As we progress into Q4 of Fiscal Year 2020-2021, this playbook outlines our thoughts on every asset class and our plan to profit.

This playbook will cover our macro view, touching on Equities, Commodities, Currencies, and Rates, as well as outline our views on the major nifty indices and the sector/thematic indices.

We also cover individual stocks we want to be buying to take advantage of the themes discussed in the playbook.

Synaptics $SYNA has been on a heck of run over the past several weeks as it recently thrust out of a nearly 5 month consolidation. Now resting just below all time highs, we're thinking there's another run higher in store. And today's trading action is just the kind of pullback I was looking for in order to get involved.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza.

Welcome back to our “latest Under The Hood” column for the week ending January 8, 2021. As a reminder, this column will be published bi-weekly moving forward, and rotated on-and-off with our new Minor Leaguers column.

In this column, we analyze the most popular stocks during the week and find opportunities to either join in and ride these momentum names higher, or fade the crowd and bet against them.

We use a variety of sources to generate the list of most popular names. There are so many new data sources available that all we need to do is organize and curate them in a way that shows us exactly what we want: A list of stocks that are seeing an unusual increase in investor interest.

Whether we’re measuring increasing interest based on large institutional purchases, unusual options activity, or simply our proprietary lists of trending tickers… there is a lot of overlap.

We're back this month with another edition of the Josh & JC show.

This is where I sit down with my boy Josh Brown and talk about the most important Monthly Charts I see around the world.

I love doing this monthly show. Josh and I have been good friends for the better part of the past 2 decades. He knows me really well by now, and I think I've got a pretty good handle on him too, although he certainly finds ways to surprise me quite often.

On this month's show, we take a look at Financials potentially breaking out. One of the leaders is Goldman Sachs, as $GS is now back above its 2007 highs. Meanwhile, Consumer Discretionary is breaking out to new all-time highs relative to Consumer Staples, which is consistent with higher stock prices. But that doesn't mean that Staples can't do well on an absolute basis. And finally, Commodities are breaking out. Crude Oil is back above its 2016 lows. And with all of this bullish talk, what's it going to take to position ourselves more defensively? I lay out the 4 most important signals that we're watching.

Here's the video in full:

This is our ASC Research Q1 2021 Playbook.

The first section dives deep into the US Stock Market and Market breadth, then we discuss the International Markets and specific Factors around the world. Next we go into U.S. Sectors and the best looking Industry Groups. In the second half of the report, we dive into the FICC space (Fixed Income, Commodities & Currencies) and their Intermarket Relationships. Finally we finish up with Cryptos, Options and overall Market Sentiment.

You can skip right to the trade ideas here if you'd like, or give the full report a read!

From the desk of Louis Sykes @haumicharts

At the beginning of each week, we publish performance tables for a variety of different asset classes and categories along with commentary on each.

Looking at the past helps put the future into context. In this post, we review the absolute and relative trends at play and preview some of the things we’re watching in order to profit in the weeks and months ahead.

The weight of the evidence continues to overwhelmingly lie in favor of the bulls.

The major indices are above important levels and are well on their way to achieving our targets. We're seeing sector rotation into offensive, cyclical areas of the market, and away from defensive, which is all confirming these new highs.

Commodities are showing incredible strength in the face of extreme positioning, reflecting the control buyers have in these markets.

While checking out my list of liquid ETFs to get a feel for the markets this morning, it caught my eye that Gold is currently sporting the highest implied volatility (as measured by IVRank). I suppose it is no surprise given the amount of volatility we're seeing in Gold's distant, but currently more popular second cousin, cryptocurrencies.

You'd think Gold would be trading similarly.

However, looking at the daily chart, it appears $GLD is getting stuck in a range bounded by 184 on the upper end and 166 on the lower end.

From the desk of Louis Sykes @haumicharts

I'm very new to this whole thing.

I only began trading, charting, and researching just a few short years ago - so it's only natural I become victim to some rookie mistakes.

Seeing my trading account up by a decent margin has given me this attitude that I'm some wonder kid, and that I've somehow cracked the puzzle only being a teenager.

But this couldn't be further from the truth.

If this rally has got you thinking you're a superstar, consider that 87%, a near-record high, of the Russell 3000 have outperformed the broader market in the last 3 months. That's right, 87%.

Assuming you've held stocks over this period, statistically speaking, it has actually been more difficult to underperform the S&P 500 than it has been to outperform.

I'm not sure if you noticed, but the MSCI Emerging Markets Index Fund just went out at the highest weekly close in its history.

For you youngsters, this is a big deal.

You see, when I first got in this business, it was the Summer of 2003. Young JC was living in New York City for the first time, downtown in TriBeCa, ready to take on the world.

I was just an intern (envelope stuffer) at the time, at a firm called Merrill Lynch, which later went on to disappear with the likes of Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns. At that time though, in 2003, this gig was a big deal.

Anyway, for the next 4 years, Emerging Markets AVERAGED A 100% RETURN PER YEAR.

Yes you read that right. My career got started with Emerging Markets being the best place to be on earth. That stuck with me.

This week we're looking at long setups in the IT and Auto sectors that are witnessing a good move. 

We retired our "Five Bull Market Barometers" in mid-July to make room for a new weekly post that's focused on the three most important charts for the week ahead.

This is that post, so let's jump into this week's edition.