From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

While we managed to string together a handful of up-days at the end of last week, markets have been selling off aggressively since April. Sellers remain in full control as the list of indexes resolving lower from distribution patterns continues to grow.

Finding favorable long setups in this tape hasn’t been easy. And because Inside Scoop is a “long-only” scan, there’s been little for us to do in the current environment.

Despite this, insiders have been very active in recent weeks as we continue to see more and more come out to buy the dip.

Many of the names seeing insider interest are in severe downtrends and have already endured significant technical damage.

With that said, there are still long opportunities. We just have to look a little harder, and get a bit more creative.

Today, we have a long-term base breakout as well as a short-term mean-reversion setup. While these are very different, both offer significant upside potential with limited risk.

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From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Stocks are having a tough time these past few weeks. Selling pressure is not just accelerating; it’s spreading.

Even the leaders aren’t providing shelter from this latest storm…

A lot of the commodity stocks we’ve been focusing on for long exposure in recent months are experiencing significant volatility and are now back below our risk levels.

We want to be patient and wait for the dust to settle for most of these trades.

While this is the case for the majority of stocks right now, there are always pockets of strength.

The most obvious among them right now is energy. The resilience from energy continues to impress us.

Today, we’re going to outline long ideas in a popular exploration & production name as well as an international bank stock.

Let’s get to it.

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From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

The market has become increasingly volatile as selling pressure spreads to the strongest stocks.

As bullish opportunities become more scarce, we’ve had to become more selective in terms of our long exposure.

This is because we’re trend followers. We want to be involved in uptrends, and as more and more uptrends come under pressure, we have fewer options. It’s as simple as that.

But when it comes to corporate insiders and activists, they actually become more active when stocks are under pressure. They love buying weakness.

So while there are fewer opportunities for trend followers like us, there is a growing list of opportunities for bargain-hunters like them. 

As such, insiders have been very active in recent weeks as stocks continue to slide. But they don’t only buy downtrends. There has been some activity in names showing impressive relative strength as well.

Let’s talk about a handful of leading stocks that insiders have shown interest in recently.

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