The bears are getting creative with their theories.

You notice?

And there are a lot of bears out there. More than we've seen in a long, long time depending on how exactly you're counting them.

So the big question is whether we've seen A bottom or if we've seen THE bottom.

And the truth is no one knows until after the fact.

All we can do is continue to collect the data as it comes in and make the best decisions with incomplete information.

The first thing that needs to happen before stocks can go up, is that they need to stop going down.

That's just math.

And what's interesting is that with lower lows in the price of most major U.S. Indexes a couple of weeks ago, fewer stocks were actually able to make new lows....

Mea Culpa --- I'm letting this post stand because it offers two good lessons for traders:

1. The risk management laid out below is how I manage long calls heading into expiration. So anyone holding a similar position will benefit from this or a similar risk management plan.

2. It offers a lesson on keeping good records. I messed up. For ASO subscribers, we're actually in the September calls, NOT JUNE CALLS. We have plenty of time until our position expires and therefore we actually don't need to do anything here yet but enjoy our #FreeRide. The confusion for me is that I also have June calls on in my personal portfolio and I did not take careful notes in my personal spreadsheet. And when reviewing, I accidentally confused these June calls as part of the position we put on for ASO. So, yes, I personally will be exiting my June calls soon (as laid out below). But for those of you who followed me into our September calls trade, we've got time. 

Sorry about the confusion.

Hello everyone! It's the beginning of the month and during this time, I always review any open...

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

Director Meridee Moore of Rayonier $RYN reported a purchase of 12,000 shares of her company's stock in a Form 4 filing.

The CEOs of Solo Brands $DTC, American Assets Trust $AAT, OPKO Health $OPK, SoFi Technologies $SOFI, and Doximity $DOCS all filed Form 4s reporting small purchases of their own stocks.

A funny thing can happen when you don't have any exposure to Technology stocks....

And that's precisely what's taking place in the United Kingdom.

How many countries around the world are pushing up against new all-time highs?

From the desk of Louis Sykes @haumicharts

The beauty of trading and analyzing crypto is the level of transparency of the data.

This is put on full display when it comes to the sprouting industry of on-chain analytics, but the same principles apply when evaluating money flow as a collective.

Not only does crypto host its own exclusive metrics that aren't available in traditional markets, but traditional indicators like the topic of today's post often have additional nuances involved.

This enables us to gain even more insight than what is possible in other asset classes.

Today, we wanted to explore how we use open interest in our crypto process to supplement our traditional technical analysis research.

We debuted a new scan recently- The Outperformers.

The Outperformers is our newest scan that pinpoints the very best stocks in the market. It’s the fastest, easiest way to find quality names that are primed for major moves.

The goal is that as the market rally progresses, the sector rotation within the market will reflect in this scan. So while our Top/Down Analysis helps us with the broader view of the market, this Bottom/Up scan makes sure that we catch the slightest change in sentiment.

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'll publish this...

From the desk of Willie Delwiche.

Key Takeaway: Investor moods will change as prices fluctuate but they seemed to follow word with deed in May. The AAII asset allocation survey showed them lightening up (perhaps only briefly and modestly) on their equity exposure. By month-end, we had evidence that the $4.5 trillion in money market funds (more of a molehill than a mountain when adjusted for total market value) was being put to work in both stocks and bonds. Bearish investors are not so much disgruntled with stocks, but disgusted by the price action they have experienced this year. It didn’t take much of a move off the lows for optimism to start building again. Rallies that are initially despised (or at least viewed skeptically) are more likely to have staying power than those that are quickly embraced. Sentiment is at levels from which rallies tend to emerge - positioning, however, is not.

Sentiment Report Chart of the Week: Investors Take Some Action

AAII asset allocation data shows that investors trimmed their...

It's that time again -- monthly candlesticks!

Longtime readers know how much we love new monthly candlesticks. They force us to zoom out from the day-to-day noise and focus on what's really taking place.

In the case of Bitcoin $BTC, it can't get any more defined than 30,000.

Remember this time last summer when we were obnoxious about this level every week?

We play with the cards we are dealt. There is nothing else we can do. We cannot employ willpower to create market conditions into being the way we'd prefer them to be. They are what they are, it is what it is. So we work with what we've got.

And what we've got right now are a bunch of badly beaten up stocks. Many still off 60%+ from their recent highs.

Dumpster diving isn't my favorite way to find new ideas to trade. But my man Strazza enjoys the exercise from time to time and recently, he's uncovered some notable insider buying and unusual options activity in some former highflyers, most notably Zoom $ZM.

But first, let's survey the damage. This probably isn't new to many of you, but look how far ZM has fallen from its recent perch atop Momentum Mountain:

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