From the desk of Willie Delwiche.

Key Takeaway: Permabulls will almost always complain about rallies being unloved, just as permabears never leave their refrain that downside risks are under appreciated. That is the prism through which they view the world. In the current situation, complacency is rising and optimism is building, both from low levels. After the buying panic seen in the NAAIM data in July, we saw something similar in this week’s data from Consensus Inc (the largest one-week increase in optimism in over a decade). Even though bears still outnumber bulls on the AAII survey, equity ETF inflows are heating up. The shift from excessive pessimism to increased optimism is the most bullish part of the sentiment curve and that is where we find ourselves. Breadth thrusts and surging momentum are cherries on the top.

Sentiment Report Chart of the Week: Strong Momentum Doesn’t Usually Just Evaporate

This study looks at instances of 40-day momentum surging from below zero to above 15%. There are...

Monday night we held our August Monthly Conference Call, which Premium Members can access and rewatch here.

In this post, we’ll do our best to summarize it by highlighting five of the most important charts and/or themes we covered, along with commentary on each.

Let’s get right into it!

During our morning Analyst meeting today, the team was looking across a variety of asset classes and sectors to identify the current leaders, and those likely to continue tracking higher if the broader stock market rally is for real.

One sector that stood out starkly was Big Pharma.

There are some monster bases in the process of resolving higher here.

From the Desk of Louis Sykes @haumicharts

One of the common criticisms of technical analysis is that it's all self-fulfilling prophecy.

Its proponents argue that technical analysis doesn't work by understanding underlying supply and demand dynamics.

Rather, it operates on a single dimension, where market events are caused either directly or indirectly by a preceding prediction by technician that it was going to perform a certain way.

An intuitive example of the self-fulfilling prophecy hypothesis (SFP) is the classic technical analysis principle of support and resistance.

Those who favor SFP argue that markets only sell off at resistance and bottom at support because other traders identified these levels and acted according to technical analysis principles.

After all, a self-fulfilling prophecy is defined as a person or a group's expectation for the behavior of another group bringing about the expected behavior.

Within the industry, arguments like these tend to get hyperpolarized and over-divisive. That's not surprising considering there's still a cohort of investors that argues technical analysis is like...

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

Last night we held our August Mid-month Conference Call. This is when we discuss our tactical view of the market and look for any signs of change in the short-term trend.

Let's go through some of the most important charts to track as this month progresses.

The most significant insider transaction on today’s list comes in a 13D from Carl Icahn.

Icahn increased his ownership stake in the natural gas services company Southwest Gas Holdings $SWX from 7.6% to 8.7%.

My friend Patrick just invited me to talk markets on his Trendlines Over Headlines video series.

I had a blast chatting about some of my favorite charts and what we’re seeing in crypto, the major averages, small-caps, crude, and a lot more. We covered a lot of ground, hitting on some of the most important market themes right now.

You can watch it here:

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Dividend Aristocrats are easily some of the most desirable investments on Wall Street.

These are the names that have increased dividends for at least 25 years, providing steadily increasing income to long-term-minded shareholders.

As you can imagine, the companies making up this prestigious list are some of the most recognizable brands in the world. Coca-Cola, Walmart, and Johnson & Johnson are just a few of the household names making the cut.

Here at All Star Charts, we like to stay ahead of the curve. That's why we're turning our attention to the future aristocrats.

In an effort to seek out the next generation of the cream-of-the-crop dividend plays, we're curating a list of stocks that have raised their payouts every year for five to nine years.

We call them the Young Aristocrats, and the idea is that these are "stocks that pay you to make money."

Imagine if years of consistent dividend growth and high momentum and relative strength had a baby, leaving you with the best of the emerging dividend giants that are outperforming the averages.

By adding our...

The stock making its way to today's post is part of the Defense sector that has been performing well for a while now.

And guess what? We have a breakout! Do you know which stock we're talking about?

We retired our "Five Bull Market Barometers" in 2020 to make room for a new weekly post that's focused on the three most important charts for the week ahead.

This is that post, so let's jump into this week's edition.