From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @IanCulley
There have been some fireworks to kick off the new year. One of the biggest developments in 2022 has to be the US 10-year yield breaking to its highest level in two years.
The direction in which yields resolve from their 2021 consolidation will impact all the major asset classes, including bonds, stocks, and commodities. We’re already seeing procyclical assets catch an aggressive bid as the 10-year flirts with an upside resolution.
For now, the path of least resistance is higher. But we still need to see follow-through and confirmation before we can be comfortable that these new highs are here to stay.
When we look at the international bond market, it’s not just domestic Treasury yields that are on the rise. We’re actually seeing rates make new highs all across the developed world.
If you're a trader, you don't need to pretend to understand the underlying.
Money flow is the only thing that moves markets. Everything else is just noise.
We pride ourselves on always adjusting our thesis to new data and never being dogmatic in our approach.
In the case of cryptocurrencies, it's been made out that gold and Bitcoin are sworn enemies.
Bitcoin is the "better store of value," they argue.
This black-and-white mentality does considerably more harm than good to investors.
If you're a trader, your only job is to follow money flow, not to assert your views on the market.
We bring this up because, when it comes to gold, there are early but constructive signs developing, with the shiny metal beginning to work its way out of an 18-month downtrend.
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.
Key Takeaway: A sentiment unwind can be constructive if it bends but doesn't break. That is, if volatility squeezes out some excessive optimism without ushering in pessimism. On the other hand, when it breaks it becomes like water through a dam, creating a messy and, at times, chaotic environment. So far the unwind from the speculative extremes of early 2021 has been orderly and has not broken through. But pressure is building and the dam must hold if we want to still talk about rotational churning and not move on to discussing sustained cyclical weakness. That's the challenge for 2022.
Big day today! I got Josh Brown to come on the podcast and talk about all things Technical Analysis and Financial Markets. Josh is probably friends with more Technicians across the country than almost anyone else. He respects what we do, and even works in some trend following systems at his own firm. We discuss all of it!
In this episode we talk about Sector Weightings in Markets, how RIAs can bring Crypto to the portfolios of their clients and why Gold peaked 40 years ago when adjusted for inflation.
We don't always agree on things, but that's what makes this fun.
Josh and I battle it out in this one. Give it a listen and let me know what you think!
Also make sure to Subscribe to Josh's Youtube Channel: The Compound RWM
While the US Stock Market has pulled back a bit this week, we've seen $VIX pop its head back up above 23 and print its highest levels in a month. And this isn't entirely surprising given that the highly watched Russell 2000 $IWM has been struggling to hold on to its yearlong support level of around 210.
But has the "all-clear" signal for the bears fired? Is it time to pile in short? We're not convinced yet.
Meanwhile, we've seen some pullbacks in semiconductors stocks we own ($NVDA and $MU most notably) that may get us stopped out soon. But when we zoom out to the bigger picture, as seen via the $SMH Semiconductors ETF, we see that we've been in a range for quite some time now. And even if we'd lose the support of this recent consolidation range at around 290, we can expect the 270-275 zone to offer a new level of support:
In recent weeks, we've been making a point about the importance of the derivative markets. When leverage and open interest is as elevated as it currently is, futures markets tend to govern short-term price action.
One of the most effective metrics to gauge this data is through funding rates.
Not only do we use this data to get a read of the positioning of speculators to help shape our macro crypto thesis. We can also use it on a case-by-case scenario to find high-conviction short and long setups within the alts.
Let's start by addressing the question of what is a funding rate.
We debuted a new scan recently which goes by the name- All Star Momentum.
All Star Momentum is a brand new scan that guides us towards the very best stocks in the market. This time around, we have incorporated our stock universe of Nifty 500 as the base. Among the 500 stocks that we follow, this scan will pump out names that are most likely to outperform the market.
While we go through our lists of sectors and stocks on a weekly basis, we thought of launching a product that would highlight the strongest performers in our universe. These are the ones that are primed for an explosive move.
Just like The Outperformers scan, this is a list of stocks belonging to the sectors that display relative strength in the market at any given point in time. Since sector rotation is the lifeblood of a bull market, we will be ahead of the curve before the gears keep shifting.
From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza and Grant Hawkridge @granthawkridge
One of the most important themes these days is the rotation between growth and value stocks. Groups like energy and financials have been breaking to new highs while growth and tech indexes have come under serious pressure.
So far, 2022 has been a true tale of two markets.
While cyclicals and value stocks appear to be gearing up for a momentous year, it looks like the party is finally coming to an end for the growth trade.
We want to lean on the value-heavy leadership groups for long opportunities in 2022. As for growth, we think it's likely to remain messy as interest rates continue to rise.
When we look beneath the surface at growth and value stocks right now, our breadth data is confirming the action we’re seeing at the sector level.
Let’s dive in and discuss...
Here's one way to visualize the opposing paths of large-cap value and large-cap growth right now. This indicator shows us the percentage of stocks above their 50-day moving averages for each of these indexes:
