From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Dividend Aristocrats are easily some of the most desirable investments on Wall Street. These are the names that have increased dividends for at least 25 years, providing steadily increasing income to long-term-minded shareholders.

As you can imagine, the companies making up this prestigious list are some of the most recognizable brands in the world. Coca-Cola, Walmart, and Johnson & Johnson are just a few of the household names making the cut.

Here at All Star Charts, we like to stay ahead of the curve. That's why we're turning our attention to the future aristocrats. In an effort to seek out the next generation of the cream-of-the-crop dividend plays, we're curating a list of stocks that have raised their payouts every year for five to nine years.

We call them the Young Aristocrats, and the idea is that these are "stocks that pay you to make money." Imagine if years of consistent dividend growth and high momentum and relative strength had a baby, leaving you with the best of the emerging dividend giants that are outperforming the averages.

By adding our technical analysis to the mix,...

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.

We...

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

All signs point to a weaker dollar.

Crude oil slipping below 78… interest rates cutting through a multi-month trendline… emerging market currencies hitting fresh year-to-date highs… risk assets ripping…

Yet the buck refuses to budge.

The US Dollar Index $DXY is holding steady at a confluence of support, marked by a critical polarity zone and the year-to-date trendline:

As long as DXY remains above the former resistance level of roughly 104.25, a bearish bias is challenging to maintain.

On the flip side, a decisive close below the April pivot low of 103.88 signals a shift toward dollar weakness....

This will yet again be a brief update on the current tape.

My portfolio could benefit from some directional diversification right now. As such, I had my eye on a bearish bet this morning to help balance out my mostly directionally long exposure.

And one name that I and our analysts discussed in our meeting yesterday appears to be hanging on the precipice of a potentially large fall. The company will be announcing earnings on July 4th (who does that?) and I think that might be the final nail in the coffin to send this stock lower (if not sooner).

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

1. Added a new position in XRT.
2. No adjustments are needed today.
3. No exits since the last report.
4. Current status of open campaigns.

Let’s dig in!

This historic bond market crash continues.

And to be fair, it might not seem like a "Crash" because bond market volatility is still relatively low.

So it's just been a slow painful grind lower.

But there's no evidence that it's over.

You can see the Japanese Yen continuing lower as well....

From the Desk of Steve Strazza and Alfonso Depablos

The largest insider buy on today's list comes via a Form 4 filing by THRC Holdings, LP.

The investment firm revealed a purchase of $4.3 million in ProFrac Holding Corp $ACDC.

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 May 10, 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.

Click here for a behind-the-scenes look at our process.

Whether we’re measuring increasing interest based on large institutional purchases, unusual...

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

I’ve heard JC say it many times: “You guys are the smart money.”

After spending a week with clients at our Portfolio Accelerator and fielding countless reader emails, I completely agree!  

Since gold and silver prices are getting a bit wild, I decided to dive straight into the Gold Rush mailbag today to start a healthy discussion about what might happen next…

If there is one thing that stands out from any conversation with Brian Shannon about the trading process, it is this:

For discretionary traders, there are no rules. Instead, there are "guidelines."

And because Brian is human, he occasionally breaks his guidelines and suffers the same consequences as anyone else. Everyone gets what they deserve. Even a trader of 30+ years like Brian Shannon.

If a trader buys the dip or sells the rip without a plan to control her risk then she, too, will get what she deserves. Eventually. The market is always on the hunt for our weaknesses.

This is one of the things I love about my friend Brian. He doesn't tolerate nonsense. He tells it like it is. Tough love. It's what a trader needs.

And he's adamant about tuning out the noise and focusing on his strengths. For instance, he no longer pays any attention to financial TV. "It makes me emotional. TV is just theatrics. If it doesn't help me make money, I completely ignore it." He knows what he's good at, says no to everything else, and makes the best use of his time by focusing his energies on profitable pursuits.

Shouldn't we all live and...