From the Desk of Ian Culley 

Markets don’t always trend higher or lower. In fact, traders often deal with churn – which sometimes is nothing more than a range-bound mess.

"Sideways" is a trend that's all too easy to forget after last year’s historic volatility. Even bonds became risk assets in 2022!

I found it odd when bonds failed to react to last week’s rate hike along with other long-duration assets.

But the lack of bond market volatility might be exactly what risk assets, especially stocks, need right now.

Check out the chart of the US 10-year yield:

The US benchmark rate continues to hold above 3.40%. This has been our line in the sand for months, coinciding with the June pivot highs from last year.

This is the video recording of the February 9th, 2023, Weekly Town Hall w/ Willie Delwiche.

2/9/23 2:00 PM ET

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

As our Premium Members already know, we have a laundry list of scans that we run internally on an almost daily basis.

Different market environments, naturally, are more conducive to certain scans and less so to others.

We think our Freshly Squeezed scan is perfect for the current market. In fact, we wrote our initial report in December just to be sure we wouldn’t miss the moves that have taken place in recent weeks. We’re confident there is more to come.

With so many individual issues in massive drawdowns as the broader market begins to turn a corner, we’re witnessing some serious short-covering rallies in some of the most beaten-down names.

In fact, it’s already starting to happen. Bed, Bath & Beyond $BBBY was up by almost 100% the other day. It’s very likely they’re going bankrupt. But that’s just the kind of market we’re in.

Have you figured it out yet?

Is Bitcoin about to roll over here?

Or are we flagging before the next run-up?

The beauty of this game is that we don't need to predict the future. Instead, we can rely on price action to dictate our execution.

In this case, we're waiting to see how Bitcoin reacts to all this overhead supply before committing to any new longs.

And, on the contrary, if we see a resolution out of this range, or if we see weakness in the coming weeks, we'll be loading up on some positions.

So, in the case that we see some selling pressure come in, where do we want to be positioned?

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

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

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

The largest insider buy on today’s list is a Form 4 filing by Charles Magro, the CEO of chemical and seed company Corteva $CTVA.

Magro reported a purchase of 40,000 shares, equivalent to $2.4 million.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

The whipsaws that have been occurring in this market this past year are extreme. One day down, the next back up.

This morning, futures are higher. It's basically negated yesterday's down move.

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

Volatility reigns!

Overall, the market consolidated but really couldn't decide if it wanted higher or lower.