Not much has changed in terms of the market trend. What we're observing keenly is if support levels hold in the short-term scenario. There are bouts of strength coming through in certain sectors and today's stock comes from the FMCG sector.

Do you know what we're talking about?

We retired our "Five Bull Market Barometers" in 2020 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.

Welcome to Paid to Play -- a unique window into a live trading account we manage for the express purposes of generating cash flow and adding diversification to our portfolio of trading strategies.

There are specific questions we seem to get regularly, so I thought I'd compile this FAQ ("frequently asked questions") doc to serve as an ongoing resource to all P2P subscribers.

In no particular order:

Over the years investors have come up with new and creative ways to lose money in the market.

But Silver just keeps helping investors do it the old fashioned way:

As you can see, Silver is down and making new 52-week lows.

And this brings up a bigger question.

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 market is not a children's book.

I know sometimes we all kind of wish it was.

But it's not.

As investors, we can approach the market pretending it's one way, or we can approach it knowing it's the other.

That's up to you.

For us, we never even think about who is on the other side of our trades.

Why would we?

But it's something that's come up recently and probably worth addressing.

These are the registration details for our live mid-month conference call for Premium Members of All Star Charts.

Our next Live Call will be held on Thursday May 19th at 6PM ET. As always, if you cannot make the call live, the video and slides will be archived and published here along with every other live call since 2015.

Here are the details for Thursday night:

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.

From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley

There’s always a bull market somewhere.

But the environment is tough right now.

Volatility is sweeping across markets. The dollar is catching a defensive bid. And the major averages continue their downward trajectory as investors desperately look for signs of a bottom. 

Yet, despite the bearish action gripping markets, we’re still finding bases we want to buy.

And, to no surprise, many of those smiley faces are in the commodities market.

That’s where we want to focus our attention.

Today, we'll highlight the wheat complex, outlining some tactical setups that complement our bullish structural outlook for commodities and grains.

Let’s dive in!

First up, we have Chicago wheat:

Earlier in the spring, this contract skyrocketed to new all-time highs. It’s since corrected, forming...

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

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:

...

From the desk of Willie Delwiche.

The preliminary May reading for the Consumer Sentiment Index (published by the University of Michigan) dropped to one of its lowest levels on record. The Expectations component is still above its March low, while the view of Current Conditions is at new cycle low - and at its lowest level since late 2008. That’s right - things are seen as worse now than they were at the worst of the COVID-related shutdowns. At one level this seems ludicrous - the S&P 500 is just a few months removed from record highs and pretty much anyone who wants a job can get one. On the other hand, everyone is seeing surging prices at the grocery store and gas station. They see surging balances on their credit card statements, but collapsing balances on their brokerage statements. This an unfamiliar environment for an entire generation of investors who have never experienced a double-digit year-over-year drawdown in the NASDAQ 100. It’s particularly acute for investors who listened to the advice of “experts” and have bought every dip this year. We don’t need to look at this incredulously and suggest things aren’t actually as bad as they have been in...

Ok, so the market is bouncing and its offering a nice reprieve to those who've been caught on the wrong side of the recent slide. Does this mean the bottom is in?

It's far too early to tell. And that's not the bet we're making just yet. In fact, today's trade is to take advantage of a nice bounce in a name we're bearish in to position for a retest of recent lows.

So let's get right to it.