over the past 3 months.

Why It Matters: Money supply growth peaked (on a year over year basis) at 27% in February 2021 as policymakers responded to the COVID crisis by flooding the financial system with liquidity. That growth has now dissipated and over shorter time periods money supply is actually contracting (it was down for the fourth month in a row in November). Collapsing money supply growth helps take the edge off of inflationary pressures in the economy (there is less money chasing all the goods & services). But liquidity is also the lifeblood of the financial markets. As with seedlings in the garden, when the spigot is turned off, green shoots turn brown and asset prices could struggle to flourish.    

We've adjusted a position in the Paid-to-Play portfolio today:

It seems like everyone is making money in the market these days.

US Stock market investors are crushing it.

Investors in foreign stocks are doing even better!

Heck, even the Gold bugs are getting paid.

I mean, who isn't?

The largest insider transaction on today’s list is a Form 4 filing by EcoR1 Capital LLC.

The hedge fund reported a purchase worth roughly $7.8 million in Zymeworks Inc $ZYME.

These are the registration details for our Live Mid-month Conference Call for Premium Members of All Star Charts.

Our next Live Call will be held on Tuesday January 17th at 6PM ET. As always, if you cannot make the call live, the video and slides will be archived and published here along with every other live call since 2015.

Here are the details for Tuesday night:

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

It's Friday the 13th.

We had a few banks report earnings this morning, and as of now they're trading lower.

It's the weekly bond edition of What the FICC?

Credit spreads around the world are sending a clear message: "Relax."

Check it out!

From the Desk of Ian Culley

If bond markets aren’t stressing, why should we be?

They’re the largest markets in the world. That’s why we constantly monitor credit spreads for signs of structural weakness and elevated risk.

But, as of now, we’re not seeing the slightest hint of impending catastrophe.

Despite the doom-and-gloom headlines popping up in your inbox and financial media talking heads spinning an imminent recession…

Credit spreads around the world are sending a clear message: "Relax."

Check out the overlay chart of option-adjusted high-yield credit spreads:

In a recent note, I shared performance stats for our All Star Options Paid-to-Play portfolio, and in the time since, I’ve fielded numerous emails/DMs that all ask basically the same question:

How did you earn money in such a challenging market environment and do so with far lower volatility than the indexes?

Rather than responding individually, I thought it would be better for everyone if I just shared my thoughts here. After all, we can all benefit from good ideas, yeah?

I’ll try not to get us lost in the weeds with the mundane tactical maneuvers employed each trading day. Instead, I’ll stick to the high-level concepts which guide my thinking.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

It was a powerful day in the market. $SPY closed its gap at 396.31 and pushed along.

I said in the live trading room a week back that SPY has potential up to 405, then 410.