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.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

Same action, different day: a morning drop, then a rally as the day goes along.

This slow melt-up is very boring, like watching paint dry.

For a swing trader like me, earnings season is always tough. I often find myself in a situation where my favorite setups have a looming earnings release on the nearby horizon, introducing binary risks that make me uncomfortable.

And this season is no different. All of my favorite setups right now are fraught with earnings risk.

But I've found one opportunity where a pending earnings release may actually benefit us, allowing us to get positioned at attractive prices for a post-earnings run.

We had a resting GTC order filled in the Paid-to-Play portfolio today:

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

Friday is April monthly options expiration day.

It used to be a big day. Back in the day (cue old person lecturing) we used to only have monthly options expirations. And because of this, the third Friday of every month tended to offer up some fireworks on the regular.

These days, daily expiring index options and weekly expiring stock options have kinda taken the starch out of the monthly happening. Boo.

Call me old fashioned (just don’t call me old!), but I still prefer to do my directional options trades – and most of my delta-neutral option spreads – in regular ol’ monthly expirations. And there seem to be plenty of traders out there like me because we still see the majority of the open interest in the monthlies.

I’m bringing this up because I’ve got some April long calls on the books that are still working for me (barely).

In bull markets you regularly see more and more stocks making new highs.

That's just a normal characteristic of this type of market environment.

Yesterday we saw a ton of stocks making new 52-week highs - names like Nvidia, AstraZeneca, Salesforce, Lockheed Martin, General Electric, Chipotle, Autozone, Motorola, Lennar and many others.

However, in aggregate we have yet to see that key breakout in breadth expansion in the new 52-week highs list.

The new lows list is non existent. It's been that way since the 4th quarter last year.

But where the new highs at?

The largest insider buy on today’s list comes in a Form 4 filing by Ares Management.

The hedge fund revealed an additional purchase of roughly $4.2 million in Frontier Communications Parent $FYBR.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

It's been a slow grind up and a real tug of war for the indices.

The market seems really tired, but it hasn't broken down.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

The common theme over the past week has been to grind lower in the morning and then move back up in the indices.

It doesn't really feel like we're moving at all.

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

A weaker dollar remains a key ingredient for a risk-on rally. Yet, like interest rates, the buck refuses to roll over.

The US Dollar Index $DXY continues to hover well below last year’s peak, holding within a tight range for the past four months.

Today, we’ll review critical levels for DXY as this trendless action defines the chart.

We’ll also look beneath the surface for signs of broad strength or weakness and revisit a binding intermarket relationship for clues regarding the dollar’s next major move.

First, let’s define the critical boundaries of DXY’s multi-month range:

The 105 level has proven a significant area of resistance. 

On the flip side, the February pivot lows at approximately 101 mark the lower boundary of the year-to-date range. That’s where we find DXY today.

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