With $VIX currently sporting a 20-handle, it feels like a good time to add some delta-neutral exposure to the portfolio.

So I'm scanning the list of liquid sector ETFs to see which one's offer good premiums and potential range-bound trading action.

Here's what I found:

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

1. No new positions today.
2. Defensive adjustment to XLE position.
3. No exits since the last report.
4. Current status of open campaigns.
5. Volatility Snapshot.

Let’s dig in!

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Welcome to The Minor Leaguers.

We've had some great trades come out of this small-cap-focused column since we launched it back in 2020 and started rotating it with our flagship bottom-up scan, Under the Hood.

For the first year or so, we focused only on Russell 2000 stocks with a market cap between $1 and $2B.

That was fun, but we wanted to branch out a bit and allow some new stocks to find their way onto our list.

We expanded our universe to include some mid-caps.

Nowadays, to make the cut for our Minor Leaguers list, a company must have a market cap between $1 and $4B.

And it doesn't have to be a Russell component — it can be any US-listed equity. With participation expanding around the globe, we want all those ADRs in our universe.

The same price and liquidity filters are applied. Then, as always, we sort by proximity to new...

We're back on The Morning Show today LIVE on Stock Market TV!

If you want to know what's moving markets this week, and how we're thinking about profiting from it, then the Morning Show is for you!

Today's guest is fellow twin-boy dad Todd Gordon, Portfolio Manager at Inside Edge Capital. Todd is an old pal, veteran trader and world class skier. You're not going to want to miss this conversation!

Join us today...

The Mötley Crüe song title comes to mind: Same Ol' Situation. 

It's always the same questions. Every bull market.

How much higher can stocks possibly go? Was that last high the top? Why is the economy not as strong as the stock market? 

That's the thing. We want to pay attention to what's happening around us. Because we've seen it before and we'll see it again. It's just humans being humans. 

I like to turn to the data and weigh the evidence so we can try to make the most informed decisions possible.

The way I see it, this has been a bull market for quite some time, well into year 3 now. Whenever a lagging sector has been most vulnerable to break down from a major top, the opposite has happened.

The money has come in and bought them up. We just saw that in Consumer Discretionary in the back half of last year...

We've been pounding the table on Walgreens Boots Alliance as one of the best potential short squeezes in the entire market. We nailed it!

The stock rallied nearly 30% on Friday for its best earnings reaction ever. 

This isn't an isolated event. Short sellers are getting squeezed all over the place.

Healthcare is one sector that is particularly ripe for a short squeeze. It's home to some of the most hated stocks in the world.

Stocks like Progyny are precisely what we're looking for, and here's why:

• It failed to resolve a massive distribution pattern, proving this stock isn't a zero (at least not yet).
• With 15% short interest and a 7x days-to-cover ratio, there's plenty of juice to spark a short squeeze.
• Short interest is making new 52-week highs, adding to our conviction in the offside positioning.
• Healthcare stocks are some of...

We had a discussion in the All Star Options chatroom yesterday about differences of opinion that got my mind spinning in a very positive way.

Sometimes, we traders might get a little offended when we've done the work to come up with a trade idea and share it with others -- then someone else offers a hot take on why the originator of the idea might be wrong. For some of us, we get momentarily annoyed, then we forget it and move on. For others, the "new information" causes us to abandon our trade thesis all together, sending us back to the drawing board in a state of frustration.

In the worst case, the originator of the idea gets offended, defensive, and perhaps even verbally abusive. And then both sides engage that way and nothing good comes from it.

I'd argue my best response is to meet the counter-intelligence as an opportunity to dig deeper to see if perhaps I missed something? If I find that I have, great! I'm better for it. If not, then I'll just end up feeling better about my opinion.

But the real meta thought here is this: WE WANT PEOPLE TO DISAGREE WITH OUR IDEAS.

Disagreement is the very basis of our profit...

We're in the 3rd year of a bull market and sector rotation continues to be a dominant theme that's driving stock prices higher, and probably more importantly, not allowing them to go lower.

Stocks making new lows is a big deal, and it's a prerequisite in order to have a bear market or a downtrend of any kind. As we discussed this week, the current market lacks this key characteristic - that is new lows. You can't have a market correction without them. It's just math.

Also during corrections, you regularly see rotation into the more defensive stocks, like Consumer Staples. You don't have that either. In fact, Consumer Staples just closed at new all-time lows relative to the S&P500.

...

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.

Sector rotation continues to be a major driving factor in this market.

We talked about it earlier this week in our LIVE Strategy Session. 

While some sectors and industry groups have been taking a breather, after these historic runs, other stocks have been catching a bid - things like Medical Equipment, Airlines and now Energy stocks.

The one constant, however, is the rotation OUT of Consumer Staples.

This defensive sector consistently outperforms when stocks are under pressure, and when it's a less than ideal environment to be putting risk on in equities.

This is the opposite of that.

Look at the new all-time lows for Consumer Staples relative to the S&P500:

And while Consumer Staples tend to underperform in healthy environments, it's the Consumer Discretionary stocks that outperform the broader markets during the good...

The commodity bears are going into hibernation.

Today was the best day in years for commodities relative to stocks and bonds. 

Inflation expectations are hitting a fresh 30-month high, with crude oil's price breaking out to 10-week highs.

We think this is the beginning of a much longer period of commodity outperformance.

A few weeks ago, we told you a big move in the energy markets was coming. We think this recent price action has marked the beginning of that move.

In addition, we outlined why we're buying copper futures last week, and so far, that trade has been a home run.

What's next?

We think aluminum futures are up next....