In case you were wondering what we've been up to lately, well here you go.

I couldn't be more excited to announce the launch of our new app: Rangefinder.

We've never received so much demand and feedback from our audience in our 10+ year history here at Allstarcharts.

Don't wait another minute. Check it out for yourself:

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza.

Welcome to Under the Hood, where we'll cover all the action for the week ended August 5, 2022. This report is published bi-weekly and rotated with our Minor Leaguers scan.

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.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @sstrazza

This is one of our favorite bottom-up scans: Follow the Flow. In this note, we simply create a universe of stocks that experienced the most unusual options activity — either bullish or bearish, but not both.

We utilize options experts, both internally and through our partnership with The TradeXchange. Then, we dig through the level 2 details and do all the work upfront for our clients.

Our goal is to isolate only those options market splashes that represent levered and high-conviction, directional bets.

We also weed out hedging activity and ensure there are no offsetting trades that either neutralize or cap the risk on these unusual options trades.

What remains is a list of stocks that large financial institutions are putting big money behind.

And they’re doing so for one reason only: because they think the stock is about to move in their direction and make them a pretty penny.

Why do people use the 200 day moving average?

The real answer is because a lot of charting software packages the past few decades have set it as a default.

But you also hear guys like Paul Tudor Jones talk about how below a 200 day moving average, you get out. In other words, bad things happen below the 200 day.

For me, I have reasons for doing everything. And while I understand that there are more like 252 trading days in a year, not 200, I still believe that if a stock is below its 200 day simple moving average, it's probably not in an uptrend.

This is specifically for my personal definition of an intermediate-term timeframe. I like to look out weeks and months, not years, and certainly not hours or days.

200 days is a good number for me. And while it's not perfect (hint: nothing is) looking at the percentage of stocks above their 200 day has historically given us some great washout signals.

Have you noticed that the worst stocks on the planet stopped going down?

Chinese Internet bottomed in March. We're in August.

Cathie Wood's ARKK Fund is making new 3-month highs. Biotech is making new 4-month highs.

And now here comes Software!

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 Ian Culley @IanCulley  

Energy futures are beginning to crack under pressure.

Crude oil and gasoline are breaking down to their lowest levels since February. And heating oil isn’t far behind, as it’s challenging the lower bounds of a similar distribution pattern.

It appears that the bears have finally come for energy.

Since we already laid out our short idea for crude oil futures in a recent post, today, our focus is on the energy sector and the implications these breakdowns carry for energy-related stocks.

Here’s a chart of the Energy Sector ETF $XLE:

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:

If there is one intermarket relationship that every stock market investor should be following, it's got to be the Discretionary vs Staples ratio.

Consumer Discretionary stocks represent those areas where "Consumers" spend their "Discretionary" income. These include Autos, Retailers and Homebuilders, among other things.

Consumer Staples are the stuff consumers are going to buy and use regardless of how bad the economy might get. These are things like Laundry Detergent, Toothpaste, Beer, Chips and Soda.

When Discretionary stocks are outperforming Staples, that historically happens when stocks in general are doing well and the S&P500 is moving towards the upper right of the chart.

When stocks in general are under pressure, Staples tend to outperform, holding up better than most other stocks, especially Consumer Discretionaries.

It's probably the most important correlation for US Stock Market investors to be aware of.

Here is that chart today making new 3-month highs:

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

It’s been an action-packed year for the bond market. Rates have ripped, and bonds have been in free fall worldwide. But US yields stopped going up in June. 

More recently, many European benchmark rates have turned lower in dramatic fashion.

Now the question is whether US yields will roll over and follow to the downside.

Instead of getting caught up in the Fed chatter and all its implications, let’s focus on the key levels we’re using as a roadmap for treasury markets in the coming weeks and months.

Here’s a triple-pane chart of the US 30-, 10-, and five-year yields:

All three are carving out potential tops just beneath their respective 2018 highs. You can see the tops in the chart above.

And those critical 2018 highs are highlighted below:

There she goes!

Apple just went out at new all-time highs relative to the S&P500.

I think about it like this: Should we expect Tech stocks to underperform if the biggest one of them all is making new all-time relative highs?

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Welcome to the 2 to 100 Club.

As many of you know, something we've been working on internally is using 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.