You probably thought this would be a piece about US stocks, didn't you?

While it certainly looks like the Christmas lows in the US are going to stick around for a while, the All Star Charts team is also detecting some broader potential breakouts overseas that we can participate in with options on index ETFs.

From the desk of Tom Bruni @BruniCharting

In this post we're gonna check in on Canadian Equities and see what sectors and names we want to be involved in.

From the desk of Tom Bruni @BruniCharting

The Mystery Chart I posted Tuesday was a bit different because I told you what type of security it was and that it wasn't inverted. My objective with this chart was similar to what it always is, but more nuanced in that I was trying to get a feel for people's willingness to buy breakouts in stocks right now, or if there was any apprehension.

I received a ton of great responses via Twitter and email, so thank you for that. Let's get into those answers and the actual chart.

Do you live on the East coast and ever wonder what it would be like to be a trader on the West coast? Could you handle working on a much different schedule? In today's video, we chat with my pal Mehmet Gunay who I met during his time at SMB Capital when I lived in New York City. Today, he lives in San Francisco and seems to have adjusted pretty well to the time change and lifestyle. I would have to agree with him. I enjoy the west coast hours much better than when I lived in New York. The ability to do things after work with plenty of sun light left is very appealing.

We might be in a rangebound market for stocks, but one thing is for sure: the trend for Technical Analysis is up.

I've had a front row seat to the growth of this discipline and its practitioners for the past 15 years, since first starting my journey. I was half way through John Murphy's Technical Analysis of Financial Markets when I knew this was for me. Things only became more clear after that. As I read through Edwards & Magee and many other books, the way markets behaved just started making more and more sense.

When most of us think of bank stocks, we're generally not saying positive things. We have a bad taste in our mouth, particularly since early last year. But that's not the case in India.

Look at this chart. Which one is different?

Yesterday during our Members-Only Conference Call we discussed a lot of themes and trade ideas, but I wanted to highlight two charts that remain an issue for our bullish Equities thesis.

When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, Sir? ~ John Maynard Keynes

This quote has been on my mind as I am about to publish a trade idea that runs contrary to an existing position we're currently carrying. And if the Market Gods are smiling, we may be able to win on both of them!

From the desk of Tom Bruni @BruniCharting

New Mystery Chart!

For those new to the exercise, we take a chart of interest and eliminate the x and y-axes and and all labels eliminated to minimize bias. The chart can be any security in any asset class on any timeframe on an absolute or relative basis. It can even be inverted or a custom index.

The point here is to not guess what it is, but instead to think about what you would do right now. Buy, Sell, or Do Nothing?

The cool thing about working with smart people is being able to learn from them. Having Sean McLaughlin on our team has made everyone better, not just our clients but us as well. In today's video, we tackle the question of when it makes more sense to finance an options position by selling a different contract to collect the income vs simply just buying calls or puts. As usual, Sean does a nice job of explaining this in a way that anyone could understand.