Are you happy the market is a mess? Or do you find it frustrating?
Keep in mind, the S&P500 is still at the same price it was 2 months ago.
Both the Nasdaq100 and Dow Jones Industrial Average are still at the same prices they were back in February.
We're almost half way through May.
The Technology Index, which is the largest component of the S&P500 (30%) and has the largest weighting in the Nasdaq100 (50%), is still where it was back in January.
Again we're half way through May!
Meanwhile, don't forget about the Small-cap Russell2000 that's hilariously still stuck below where it was way back in December.
The Consumer Discretionary Index and Dow Jones Transportation Average are also down for the year.
That's the market we're in.
Some people keep pretending that this year is just like last year.
But I cheated. I actually looked at the data. So I know better.
As most of you know, we use various bottom-up tools and scans to complement our top-down approach.
It's really been working for us!
One way we're doing this is by identifying the strongest growth stocks as they climb the market-cap ladder from small- to mid- to large- and, ultimately, to mega-cap status (over $200B).
Once they graduate from small-cap to mid-cap status (over $2B), they come on our radar. Likewise, when they surpass the roughly $30B mark, they roll off our list.
But the scan doesn't just end there.
We only want to look at the strongest growth industries in the market, as that is typically where these potential 50-baggers come from.
An All Star Options member recently asked me to explain what “short interest” meant.
This is a hot topic at the moment because there have been a few setups I’ve entered trades into recently, precisely because short interest levels are high.
So what is “short interest”?
According to chatGPT:
Short interest refers to the total number of shares of a particular stock that have been sold short by investors but have not yet been covered or closed out. When investors sell short, they borrow shares of a stock from a broker and sell them with the expectation that the stock's price will decrease. They then plan to buy back the shares at a lower price, return them to the broker, and pocket the difference as profit.
Crypto markets are still consolidating; the charts are shaping up constructively, but I want to see further strength to drag us out of these sideways ranges.
For now, I'm remaining patient and scanning for relative strength. That way, when momentum does return, I have a good list of coins that have the potential to be the next leaders.
No setup gets me more excited than buying a fresh new all-time high.
There are no bagholders looking to unload their losing position to breakeven. Every investor or trader holding a long position is making money. And every trader holding a short position is losing money and the only way they correct that sad state of affairs is to buy stock to stop their losses.
In other words, blue skies above.
This doesn't guarantee success on a long trade here, of course. But these are the types of trades that commonly lead to my biggest gains.
Here's a weekly chart of semiconductor name Analog Devices $ADI: