From the Desk of Steve Strazza and Alfonso Depablos

The largest insider buy on today’s list comes via a handful of filings by Maplebear Inc $CART director Ravi Gupta. 

Gupta reported a total purchase of $57 million in CART.

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

Commodities are making moves.

Cotton is forming a bull flag following last week’s breakout. Coffee futures are coiling below a critical polarity zone. Cattle and hogs are running wild. Even Dr.Copper is perking up, posting positive returns over the trailing five days.

And don’t forget about cocoa futures as they continue to print fresh all-time highs. 

With all this action heating up, let’s turn our attention to one of 2021’s most explosive markets…

Lumber.

Remember all the lumber memes on Twitter?

Dudes were posting their W’s sitting atop stacks of 2x4s and plywood. I’ll never forget it. 

As a trader, I prefer to avoid lumber futures. It’s a thin market. But I can’t ignore the yearlong base forming on the daily chart:

Many swing traders and investors are currently sitting on a First Class problem. But it’s a problem, nonetheless.

These traders are sitting in positions with huge open profits.

I can use NVDA as an example. But there are many, many big winning trends still acting well.

Those of us who like to style ourselves as Trend Followers will soon be faced with a difficult decision – how and when to determine when a trend has ended.

It’s easy in hindsight to look at a chart and spot the moment a trend was invalidated and an optimal exit price is clear. But in real-time, it’s not so easy. In fact, it’s impossible. Because contrary to popular belief, no trader can reliably and consistently predict the future.

But the stakes are high in these moments. For a trend follower, the occasional big wins are what we rely on to make our nut.

The life of a trend-following trader can best be described as long periods of near-constant frustration punctuated by short moments of fleeting bliss.

Good morning,

Welcome to your daily crypto clarity

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

Fed Chair Jerome Powell continues to rule the markets with an iron fist, mercilessly punishing any who doubt his supreme will. 

Or maybe I should stop daydreaming at my desk. 

Either way, this little fantasy is a helluva lot more entertaining than the monotonous uptrend in US Treasury yields. 

But I’ve found boredom – when not taken seriously – can lead to neglect.

That’s where process steps in to save the day. 

It’s hard for the market to catch us off guard if we’re constantly reviewing the charts.

And these next two bond charts demand our full attention…

First, the High Yield Bond ETF $HYG relative to the US Treasury Bond ETF $IEI: 

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Welcome to The Junior International Hall of Famers.

With the goal of finding more bullish setups, we have decided to expand one of our favorite scans and broaden our regular coverage of the largest US-listed international stocks, or ADRs.

This scan is composed of the next 100 largest stocks by market cap, those that come after the top 100 and are thus covered by the International Hall of Famers universe.

Many of these names will someday graduate and join our original International Hall Of Famers list. The idea here is to catch these big trends as early on as possible.

Let's dive right in and check out what these future big boys are up to.

This is our Junior International Hall of Famers list:

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

When investing in the stock market, we always want to approach it as "a market of stocks."

Regardless of the environment, there are always stocks showing leadership and trending higher.

We may have to look harder to identify them depending on current market conditions. But there are always stocks that are going up.

The same can be said for weak stocks. Regardless of the environment, there are always stocks that are going down, too. 

We already have multiple scans focusing on stocks making all-time highs, such as Hall of Famers, Minor Leaguers, and the 2 to 100 Club.

We filter these universes for stocks that are exhibiting the best momentum and relative strength characteristics. 

Clearly, we spend a lot of time identifying and writing about leading stocks every week, via multiple reports.

Now, we're also highlighting lagging stocks on a recurring basis.

Welcome to the Short Report.

In today's Daily Digest, we'll review:

1. No new positions today.
2. Adjustment to SMH position..
3. No exits since the last report.
4. Current status of open campaigns.

Let's dig in!

From the Desk of Steve Strazza and Alfonso Depablos

The largest insider buy on today’s list comes via a handful of filings by the CEO and chairman of OPKO Health $OPK, Phillip Frost.

Frost reported a total purchase of 1,000,000 OPK shares, equivalent to $991,700.

The volatility in stocks continues as 2024 progresses.

Have you noticed how different this market is vs the one we were in throughout November and December?

The swings are getting wider, and they're coming in both directions.

Just yesterday, the Nasdaq hit new lows not seen since January.

Meanwhile, there isn't a single small-cap sector that is above its December highs.

There's still a lot of work that stocks need to do to dig them out of this hole.

Good morning,

Welcome to your daily crypto clarity

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

Commodity currencies are edging higher.

But given the preceding dollar rally, significant breakout levels lie well out of reach.

In the meantime, we can turn to the yen for actionable ideas.

One yen cross is already breaking out!

Check out the aussie-yen cross challenging multi-year resistance at approximately 98.50:

That’s a tradeable level marked by the 2022 high and the June and September peaks from last year.

Buyers are on the verge of cracking this key level as I write. If and when they do, I like it long with a target of 111.15 over longer time frames.