For me, it's not just about one indicator or one chart.
It's a weight of the evidence game.
Since March, the bet has been Messy For Longer. We've expected a choppy environment. That's what the weight-of-the-evidence and history suggested.
But now what? Are these consolidations going to resolve lower? Or Higher? Or just stay messy for even longer?
That's what makes this all so great. I don't know. And neither do you. No one does.
It's a beautiful thing.
So as I weigh the evidence to decide rollover or breakout, I come to a series of divergences that put this stock market in quite the predicament.
With S&Ps and major indexes hovering near all-time highs, we're just not seeing it from the components themselves. Here's the Russell3000, for instance, seeing fewer and fewer new highs:
From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley
As May just came to a close, many spent the weekend celebrating the kick-off to the Summer season at Memorial day barbeques. We did that too. BUT... being the nerds we are, we also spent much of the weekend pouring over some fresh monthly candles now that yet another one is in the books.
We only get this incredibly valuable information ONCE a month. That's right. Just TWELVE times a year. As such, we really cherish weeks like these.
So, let's dive right in and talk about one of the charts that really stuck out this month: None other than the good old Thomson Reuters $CRB Index, arguably the broadest barometer for the asset class as a whole.
While new highs are being seen around the world (Europe, Frontier Markets) and in the US (Broker/Dealers, Real Estate, Energy), there is still plenty of attention on former leaders who are trying to reclaim their lost glory. A great example of that is the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK). This fund peaked at the height of speculative fever in February and has since made a series of lower highs and lower lows. It’s now dealing with rejection as its latest rally attempt petered out shy of the confluence of the 50 and 200-day moving averages. When viewed in context of overall declining NASDAQ volume, it suggests stronger hands have been selling to weaker hands and they are the ones that are going to be left paying the tab at the end of the night.
The team at All Star Charts has started putting out a new report called "Follow the Flow." The goal of this report is to "create a universe of stocks that experienced the most unusual options activity – either bullish or bearish… but NOT both."
The unusual activity we're witnessing in these stocks is not necessarily "smart" money, but "aggressive" or "motivated" money. This is a useful signal.
With this in mind, one of the names mentioned in the most recent report caught my eye for a shorter duration bullish options bet.
With the Dow Jones Transportation Average hitting our upside targets last month, it's become a wait and see game.
Are consolidations resolving higher, like they were before? Or are they resolving lower?
Based on the overwhelming amount of evidence, the bet we want to make as that Transports resolve lower, and join some of the other areas that have already been under pressure for months, like Tech and Small-caps.
When going through the components of this index, there were 6 names in particular that presented the best risk vs reward opportunities on the short side.
The first one Southwest Airlines. This looks like a top to me. How I learned it was to buy the smiley faces and sell the frowny faces.
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.
