On Monday evening, my family ordered some takeout barbeque from the local joint here in town. Everything was delicious and I went to bed that night feeling just fine.
But I awoke around 1 a.m. to a twisting feeling in my stomach. Before long I was keeled over my bathroom toilet, puking my guts out. I wasn’t able to sleep at all, as I always felt I was moments away from hurling again.
The upchucking eventually subsided by sunrise, but I was left battling a ping-pong game of sweaty overheating and teeth-chattering cold shivers. All of this continued in between bouts of near-total unconsciousness as I could barely get myself out of bed for more than five or ten minutes at a time.
And when I was able to get on my feet, every muscle in my body ached and it took a herculean effort to put one foot in front of the other in a feeble attempt of movement that looked something like walking. It was as if I’d suddenly aged 40 years and needed a walker.
Food poisoning is a bitch. It was worse than I ever felt when I had Covid a year ago. Way worse.
Despite another CPI report and the latest job numbers reflecting easing inflationary pressure, markets are a mess!
Indecision and uncertainty are running high. Investors simply aren't able to get a read on the economy and the Fed's next step.
I don’t blame them.
If you’re focusing on the Fed comments du jour or lagging economic data that will likely be revised in the future, confusion and pain are the higher probability outcomes.
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.
Everyone is talking about an imminent economic downturn and the next stock market crash.
You hear it on the news and in the streets – talk of the banking crisis, the Fed, inflation, and China pervades the narrative. Even my doctor assured me the world is headed for dark times during a routine appointment earlier this week.
Bearish sentiment is obviously alive and well.
But, as a chartist, I prefer to visualize these rumblings...
It's been broad based appreciation in stock prices since that October morning.
Every US Sector is positive and many are up over 20%, just since October alone. The numbers are even better when you anchor back to when the new 52-week lows list peaked in June.
Historically, during bull markets you see more and more stocks going up and making new highs. In bull markets you see more sectors participating to the upside and more countries around the world breaking out.
This is exactly what's been happening for about 10 months now.
All these uptrends you're seeing in most stocks is not a new phenomenon.
Did you know Motorola has been around since long before the cellular phone?
In the late 90's and early 2000's, Motorola was one of the go-to cell phone manufacturers. I owned several, personally. To this day, I still maintain that I've never had a clearer signal with zero audio delay than I did with my Motorola StarTac phone circa 2001.
This all came up this morning when internally, while discussing the setup in the $MSI stock, we were all kind of surprised that Motorola, based in Chicago, is a one-hundred year old company! Wow.
Clearly, this is a company that has gone through many pivots to lead new technology development.
Of more immediate concern to us options traders is we've got two potential catalysts that can drive some quick gains for us.
Dividend Aristocrats are easily some of the most desirable investments on Wall Street. These are the names that have increased dividends for at least 25 years, providing steadily increasing income to long-term-minded shareholders.
As you can imagine, the companies making up this prestigious list are some of the most recognizable brands in the world. Coca-Cola, Walmart, and Johnson & Johnson are just a few of the household names making the cut.
Here at All Star Charts, we like to stay ahead of the curve. That's why we're turning our attention to the future aristocrats. In an effort to seek out the next generation of the cream-of-the-crop dividend plays, we're curating a list of stocks that have raised their payouts every year for five to nine years.
We call them the Young Aristocrats, and the idea is that these are "stocks that pay you to make money." Imagine if years of consistent dividend growth and high momentum and relative strength had a baby, leaving you with the best of the emerging dividend giants that are outperforming the averages.
Trendless price action remains the way right now for currency markets.
Yes, some of our bearish dollar trades have triggered and are trending. But most have not.
It doesn’t mean they won’t, of course. But it would be irresponsible not to consider potential outcomes that conflict with my bearish USD thesis…
If the dollar rips, what USD dollar pair would I use to express a bullish outlook?
The answer: the South African rand.
Check out the weekly chart of the USD/ZAR pair:
The dollar has been in a strong uptrend versus the rand for more than a decade. It’s been one base breakout after another, leading to the USD/ZAR challenging its all-time highs last month.
I'm a big fan of Phil's work. He's the Chief Market Strategist at Blue Line Futures and a market veteran with more than 20 years of experience trading futures and forex.
Today, Phil shares with us his technical perspective on precious metals and discusses key fundamental drivers at play right now.
