From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

As far as earnings go, $AMZN and $GOOGL for Big Tech were the weak links.

$QQQ is almost at its peak price.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

That was a stick save by $META, and now we have $AMZN tonight.

$QQQ came back above the 316 level I've been talking about inside the live trading room.

The next new position in our Paid-to-Play portfolio is:

The largest insider buy on today’s list comes in a Form 4 filing by Enphase Energy $ENPH director T.J. Rodgers.

Rodgers, who is the founder of Cypress Semiconductor and also holds a patent for a wine-making press, reported a purchase of roughly $5 million of ENPH.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

If you look under the hood, overall this market is weak.

Without Big Tech, there really isn't too much to talk about, except maybe commodities.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Welcome to the 2 to 100 Club.

As many of you know, something we've been working on internally is using various bottom-up tools and scans to complement our top-down approach. It's really been working for us!

One way we're doing this is by identifying 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.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

Every day last week the market would dip in the morning and rally in the afternoon.

This week has been the opposite: We've been grinding lower in the afternoons.

This week will be an opportunity for me to practice the art of giving up control. It will also be an incredible opportunity to practice acceptance and patience.

The market is open and I’m typing this piece while traveling 30,000 feet above Midwestern corn fields en route to New York City.

Thankfully, I’ve got internet access on the plane and can keep tabs on the market and my positions. But it’s not perfect. Anyone who’s tried to work with airplane WiFi knows it isn’t always as reliable as we’d like it to be.

I’m headed to NYC to reconnect with the All Star Charts team, celebrate our friend Brian Shannon in honor of his recent book release, and attend the Chartered Market Technician’s 50th Annual Symposium.

All week, I’ll be gathering with some of the smartest market minds, driven traders, and portfolio managers around. I’m hoping to sponge as much great content and smart ideas as I can possibly cram into my cranium.

The challenge for me will be in managing my open positions — particularly my highly active index options trading.

We've adjusted a position in the Paid-to-Play portfolio today:

These are the registration details for our Live Monthly Candlestick Strategy Session for Premium Members of All Star Charts.

This month’s Video Conference Call will be held on Monday May 1st @ 6PM ET. As always, if you cannot make the call live, the video and slides will be archived and published here along with every other live call since 2015.

Here are the details for Monday evening:

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

Two heavyweights reported earnings yesterday and, as of now, $MSFT came out on top.

Now lets see if it holds on to the gains. 

The largest insider buy on today’s list comes in a Form 4 filing by Texas Capital Bancshares $TCBI director Robert W. Stallings.

Stallings reported a purchase of roughly $1 million of TCBI stock.