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.

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!

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

1. New position in XLB.
2. No adjustments are needed today.
3. No positions were exited since the last report.
4. Current status of open campaigns.
5. Volatility Snapshot.

Let’s dig in!

Large Speculators haven't owned this much Gold since 2020. We have the data.

In precious metal bull markets, it's perfectly normal for Commercial Hedgers to offset their physical positions by shorting the underlying futures contracts.

We also tend to see the Speculators build massive net-long positions.

Check out the extreme Commercial Hedger net-short position in Gold and Silver futures:

Below is the 3rd ASC Mastermind Lab Course. These are special videos that will be made available throughout the duration of the 12-week course featuring conversations with professionals from across Wall Street discussing topics in their expertise. 

The theme of the first week of ASC Mastermind is focusing on defining personal objectives. So I thought I'd talk to a friend of mine who helps people reach their goals for a living: Dr. Phil Pearlman. 

Phil is the founder of The Pearl Institute, where he works directly with clients, many of whom are professional traders and investors, to improve their mental and physical health. He also writes a tremendous Substack.    

Phil's ability to tie together human psychology, mental health, and financial markets is second to none. I hope you enjoy.  

Below is the 2nd ASC Mastermind Lab Course. These are special videos that will be made available throughout the duration of the 12-week course featuring conversations with professionals from across Wall Street discussing topics in their expertise. 

With the first Mastermind class focusing on defining personal objectives, it only makes sense for me to get an advisor's perspective. That's where Stephen Weitzel comes in. 

Stephen is the Managing Partner, Reveille Wealth Management, a firm with over $1 billion in assets under management. And the things I discussed in our first class are the very things he discusses with clients every day. 

How do you identify your own time horizon and risk tolerance? Should you just buy and hold forever? What can you do to minimize drawdowns?

At the end of the day, Stephen is both managing and building wealth for his clients. And his ability to answer these questions is part of what helps him do that. 

Today, I fielded a question from a trader who has a winning options trade on. 

When he originally put the trade on, he didn't have a stop-out price in mind. It was a bit of an "all-or-nothing" trade. His risk is defined and he was comfortable with the fact that if he lost, he would probably be a 100% loser. Nothing wrong with this, as long as the position sizing is right.

Fortunately for him, the trade has gone his way and he's sitting on some handsome profits, yet the stock still has work to do to get to his profit target.

His question to me, paraphrased, is:

"I didn't originally have a stop for this trade; but now that it's winning, how do I determine if/when I should apply a trailing stop to protect my open gains?"

I'll classify this as a "first-class" problem. His issue is, how does he give this position as much room as possible to continue growing, while ensuring he can still escape with a profit if/when the trend ends?

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza.

Welcome back to Under the Hood, where we'll cover all the action for the two weeks ended September 27, 2024. This report is published bi-weekly, in rotation with The Minor Leaguers.

What we do here is analyze the most popular stocks during the week and find opportunities to either join in and ride these momentum names higher, or fade the crowd and bet against them.

We use a variety of sources to generate the list of most popular names.

There are so many new data sources available that all we need to do is organize and curate them in a way that shows us exactly what we want: a list of stocks that are seeing an unusual increase in investor interest.