From the desk of Willie Delwiche.

Key Takeaway: The rally off of the mid-March stock market lows has equity investors feeling better. Without upside follow through (in terms of price and/or risk appetite), moods could quickly sour. So far, evidence of follow through has been lacking. Taking a longer-term perspective, the pessimism that was seen earlier this year seems more consistent with frustration that the stocks one owns aren’t going up rather than a deep-seated desire to reduce exposure and avoid equities altogether. Equity funds continue to see inflows, stocks are expensive relative to earnings and household exposure to equities has remained at historically high levels. Without these conditions unwinding, short-term mood swings may be even more sensitive to price changes than they normally are.                 

Sentiment Report Chart of the Week: Commodities Catching Attention

Commodities were the best performing asset class in 2021 and yet investors hardly noticed. Commodity-related ETF’s actually experienced...

Demystifying the world of cryptocurrencies can be a taunting task.

Even before you dive into the emerging world of defi, web 3.0, and NFTs, what seems like the relatively simple Bitcoin network has a hidden underworld of complexity and nuance.

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum can be bought without the necessity of a financial intermediary, like an exchange or crypto broker.

Instead, you can complete transactions on-chain, transferring capital and funds to individuals across the world utilizing the computing power of a peer-to-peer network.

These transactions, in turn, are validated and secured by miners, who dedicate computing power via solving complicated mathematical problems. Once solved, a hash is created.

The hash rate, in formal terms, is the number of hash operations done in a given period of time.

Less formally, the hash rate essentially measures the security and health of any proof-of-work cryptocurrency.

There's no better way for those wanting a deeper dive than reading the 2008 Bitcoin white paper.

Volatility is not done with us yet. It ain't going down without a fight! At the time I'm writing this, $VIX is +15% on the day and +31% since Monday's close.

This has me back on the hunt for some premium selling opportunities.

And an ETF on our radar that checks the boxes of elevated premium, potential rangebound trading action, and a good fade opportunity is the $XLI Industrials ETF.

Check out this chart of $XLI:

Before we dive into today’s note, we have an update on the Elon-versus-Twitter saga that’s been unfolding all week.

On Tuesday evening, Musk finally filed the appropriate Form 13D we were waiting for, reflecting his intentions as an “active” shareholder.

This is the video recording of our April 5th Monthly Charts Live Strategy Session

From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @IanCulley

King dollar is sitting perched upon its throne. But the floor beneath it is beginning to crumble.

The rally in the US dollar index $DXY isn’t as strong as today's fresh highs would suggest. In fact, when we dig beneath the surface, the dollar is only trending higher against a few currencies over shorter timeframes, while underperforming the vast majority.

Conveniently, the handful of currencies the USD continues to best are the most heavily weighted components of the US dollar index.

This lack of internal strength can be seen pretty much anywhere outside of the chart of DXY itself. Whether we're looking at our USD trend summary table, our custom USD advance-decline line, or the individual crosses themselves, it all suggests the current trend in the dollar lacks support. 

Let’s take a look.

Our USD trend summary table illustrates both the broad weakness as well as those critical areas of strength that are driving the current uptrend in the DXY:  

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From the desk of Willie Delwiche.

This All Star Charts +Plus Monthly Playbook breaks down the investment universe into a series of largely binary decisions and tactical calls. Paired with our Weight of the Evidence Dashboard, this piece is designed to help active asset allocators follow trends, pursue opportunities, and manage risk.

From the desk of Willie Delwiche.

We keep saying it: There are just so many good setups out there.

You've noticed?

This is the first time in months that there's generally a good shape to the price action in these beaten-up altcoins.

We had a feeling this one would be fun to watch unfold...

After just 24 hours of speculation and buzz about Elon Musk becoming the largest shareholder of Twitter, we already have some important follow-up news.

In an 8-K filed around 8:30 a.m. ET today, Twitter reported that Musk has been appointed to a board seat.

The only significant information in the filing is that Musk is restricted from becoming a beneficial owner of more than 14.9% of outstanding shares during the time he serves as a director (and 90 days thereafter).

Whether he already owns the 14.9% now or not is unknown. We should find out soon in a 13D and/or a Form 4 filing in the coming days.

Stay tuned. There’s going to be more to come on this one.

Media has been in the media for a while. (Just had to do that.) The sector has performed well and one of the constituents looks prime for a good move.

Today we are looking at a long set up in the Media sector and we're here to discuss just that.

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.