During today's trades review (in the video above), I discussed how I'm still of the mind to be hunting for opportunities to be bullishly aggressive.

However, the current volatility environment is also offering us spots to add some delta-neutral credit spreads with better-than-average odds of success. I like doing this, if for no other reason than to add some portfolio diversification.

And I demonstrate one way in which I manage open call calendar spreads to manage my risks and give me a better shot at large gains.

All this and the usual stop updates for existing positions.

Enjoy!

Sean McLaughlin | Chief Options Strategist, All Star Charts

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

1. No new positions today.
2. Rolling XOP to November options.
3. No positions were exited since the last report.
4. Current status of open campaigns.
5. Volatility Snapshot.

Let’s dig in!

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

We love our bottoms-up scans here at All Star Charts. We tend to get really creative when making new universes as we want to be sure they will deliver us the best opportunities the market has to offer.

However, when it comes to this one, it couldn't be any simpler!

With the goal of finding more bullish setups, we have decided to expand one of our favorite scans and broaden our regular coverage of the largest US stocks.

Welcome to The Junior Hall of Famers.

This scan is composed of the next 150 largest stocks by market cap, those that come after the top 150 and are thus covered by the Hall of Famers universe. Many of these names will someday graduate and join our original Hall Of Famers list. The idea here is to catch these big trends as early on as possible.

There is no need to overcomplicate things. Market cap is a quality filter at the end of the day. It only grows if price is rising. That's good enough for us.

The bottom line is it is a bull market. We want as many vehicles and...

The underperformance out of Technology stocks this year continues to hurt investors who haven't been paying attention to the sector rotation.

Things haven't been getting better for Tech, they've only been getting worse.

With record returns for stocks in Q3, for example, Large-cap Technology was actually down last quarter.

Small-cap Technology is somehow still down for the entire year!

The struggle is real.

But all the major indexes keep hitting new all-time highs every month. 

Last night was our LIVE monthly Charts Conference Call and we spent...

This is the recording and the chartbook from our October 2024 Monthly Candlesticks Strategy Session.

Below is the video and slide deck for Week 2 of ASC Mastermind: Momentum Trading And Why It Works. 

With stock market investors looking every which way at different market-moving headlines today, let's take a step back and talk about what's really important.

We just got monthly candles. It's time to zoom out. 

And when we do, is there a chart more important than the US Dollar Index $DXY right now?

The dollar has had a very strong inverse correlation with stocks and other risk assets for several years now.

Equities have done well for the past two years while the dollar has been rangebound. 

Just imagine how they'll do if DXY breaks down from its current range:

This is the question investors should be asking themselves right now.
 
Instead of worrying about the war in the Middle East or the longshoremen and dockworkers striking…
 
The real question that matters for all our portfolios, not just today but over longer timeframes, is whether DXY digs in at this support level or breaks down.

If it's the former, look for today's corrective action to have some legs.

If it's the latter, we should be buying this dip aggressively.

Last week, we suggested...

Despite the recent volatility, gold continues its steady ascent, unaffected by the broader market noise. 

As seasonals have shifted and new leadership has come and gone this year, gold remains resilient, moving through market regimes with ease.

Whether stocks rally or risk-off sentiment prevails, gold thrives. The yellow metal has been red-hot all year.

In these times, the saying goes, "there is no fever like gold fever." 

But, is there any evidence of this kind of euphoria among investors yet?

While the COT report suggests sentiment may be overstretched, let’s talk about what we’re seeing on the ground.

There’s little buzz about gold in the financial media. No bold predictions of $10K gold on magazine covers, no headlines touting it as the ultimate safe haven in an impending crisis—signals that often show up at market tops. We’re just not seeing it.

For context, in 2011, fears of currency depreciation were rampant. The covers of TIME magazine and Smart Money allow us to remember this moment. They came right at the top.

...

We've seen a bit of a rise in volatility this week, and while it is not something that should be ignored or scoffed at, I do think it offers us options traders an opportunity to position for some volatility mean-reversion, especially in some big-cap names that are stuck in ranges, ideally tightening ones.

Today's trade is in a well-known name that already has earnings out of the way and fits the bill for some continued sideways action.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Welcome to The 2 to 100 Club.

In this scan, we look to identify the strongest growth stocks as they climb the market-cap ladder from small- to mid- to large- and, ultimately, to mega cap status (over $200B).

Once they graduate from small-cap to mid-cap status (over $2B), they come on our radar. Likewise, when they surpass the roughly $30B mark, they roll off our list.

But the scan doesn't just end there.

We only want to look at the strongest growth industries in the market, as that is typically where these potential 50-baggers come from.

Some of the best performers in recent decades – stocks like Priceline, Amazon, Netflix, Salesforce, and myriad others – would have been on this list at some point during their journey to becoming the market behemoths they are today.

When you look at the stocks in our table, you'll notice we're only focused on Technology and Growth industry groups such as Software, Semiconductors, Online...

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

1. No new positions today.
2. Rolling USO to November options.
3. No positions were exited since the last report.
4. Current status of open campaigns.
5. Volatility Snapshot.

Let’s dig in!

Reminder: Tonight @ 6PM ET is our LIVE Conference Call for Premium Members of ASC Research. This is where walk through the most important trends and share our best ideas to profit from the current sector rotation that is dominating these markets.

As a Premium Member, you also get complimentary access to our 12-week Mastermind. This week is all about Why Momentum Works and How To Profit From It. 

Click here to join us as a Premium Member of ASC Research and get access to tonight's LIVE video conference call, 24/7 access to Premium Trade Alerts and our 12-week LIVE Mastermind.

Momentum Week begins today!

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