Investors are so scared. They don't want to get burned. They've missed out on one of the greatest stock market rallies in history. They think it's too late for them to be buying stocks.

Here's the thing. I think we've barely even gotten started. This is the beginning, not the end.

Last week the Volatility Index saw its highest reading ever with the S&P500 within 5% of new all-time highs.

When people buy insurance at a faster rate than ever before, does that normally happen just before everyone is thankful they had that insurance? Or does that traditionally occur just after the disaster when it's not necessary anymore?

How funny is it that Saturday Night Live mentioned that the stock market is not working on 3 separate skits in the same episode last weekend?

Hilarious.

If SNL thinks the market is broken, that's probably good evidence that the market is working just fine.

Here's a good one from JP Morgan,

When...

JC and I conducted a great options webinar last night, attended by well over 500 people. It was a fun opportunity me to lay out some of the core options strategies I employ on a regular basis to make trades in a variety of trading environments. And the questions we received from the audience showed that they were engaged and enthusiastic, which makes it great for everyone.

Options volumes on US exchanges have been exploding in recent years as investors and traders are waking up to the power and flexibility that trading options provides. And our event last night was a reflection on that.

Anyway, at the conclusion of our call, JC teased a trade out of me I had not yet put on but was considering entering.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @sstrazza and Louis Sykes @haumicharts

New Mystery Chart!

For those new to this exercise, we take a chart of interest and remove the x/y-axes and any other labels that would help identify it. The chart can be any security in any asset class on any timeframe on an absolute or relative basis. Maybe it’s a custom index or inverted, who knows!

We do all this to put aside the biases we have associated with this specific security/the market and come to a conclusion based solely on price.

You can guess what it is if you must, but the real value comes from sharing what you would do right now. Buy, Sell, or Do Nothing?

Stocks and commodities have been the best place to be in. We've been saying this for a long time now. The other thing we've been saying is that Currency has been a downer in the last few months. Anyone who's been trading in currency would be better off investing in a different asset class!

Does the same view hold true going forward? Let's find out.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @sstrazza and Grant Hawkridge @granthawkridge

They say the Bond Market is where the smart money is. Maybe it is. I have no idea.

What I do know is that it's where a lot of the smart information is.

Due to the diversity among credit instruments, there is a swath of unique data that we can use not just for Bond prices and Interest Rates but also to glean insight into other asset classes.

I'm talking about things like TIPS for inflation expectations and Emerging Market or High Yield Bonds to analyze risk-appetite for other assets such as the stock market.

Alpha has been in Equities and risk-assets for a while now. As such, we haven't needed to discuss bonds from a portfolio perspective... but that doesn't mean we aren't paying close attention to these assets.

The Bond Market is overflowing with information. We'd be foolish to neglect it.

In this post, we'll dive into what we mean by this and share some of it with you. We'll also discuss the implications of what we're seeing in the...

This is the video recording of our February 2nd, 2021, Monthly Charts Live Strategy Session.

Here is the video in full:

As an investor you have 2 choices:

1. You can try your hardest to take advantage of the current market environment, either to make money from it, or in many cases, keep as much of it as possible

or

2. You can complain that you don't like the rules, you don't like those who make the rules, you don't like those who enforce the rules, you don't like those who take advantage of the rules, you don't like the broker you chose, or you don't like the "system", which you believed is rigged.

You can do that....

If it makes you happy to complain and complain and complain, go for it. Have a ball. We have that right in this country.

But most of us find the latter to be a huge waste of time. You see, we already came to the conclusion that we don't like some of the rules, or we don't like some of the people who make the rules, or even some of those who enforce them. We certainly don't like some of the people who take advantage of the rules, many of the brokers profiting from it all or the system in general.

It is rigged, in some form or another, on all timeframes.

So what?

Every month we get a fresh batch of Monthly Candlesticks. It only happens 12 times a year.

I promise you guys from the bottom of my heart that there is no other part of my entire process that provides as much value and information as my monthly chart review. Premium Members can access the Chartbook here.

In the meantime, my friend Josh Brown and I have been doing these short monthly videos since last summer. They're fun and I like how he pushes back against me sometimes. In other interviews they make it too easy on me. I like these!

This month we talk about how scared investors are right now. What's more bullish than a bunch of worried investors with stocks all over the world making new all-time highs?

Is this Silver breakout for real? We have well-defined risk parameters to keep us on the right side of the trade.

Where's the next squeeze coming from? We dive in.

And are investors prepared for this new Commodities Supercycle? I don't think they are. Neither does Josh.

...

This is the video recording of our February 1, 2021 Monthly Charts Live Strategy Session

Nifty 50 witnessed a strong move of 4.74% on Monday as the index bounced back from lows to close near the high of the day. Does this change the way we look at the short-term trend in the market?

Read on to know more.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @sstrazza and Louis Sykes @haumicharts

At the beginning of each week, we publish performance tables for a variety of different asset classes and categories along with commentary on each.

Looking at the past helps put the future into context. In this post, we review the absolute and relative trends at play and preview some of the things we’re watching to profit in the weeks and months ahead.

As we discussed in our latest report, bears are running out of any substantial fuel to support their position.

And despite the arrival of some long-awaited selling pressure last week, that absolutely remains the case.

From a more tactical standpoint, though, we're seeing early signs of some volatility moving into what is a seasonally weak post-election month.

In this post, we'll play "devil's advocate" and lay out some of the more bearish developments we could find out there right now. You know... the kinds of things that could start to...

In case you didn't see my Saturday morning note, it seems to have struck a chord with a lot of people.

You see, somewhere along the way, people ignorant to reality just assumed that if we did a better job of educating investors, then it will prevent them from making reckless decisions in the stock market.

It's so adorable to believe that.

I mean, you can tell yourself it's all rainbows and butterflies, if you want to. You have that right.

But it's complete nonsense. The truth of the matter is that it's an ugly world out there. Grow up.

You can try to help these people all you want. It's not going to matter. That's just not how humans work.

I reached out to a colleague who's much better on the science side of this, and here's what he had to say,...