From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Welcome to The Minor Leaguers.

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.

Nowadays, to make the cut for our Minor Leaguers list now, a company must have a market cap between $1 and $4B.

In today’s Daily Digest, we’ll review the following:

1. No new positions today.
2. Rolled XLI position into September.
3. No exits since the last report.
4. Current status of open campaigns.

Let’s dig in!

Are you paying attention to the things happening around you?

More stocks are going up in price, not fewer.

Consolidations and rangebound markets are resolving higher, not lower.

New leadership groups are emerging, not the same old leaders being recycled.

Big bottoms are completing and bases are breaking out to the upside, not huge tops breaking down to the downside.

And all of this while the world's most important stock market index is breaking out of a 4-month base to new all-time highs:

This is the video recording of the July 2024 Mid-month Conference Call.

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

Precious metals might be the most straightforward trade on the sheets right now.

Gold is 10 bucks away from a new all-time high. Silver and platinum are holding above critical breakout levels. And mining stocks are ripping.

Close your eyes and take a swing. You’re bound to hit a winner.

But your odds of success (and potential payout) improve if you forego shiny rocks in favor of buying gold and silver mining stocks.

Check out the Gold Miners $GDX breaking out relative to the Physical Gold Trust ETF $GLD:

GDX outperforming GLD speaks to risk-seeking behavior – a bullish environment for mining stocks and physical metals.

Precious metals might be the most straightforward trade on the sheets right now.

Gold is ten bucks away from a new all-time high. Silver and platinum are holding above critical breakout levels. And mining stocks are ripping.

Close your eyes and take a swing. You’re bound to hit a winner.

But your odds of success (and potential payout) improve if you forego shiny rocks in favor of buying gold and silver mining stocks.

In today's episode of The Flow Show, me and Steve Strazza talk about the uniquely interesting market we currently find ourselves in, and we delve into a sector that appears to be making a long overdue turn higher, and a stock within the sector that is positioned for a potentially monster breakout.

Here's the big picture setup of Viking Therapeutics $VKTX:

In today’s Daily Digest, we’ll review the following:

1. No new positions today.
2. Rolled XME position into September.
3. No exits since the last report.
4. Current status of open campaigns.

Let’s dig in!

It's worth pointing out that despite the events over the weekend, you're not seeing any bid at all for Gold.

It's the stock market that's getting a bid. It's Bitcoin that's up 6% since Saturday.

And it's the Small-cap Indexes that are hitting new 30-month highs:

Last week I maintained my bullish directional biases even in the face of another down leg in crypto markets. Today, we're monitoring an increasing number of failed breakdowns, meaning that bulls are once again asserting control of the tape.

This is the weekly post that aggregates all the charts we put together throughout the week and organizes them all into one, easy to flip through deck.

When Michael Nauss first sat down at a trading desk, his computer had a keyboard and a screen. But no mouse.

And his screen displayed an order book. But no charts.

Thus began his career as a scalper working the order book, who paid no attention at all to trends or technical analysis. He was simply trying to find spots to buy ahead of large buyers and flip the position out for a quick couple of ticks. Do this a couple hundred times per trading session and perhaps he’d have a successful day.

This was all part of Michael’s journey of learning to walk before he could run. And it is a mantra that sticks with him to this day as he himself continues to learn and helps many others learn the craft of trading.

Michael says: “Learning is often about “UN” learning.“ 

People are frequently drawn to trading by a social media personality or a brokerage advertisement, and they are like moths to the flame of fast riches and early retirement. Then they lose.