We're officially half the way through this year's Santa Claus Rally.

I like to check in on this one as it goes on because of the impact it's had on past markets.

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

It's a week full of trades!.

There are so many opportunities out there in this stock market that keeps on grinding higher.

The bulls continue to get rewarded throughout the back half of the year and we see no evidence of that slowing down.

Yesterday's Long Tesla Call is setting up nicely.

Over in our Trading Room, we traded $TSLA from the long side both yesterday and already this morning, successfully both times.

The longer-term trade looks ready to trigger as well.

In the meantime, I bought this Micron $MU that I think also provides us with a favorable risk vs reward opportunity.

Durable Capital Partners makes another appearance on our list, as the hedge fund continues to increase its position in Duolingo $DUOL.

This time, Durable Capital bought a total of $2.4 million worth of DUOL.

These are the registration details for our Live Monthly Candlestick Strategy Session for Premium Members of All Star Charts.

This month’s Video Conference Call will be held on Tuesday January 3rd @ 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 evening:

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

I've said many times that this market is not for the faint of heart.

The $SPX broke 3,800. Next support is at 3,780, then 3,764. Resistance is at 3,840.

They say never to short a dull market.

It's sure got dull, right?

Bitcoin's volume and volatility have taken a summer holiday, with the biggest cryptocurrency's monthly Bollinger bandwidth contracting to its third-lowest level in the last five years.

We've referenced this chart many times this year, giving us a great heads-up on when to anticipate volatility.

Just take a look at this volatility contraction...

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 the stocks showing 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.

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

What a year for currency markets!

The USD/JPY tested its 1998 highs marked by the Asian Financial Crisis. The British pound revisited its all-time lows. And the euro fell below parity versus the US dollar for the first time in twenty years.

But where does that leave the King Dollar heading into Q1 2023 now that it has fallen almost 10% off its September peak and many global currencies have reclaimed key levels?

Let’s turn to the charts for some answers…

First, take a look at the US dollar index $DXY:

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

The indices dropped all morning long.

Santa has not come to town just yet.

This market's been so easy, right?

You literally had to do nothing, and you've outperformed some of the most sophisticated crypto trading firms on the planet.

By loss realization and institutional contagion, this is the single worst crypto bear market in history.

So, if you're still here with a few dollars to your name, take solace in the fact that you've done a better job at risk management than some of the most intelligent players in the space.

For us, our process has been incredibly simple.

The trend has been down, and we haven't wanted to buy rallies until some long-term bullish shape has been put in.

In recent months, we've been incredibly persistent with our cautious approach while most coins are below their June lows.

Take our equally weighted altcoin index. There's nothing to be done here:

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