With volatility spike in British Pounds, the more interesting story to me is how stocks are pushing up against the former all-time highs in 1999. Since that historic era in the stock market, British stocks have continuously attempted, and then failed to break through and finally make a new all-time high. The London FTSE 100 has been trying to stay above that historic market peak for almost 17 years.

Here is a chart of the London FTSE 100 going back to the late 1990s. The more times that a level is tested the higher the likelihood that it breaks. The reason is that there comes a point where anyone willing to sell at those levels will have already sold, ultimately leaving fewer sellers than buyers. This is when you get a "breakout":

This week high beta stocks are hitting fresh year-to-date highs relative to stocks with low volatility. This is a new trend, as lower volatility stocks did better than their higher beta counterparts in both 2014 and 2015. But this year has been a completely different story and it does not appear to be stopping.

Here you can see that while the S&P 500 was putting in new highs into May of last year, the ratio between high beta stocks and low volatility stocks had already peaked and was putting in a lower high. We are using the Powershares S&P 500 High Beta ETF $SPHB and the Powershares S&P 500 Low Volatility ETF $SPLV for the chart below.

The headline writers do their best to make you think that Gold is a US Dollar story. But in the real world, the one we're all forced to live in, Gold is a Gold story. It really has nothing to do with the US Dollar, and if you price gold in the other currencies, you'll see that very quickly. While gold might be struggling when priced in US Dollars, if you look at it priced in a weaker currency, say emerging markets, you'll see a completely different picture.

Today we are looking at Gold priced in an equal-weight basket of Emerging Market Currencies, specifically the BRICS:

Have you guys noticed that the prices of Gold and Silver have gone nowhere for 3 months? There's a reason why we've wanted to stay out of this market since early July and let them digest their impressive gains since the January lows. Knowing when to stay out of a market is just as important as knowing when to be in it. Opportunity cost should also be considered in the risk calculation.

Today we are taking a deep dive into Gold and we're going to look at things from all angles, all currencies and all time frames.

We take a weight of the evidence approach here at All Star Charts. There is no one data point that will suggest buying is more advantageous than selling, or vice versa. In addition, the process of collecting and reviewing that data, to me, is really the most important thing I do. There are no short cuts in this business. You have to put in the work and I share the results of that homework with you daily so you don't have to.

Today I want to point you to a chart that I've kept for a while, but have never really shared because I don't want to overwhelm you with too much data. But since we're at a critical point, I think it's worth adding to the Chartbook this week:

One of the things that impresses me the most about Technology is the fact that Amazon, a stock up over 70% since February, isn't even a tech stock. While some people like to argue that Amazon is a Technology company, and that may be true, it is not a Technology stock. In fact, $AMZN represents a 0% weighting in the S&P Technology Sector Index or in the ETF. Instead, it spends its days holding up the serial underperforming Consumer Discretionary Sector with a 13% weighting.

We trade and invest in stocks, not companies. So we'll focus on the supply and demand dynamics of stocks, and ignore the noise surrounding "companies". The big question I want to ask is, what would the Tech sector look like if Amazon was included?

You guys who have followed my work over the years know how many charts I look at on a daily and weekly basis. Believe it or not, it's probably even more than you think. Some things pique my interest more than others, of course, but it's the collective weight of the evidence that allows me to formulate a thesis given all of the available information. The specifics include price and sentiment data from stock, bond, commodity and forex markets around the world, most represented visually in chart form.

Sometimes there is a specific scenario in a given market that can impact the direction of the price of a lot of different assets around the world. Today, what I see in US Treasury Bonds is what I find to be the most interesting trade in the world. What is happening in this market? Is this a top in bonds and bottom in rates? Is this multi-decade uptrend in bonds finally coming to an end? It's hard to imagine considering you need to be older than 60 to remember a structural bear market in bonds during your wall street career.

One of the benefits of it being 2016 is that global markets are more interrelated than ever before. We can take price data from the other side of the world and use it to take advantage of domestic markets in the United States as well as many other countries and asset classes. To purposely ignore what is taking place in markets around the world seems irresponsible at this point.

Today we are watching what Latin American stocks are suggesting for the next direction in Crude Oil prices:

Earlier today I was on the Benzinga morning radio chatting with Joel and Dennis about the current market environment. We've been pounding the table bullish U.S. stocks for almost 3 months now and fortunately the market has cooperated with us. Technology has been the big leader along the way and I think this theme continues. Meanwhile, money has rotated out of bonds as interest rates have risen with stocks over the past few months.

We discuss this rotation and some of my favorite names in the tech space. Here is the interview in full:

Summer is seasonally a low volume time for the market, the big traders are on vacation with their families, playing golf with their buddies and attending various charity events in beautiful locations. Meanwhile, the rookies are at the desks with their hands tied behind their backs.

Now that Labor Day has come and gone, volume starts to pick up and the rookies are back to fetching coffee for the big boys. This year has certainly not been immune to this traditional September adjustment

As always I use my top down approach to first identify