From the desk of Tom Bruni @BruniCharting

Tuesday's Mystery Chart makes an interesting point during these volatile times, so thank you all for your feedback and participation.

Let's get into it.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Just as we focus on the strongest markets and stocks to find opportunities during equity bull markets, we look to identify the weakest areas during bear markets. We just want to be in the strongest trends, regardless of their direction.

A few weeks ago we ran some statistics to highlight US stocks that were bucking the trend during the selloff, as those would be the areas to focus on if/when equities eventually regained their footing. While many names have fared well, we were a bit early as the market soon broke below our risk management levels, putting us in a position where we no longer want to be long stocks.

As the selling has accelerated recently, we thought it prudent to do a deep dive into World Equity Markets to see where the strength and weakness is, as well as what these indexes are telling us about global breadth. Now that the structural picture has changed for equities it is time to start considering some of the weaker areas around...

Warning signals were piling up throughout 2020, but weak breadth has been an underlying issue for Indian stocks since they made new highs in August 2016.

While we wait for breadth and momentum divergences to form and suggest getting aggressive on the long side, we're going to look back at how the average Nifty 500 stock has performed over the last 3.5 years and why this data is relevant to today's market.

While we wait for the breadth and momentum divergences to develop in the equity markets, we're taking advantage of other markets that offer uncorrelated trade opportunities.

Today, we're looking at Jeera and Crude Palm Oil on the long side.

This is the video recording of the March 2020 Conference Call.

This is the video recording of the March 2020 Conference Call.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

New Mystery Chart!

For those new to the 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?

We are not seeing any evidence of a bottom for stocks, yet. In these sorts of scenarios we want to see improvements in market breadth and/or bullish momentum divergences start to pile up. We're not seeing any of either.

In times like this, where many stocks, indexes and sectors, are in what we call "no-man's land", it helps to find non-correlated assets to analyze and perhaps invest in.

One thing that does NOT move up and down with the US Stock Market is Natural Gas. Evidence of this lack of correlation can be seen throughout 2019, for example, as Natty Gas got crushed while US Stocks soared. 

In this type of environment, our focus has been on capital preservation as opposed to capital appreciation.

We've gotten a lot of questions about Metals during this time, so this post will review why we've been out and what would get us involved again.

There are a lot people openly talking about the potential for the stock market to close while this coronavirus pandemic plays out.

This is a valid concern.

Naturally, the question becomes: "What happens to any open options positions I have on if expiration happens during a market closure?"

I'll start by saying: this is no ordinary week. But you knew that.

If you are sitting on the sidelines, waiting for all this craziness to subside, that is not a bad idea at all. There is no reason to put our money at risk if we can't get a handle on our own emotions during this highly uncertain time.

That said, for those who are willing to wade into these choppy waters with me -- these insane premiums offer us the ability to sell premium FAR away from current prices. I'll share with you my simple game plan for this week.