Despite the new highs from almost all the large-cap major averages, we had yet to see new highs in their corresponding advance-decline lines.
We also hadn’t experienced the kind of expansion in participation that we’d expect to accompany the indexes to new price highs.
Our new high indicators were still muted, even on shorter timeframes.
But that was last week. This week, mid-caps and small-caps have joined their large-cap peers at new record highs after making decisive upside resolutions from their year-to-date ranges.
And guess what? We’re finally getting that breadth confirmation we were missing.
Let’s talk about it.
First, here’s a quick update on the advance-decline lines that we covered in last week's column:
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. But we don’t highlight lagging stocks on a recurring basis.
This All Star Charts +Plus Monthly Playbook breaks down the investment universe into a series of largely binary decisions and tactical calls. Paired with our Weight of the Evidence Dashboard, this piece is designed to help active asset allocators follow trends, pursue opportunities, and manage risk.
If we're truly entering into a new crypto bull market, trend-following strategies are the only game in town.
Forget all the rotations taking place because we're entering into the "sit on your hands season."
Overtrading and getting cute is going to be punished, while just sitting on quality coins is likely to be rewarded.
Less trading.
More conviction.
Sit on your hands.
I think that's the play for crypto in the coming months, assuming the bull market is just getting started.
We're talking names like Solana, Avalanche, Luna, Algorand, Elrond, Fantom, Axie among a handful of others as well as the majors like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
In Part 2 of our Fibonacci Series we dive into Frequencies with Jim Bartelloni.
If you're already familiar with my others videos with Bart, you know this is all math. No fundamentals to see here!
In this video we look at the similarities between the shapes made by vibrating grains of sand and the ups and downs of the stock market, particularly the Small-cap Russell2000 ETF $IWM.
Key Takeaway: There’s nothing more bullish than new all-time highs, and there was plenty to go around as we reviewed our monthly charts over the weekend. It’s no wonder that optimism is resurfacing as stocks indexes up and down the cap-scale push to new records. Whether current sentiment will develop into the type of risk-seeking fervor that brought us into the year is unseen. But bulls continue to rise, and interestingly so do the bears. The AAII and II bears ticked higher last week, with II bears reaching levels not seen since May of last year. The backdrop is turning to optimism, but there's still enough pessimism among investors to keep sentiment off of the risk side of the scale.
Sentiment Report Chart of the Week: Equity Love Affair Undiminished
From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @IanCulley
We’ve been pounding the table about rising rates for over a month now.
It’s hard not to when they're rising across the curve in both the US and abroad. Cyclical and value-oriented assets have increased in tandem, as energy and financials have become leadership groups.
We continue to see countries with heavy exposure to financials emerging from multi-decade bases. Just last month, the Euro Stoxx 600 made new all-time closing highs, while Italian equities reached their highest levels in 13 years.
But when we look further out on the curve, the long end hasn’t been keeping pace with shorter duration yields in recent weeks.
Taking a look at the 30-year beside the 10- and 5-year yields tells this story best.
The January Effect posits that financial markets experience a seasonal anomaly in the beginning of each year whereby stock prices tend to rise more than in any other month.
But this bullish period extends beyond a single month. In fact, our data show that buyers come out in full force starting in the late fall/early winter.
According to historic seasonal trends, the best time of the year for the stock market is from November to January. Smaller stocks are known to outperform during this period.
And if we’re focusing on small-caps, November is by far the single best month. So it should come as no surprise that the Russell 2000 and S&P Mid-Cap 400 are breaking out to fresh all-time highs this week. They did the same thing last November. In fact, November of 2020 was the best month ever for these small- and mid-cap indexes.
Let’s dive in and discuss some of the seasonal tailwinds supporting these new highs from SMIDs.
