Small-caps have been lagging for most of the year with that trend really accelerating in May, posing a major headwind for the broader market. One thing we were looking for before putting cash to work on the long side was a sign(s) of risk appetite for stocks, which we're seeing for the first time in a while. The question now is will it last and how does it affect our portfolios?

I've just updated the Monthly Chartbook, and although October was a rough month for the equity market, our opinions really haven't changed all that much from last month in terms of trend and risk management levels. With that being said, I want to use this post to highlight a few things that stuck out to me.

The last two months have not been kind to India's stock market, which is why we've been approaching it from a more neutral perspective for most of that time. Although big selloffs are never fun, the progression of this trend from its start to now has been pretty orderly.

We want to use this post to lay out that progression for educational purposes, as well as update our views on the market now.

For this entire month we've been discussing why a continued neutral approach toward equities was best and what we needed to see to get more aggressive on either the long or short side. The bull case has been building all month and after weeks of patiently waiting the market has finally given us the last piece we needed to get involved, a well-defined risk level.

When the weight of the evidence is pointing in one direction as it has been from early 2016 through mid-2018, it makes sense to be aggressive and take advantage of the clear trends while they're intact. However, when conditions change and the evidence becomes mixed, a more neutral approach is appropriate. So what does that look like from a practical sense?

This weekend we updated our chartbooks for Premium Members of Allstarcharts India, so I wanted to do a quick post outlining the changes to our universe of stocks since the end of the first quarter.

For our subscribers I've discussed what we need to be seeing in terms of market breadth before stepping in and trading stocks in India on the long side (here, here, here, and here) and today's action suggests we may be on our way to getting that opportunity in the next week or two.

In addition to the updates we've done about the broader market here, here, here, and here, a lot of you have been emailing us asking for more individual trade ideas. Given that we have to be a lot more selective in this environment, I'm going to use this post to outline a number of setups on the long side. The posts linked above explain why we have a long bias.

In July I looked at the trend and momentum readings of stock markets around the world and India's Sectors to identify the overall risk appetite for Equities. Today's update will perform the same exercise and compare the results to determine if breadth has improved, deteriorated, or stayed the same, as well as what the implications of these changes are.

Since we launched Allstarcharts India in January, we've seen great traction and have gotten a lot of feedback and suggestions from our readers and subscribers. In fact, many of the ideas we've added to the platform and are currently working on have started from conversations with you all.

Stocks, Commodities, Currencies, this long post will cover all of them as we discuss market conditions heading into year end.