Today we got new Monthly Candlesticks. We wrote a free post on the biggest theme from this month, but this post will go through a few more charts that stood out.

From the desk of Tom Bruni @BruniCharting

Finding things to short on an absolute basis has been tough since December, however, Shipping stocks appear to be presenting an attractive reward/risk for those looking to express a bearish thesis in the market.

From the desk of Tom Bruni @BruniCharting

As part of my preparation for my Chart Summit presentation on market breadth, I'm looking at a lot of charts this week. In this post I'll share a bunch of them to provide some perspective on where US markets currently sit from a participation perspective.

From the desk of Tom Bruni @BruniCharting

This week's Mystery Chart Reveal was focused on Japan's breakdown to new lows versus the S&P 500. This one chart is part of a much larger theme, so in this post we're going to discuss the best reward/risk pair trades present in this space.

From the desk of Tom Bruni @BruniCharting

The US Dollar Index is approaching its Q4 highs once again, however, the real story lies underneath the surface in three unrepresented currency pairs that are offering a solid reward/risk opportunity at current levels.

The latest Chart of the Week is actually 4 charts! Today we're looking at Emerging Markets and comparing them to the S&P500. When money managers are bullish and positioning themselves for higher stock prices, they tend to invest in more speculative, higher beta names. When PMs are positioning themselves for lower stock prices, EM gets killed, particularly relative to developed markets.

These 4 charts represent divergences between Emerging markets and the S&P500 over the past couple of decades. When the S&P500 is making lower lows but Emerging Markets are simultaneously making higher lows, it's been evidence of risk appetite for stocks and markets have continued to rally for years after the divergence.

The question: Is this time different?

These are the registration details for the monthly conference call held for Premium Members of All Star Charts. In this call we will discuss the global market environment and how to profit from it. As always, this will include Stocks, Interest Rates, Commodities and Currencies. The video of the call will be archived in the members section to re-watch any time and the PDF of the charts will be made available as well.

This month’s Conference Call will be held on Tuesday February 19th at 7PM ET. Here are the details for the call:

When it comes to buying stocks, I'm a bigger fan of buying things that are already working rather than getting cute and trying to be the first one in hoping others agree with me quickly. Rarely does bottom fishing work out in our favor. The probabilities are against us from the start.

One way to see if something is already "working" is to recognize how it is behaving compared to its peers. In the case of U.S. Stocks, how are specific groups doing compared to the rest of the market? I like to think of it like holding a basketball in a pool under water. You can feel the pressure, similar to overall selling pressure in stocks. Once you let go, the ball explodes out of the water and into the air. Stocks behave the same way once the overwhelming selling is complete. 

From the desk of Tom Bruni @BruniCharting

Today's chart of the week outlines a breakout in the Cybersecurity ETF HACK relative to the S&P 500. In this post we'll discuss which indiivudal names are offering the best reward/risk opportunity.

From the desk of Tom Bruni @BruniCharting

The iShares Real Estate ETF IYR is up more than 17% from its Christmas Eve lows and sitting just off all-time highs. Can this rally continue and if so, what are the names we want to be buying to take advantage of this theme?

We'll provide our perspective on those questions in this post.

You guys who know me already know that this is my favorite exercise of them all. We only do this 12 times a year. Let's just say that it takes you an hour, if you really want to take your time, that's 12 hours of your entire year. Think about the amount of time you spend each year performing other analysis. As far as I'm concerned, it's not even close. These 6 hours (for me it's 6) are easily the most valuable 6 hours I spend all year analyzing markets.

This process allows us to take a step back, which forces us to identify the direction of the primary trend. It's impossible not to, especially when you're seeing similar themes across Indexes, sectors and asset classes.

Here's what stands out from this month's review: