Donald Trump gets inaugurated today as the next president of the United States.

This comes after a historic republican landslide that betting markets had absolutely correct going into the election.

Anyone who thought it was 4 guys in a room manipulating the markets were actually just hoping that was the case, because they didn't like what the betting markets were saying.

Tough shit.

You ignored the market and it cost you. 

Bitcoin is making new all-time highs this morning as the first Publicly Pro-Crypto President in history is about to take office.

You don't have to like the guy. In fact, you can hate Trump. Or love him. It doesn't matter when it comes to how we're going to profit from it.

And that's what this is all about.

If you let your politics influence your decision making in the market, you're an extremist. And there's no room for extremism in turning a profit.

Separate the two, or it will not end well. That I promise you.

And we've seen it over the last year.

Many of the...

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza.

Welcome back to Under the Hood, where we'll cover all the action for the two weeks ended January 3, 2025. This report is published bi-weekly, in rotation with The Minor Leaguers.

What we do here is 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.

Click here for a behind-the-scenes look at our process.

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

This is a bull market for stocks. If you're not making money in this environment, then you should probably reevaluate your strategies. 

I know for a fact that I've witnessed individuals, who are clearly mentally ill, fight this historic rally pretending that there's some kind of epic credit crisis coming any day now (for over 2 years lol).

Whether it's fake breadth deterioration, or the "yen carry trade", or lies about Gold sending some kind of warning, or the Fed ruining everything, or small-caps underperforming, or Trump and his Magas. 

It's always something. 

These people will make up anything in their heads, no matter how outrageous, in order to justify poor decisions. Their egos are too fragile. 

Good.

It might be a little sad to have to watch them ruin their lives. But it's great for us who recognize their vulnerabilities and have chosen to just profit from it all instead.

You see, when I hear credit crisis, I naturally look at credit spreads to see what's going on.

The answer is: NOTHING.

Still nothing...

Credit spreads are as tight as they've been this entire bull market:

If...

From the shores of New Zealand, the political landscape of the United States unfolds like a peculiar theater production. Not the usual drama of left versus right, we've all seen enough of that, but rather a new kind of spectacle that blurs the lines between leadership, technology, and what can only be described as digital gambling.

Look, I'm not here to claim some kind of moral high ground from my corner of the South Pacific. New Zealand, for all its postcard perfection, grapples with its own demons: poor economic productivity, a culture of tall poppy syndrome, and mental health statistics that would make any policymaker wince. Every nation carries its own burden of imperfection.

But the United States? It has managed to craft something uniquely concerning in the intersection of power and profit.

Take the long-standing tradition of American politicians trading stocks. While this practice isn't exclusive to the U.S., what sets it apart is the conspicuous absence of robust conflict of interest controls. The response from the trading community has been surprisingly cavalier: "Why complain? Just follow their disclosures and profit alongside them." It's a...

Israel outperformed the United States stock market in 2024, and that trend has spilled over into 2025.

Camtek $CAMT is one of the hottest Israeli stocks, but the bears still hate it. 

The stock has a record-high 14% short interest and an 8x days-to-cover ratio. 

This extreme mispositioning is blowing up in the bears' faces as they've been freshly squeezed.

As you can see, Camtek carved out a textbook head-and-shoulders pattern, which excited the bears.

Over the last year, the short interest has ballooned to its highest level in history despite the stock price reaching new highs.

Last week, the bulls stepped in and failed the potential distribution pattern, and now the bears are scrambling to cover their positions.

That's why we're looking to buy the stock and profit from the short sellers that are in the house of pain right now.

Don't miss the ASC Premium Mid-Month Strategy Session on Monday, January 20th, at 7 pm ET! 🚨

👉 Click here to register for the LIVE event.

This is the weekly post that aggregates all the charts we put together throughout the week and organizes them all into one, easy to flip through deck.

The coal industry is one of the most under-the-radar ponds to fish in.

Investors write it off because "clean energy" will displace the industry. While this is likely true, we think it will take far longer than most expect. 

In the meantime, this extreme mispositioning is our opportunity to profit.

You would have made a fortune if you bought these stocks at the depths of the COVID crash. Far more than if you purchased the hottest "work from home" stock.

These stocks had their best day in years last summer after a major Australian coal mine caught fire and halted production. 

While we haven't seen the upside follow-through we anticipated, the setup looks ripe for the bulls to take control.

Let's dive into the charts.

Our Coal Index rallied from 5 to 40 from 2020 to 2022, making it the best industry group during the post-COVID bull market.

Since then, it has churned sideways in a well-deserved digestion of gains. 

...

For the market to experience a meaningful correction, we need to see clear signs of defensive rotation—and so far, that hasn’t happened.

In the bond market, U.S. Treasuries are viewed as the defensive play, especially compared to their High Yield counterparts. 

It’s the same concept in equities when you compare Consumer Staples to the broader S&P 500. If the environment favors risk-taking, both Treasuries and Staples should underperform.

Overlaying the Treasuries versus High-Yield ratio (IEI/HYG) with the Staple vs S&P 500 ratio (XLP/SPY), you’ll notice they move in the same direction.

Currently, both are trending lower and making new lows, signaling no defensive positioning from bond or equity investors.

As long as these lines keep trending down and to the right, there’s nothing to worry about for risk assets. But if they start to turn higher, that would be a key warning sign of trouble ahead, potentially...

A stock featured in a recent Junior Hall of Famers report has triggered an entry today, and it has a lot of room to run.

Earnings are on the horizon, but we'll play this stock with a defined-risk spread that takes a little of the sting out of the options' cost while giving us the ability to participate in upside follow-through should we get it. 

Our International Hall of Famers list is composed of the 100 largest US-listed international stocks, or ADRs.

We've also sprinkled in some of the largest ADRs from countries that did not make the market cap cut. 

These stocks range from some well-known mega-cap multinationals such as Toyota Motor and Royal Dutch Shell to some large-cap global disruptors such as Sea Ltd and Shopify.

It's got all the big names and more–but only those that are based outside the US. You can find all the largest US stocks on our original Hall of Famers list.

The beauty of these scans is really in their simplicity.

We take the largest names each week and then apply technical filters in a way that the strongest stocks with the most momentum rise to the top.

Based on the market environment, we can also flip the scan on its head and filter for weakness.

Let's dive in and take a look at some of the most important stocks from around the world.

Here's this week's list:

In today’s Daily Digest, we’ll review the following:

1. New position in ARKK.
2. No adjustments are needed today.
3. Exited XLB position.
4. Current status of open campaigns.
5. Volatility Snapshot.

Let’s dig in!