This is one of our favorite bottoms-up scans: Follow The Flow. In this note, we simply create a universe of stocks that experienced the most unusual options activity — either bullish or bearish… but NOT both.
We utilize options experts, both internally and through our partnership with The TradeXchange. Then, we dig through the level 2 details and do all the work upfront for our clients. Our goal is to isolate only those options market splashes that represent levered and high-conviction, directional bets.
We also weed out hedging activity and ensure there are no offsetting trades that either neutralize or cap the risk on these unusual options trades. What remains is a list of stocks that large financial institutions are putting big money behind… and they’re doing so for one reason only: Because they think the stock is about to move in their direction and make them a pretty penny.
We've already had some great trades come out of this small cap-focused column since we launched it late last year and started rotating it with our flagship bottoms-up scan, "Under The Hood."
To make the cut for our Minor Leagues list, a company must have a market cap between $1 and $2B. There are also price and liquidity filters. Then, we simply sort by proximity to new highs in order to focus on the best players only.
We have a bonus Trade of the Week post for you! There is a name that's popping up in the Fertilizer space and we didn't want to wait longer to share it with you.
Check out this week’s Momentum Report, our weekly summation of all the major indexes at a Macro, International, Sector, and Industry Group level.
By analyzing the short-term data in these reports, we get a more tactical view of the current state of markets. This information then helps us put near-term developments into the context of the big picture and provides insights regarding the structural trends at play.
Let’s jump right into it with some of the major takeaways from this week’s report:
* ASC Plus Members can access the Momentum Report by clicking the link at the bottom of this post.
Our Top 10 report was just published. In this weekly note, we highlight 10 of the most important charts or themes we're currently seeing in asset classes around the world.
Base Metals Bury The Hatchet
Dr. Copper often steals the spotlight when it comes to base metals, and for good reason. It’s one of the most economically sensitive commodities. More importantly, it holds a special place in our collective psyche, as one of the major assets that investors turn to in order to gauge the state of the economy, and even investor risk appetite. With that said, the current correction in Copper has raised some concern, especially given the choppy market conditions.
We retired our "Five Bull Market Barometers" in mid-July 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.
There are stocks going up and there are stocks that are not going up.
What you're not really seeing is many stocks going down.
That's probably the best way to describe this market.
We've outlined our long positions, particularly those that have been showing relative strength and positive momentum. Those areas are working.
But most stocks are not.
You can see the difference in the Value Line indexes, when we compare them to the S&P500. Think of these more of the "Median" stock:
You can see the same thing in other areas we look for confirmation of risk appetite. Both the Aussie/Yen and the High Beta / Low Volatility ratios are not confirming the new highs in S&Ps:
These are the registration details for our Live Monthly Candlestick Strategy Session for Premium Members of All Star Charts.
This month’s Video Conference Call will be held on Thursday July 6th @ 6PM ET. As always, if you cannot make the call live, the video and slides will be archived and published here along with every other live call since 2015.