It's the weekly currency edition of What the FICC?

So far this week, the Japanese yen has stolen the show. But where does that leave the USD/JPY heading into 2023?

Check it out!

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.

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

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

What do you do when the party gets out of hand?

You raise the roof!

That’s what the Bank of Japan (BoJ) did yesterday as its former yield curve control policies became untenable. After intervening to keep its 10-year yield below 0.25%, it shifted the ceiling to 0.50%. 

Naturally, the yen responded in earnest. It posted an explosive rally following the BoJ policy shift, gaining more than 500 pips against the dollar. 

But where does that leave the USD/JPY heading into 2023?

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

In today's Morning Briefing, I wrote about $SPY and $TQQQ trade ideas.

Both targets were reached. SPY ran right into resistance at 387 and then pulled back, as was alerted.

From the desk of Willie Delwiche.

Seems like almost everyone has a 2023 earnings estimate for the S&P 500. The thinking seems to be that if you are going to make up a year-end guess at price you should come up with one for earnings as well. That’s not a game I want to play.     

We've covered before how much I like buying stocks that are making new all-time highs. I like them, even more, when I can buy call options because premiums are low. And it's a cherry on top when the stock pays a meaty and steady dividend which lends price action support over the long run!

Today's trade checks all these boxes.

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

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

The strategy was simple: long Coinbase $COIN above the May lows while cutting our losses below there.

And, lo and behold, it took out those pivot lows. Like any responsible trader using good risk-management practices, we took the loss on the chin and got out of the position.

We were either plain wrong or got the timing off on the trade, so we stuck to our plan and obeyed the price action. We thought the stock was good for a bounce.

But, clearly, COIN had other ideas.

Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama is back on our list after filing his first Periodic Transaction Report since early November.

Here’s what Sen. Tuberville is buying:

• Intel Corporation $INTC ($100,000 - $250,000)
• Activision Blizzard $ATVI ($100,000 - $250,000)
• Cleveland-Cliffs $CLF ($50,000 - $100,000)

While Activision is a new name for Tuberville, these are the second purchases he has made in both Intel and Cleveland-Cliffs in recent months.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

As I write this note, the futures are gapping higher.

The cash index could open roughly at $SPX 3,850 -- that is, as long as we stay higher.