It’s very easy to get caught up in the day to day noise of the market, especially if you’re allowing toxic media content into your life. It’s virtually impossible for us to completely ignore it all, although I do try my best. So, at the very least, we want to be aware of what type of content we’re consuming and the conflicts of interest that are driving it. But another, and much easier way to avoid getting lost is simply by taking a step back. Monthly charts allow us to see the forest through the trees and is one of the most valuable parts of my entire process.

Even if you’re a day trader or short-term swing trader, I think it’s a huge advantage to understand the direction of the underlying trends. For me, who specifically looks out weeks and months, trying to make money this quarter, my monthly candlestick chart review is essential. I can’t begin to tell you how much this has helped me avoid blindly calling tops or bottom fishing in never ending downtrends. It most certainly helps us err in the direction of the underlying trends which, of course, increases our probabilities of success.

We'll start with the Nifty 50 which has been the strongest of the group as...

Technology stocks continue to lead the broader markets higher, and that still keeps us at All Star Charts bullish on stocks. How can you not be when technology has such an important weight on the indexes?

JC recently drew attention to the leadership in the Payments Processing space. It seems that nearly every chart of every major company in the sector looks insanely bullish. And it's hard to argue when you look at names like Visa ($V), Mastercard ($MA), Global Payments ($GPN), Paychex ($PAYX), and Square ($SQ).

But my attention is squarely focused on an opportunity in Paypal $PYPL and here's why...

When the biggest sector in the S&P500 representing 25% of the entire index makes an all-time daily, weekly and monthly closing high, it's probably worth paying attention. I also hear the lazy people talk about how Technology is being led by just a few names. This is simply not true as the Technology Equal-weight index is also breaking out to new highs. We're seeing a broad based rally in Tech, and it's not something new.

I've been pounding the table on Technology because it's been outperforming on an absolute basis, but also on a relative basis. Tech is not just going up, it's beating all the other sectors. Here is the Equally-weighted Tech Index Fund $RYT breaking out of a 4-month base to new all-time highs. New highs are a characteristic of uptrends, not downtrends:

This is not a rally being led by fewer and fewer names. This is a rally where...

Last week I had the honor of speaking at the 7th Annual Traders Carnival in Mumbai, India. Bloomberg Quint covered the event and I had the opportunity to sit down with Navneet SalujaDsouza to discuss my process and some of my thoughts on the NIFTY 50 Index. Here is the audio recording of that interview.

Remember that Bearish Island Reversal in the Nasdaq in March? I wrote a whole note about it pointing out that it was now going to be a problem. The fact that the Nasdaq broke out to new all-time highs, and then failed hard, was evidence of an overwhelming amount of supply for stocks relative to demand.

I mentioned at the time that it was most likely going to resolve through time, rather than through a severe downside correction in price. The reason was that this was just a brief 2-month breakout and not a massive top or reversal. I said that the sooner we can get through that 7000 level, the stronger the market we're in from an intermediate-term perspective. Not only was this a risk management tool, but also as a source of information: strength or weakness in this case.

Fast forward just 10 weeks later and we're now breaking out above key resistance once again.

It's very easy to get caught up in the day to day noise of the market, especially if you're allowing toxic media content into your life. It's virtually impossible for us to completely ignore it all, although I do try my best. So, at the very least, we want to be aware of what type of content we're consuming and the conflicts of interest that are driving it. But another, and much easier way to avoid getting lost is simply by taking a step back. Monthly charts allow us to see the forest through the trees and is one of the most valuable parts of my entire process.

Even if you're a day trader or short-term swing trader, I think it's a huge advantage to understand the direction of the underlying trends. For me, who specifically looks out weeks and months, trying to make money this quarter, my monthly candlestick chart review is essential. I can't begin to tell you how much this has helped me avoid blindly calling tops or bottom fishing in never ending downtrends. It most certainly helps us err in the direction of the underlying trends which, of course, increases our probabilities of success.

The $XLE Energy Sector ETF is currently scoring one of the highest implied volatilities relative to it's biggest ETF peers. Sure, it's warranted as price action has been a bit erratic of late. And we can argue about the politics and economics behind the moves and what they all mean. But I'll leave that to another guy who doesn't value his time. All I care about is putting myself in trades where an edge exits.

And when IV is priced high, these are often great opportunities to hunt for credit spreads. 

From the desk of Tom Bruni @BruniCharting

Although most market participants are fixated on the gyrating US equity markets or Italian bond yields, two trade setups have formed elsewhere in the currency markets.

In this week's India Chart of the Week I discuss why the equal-weighted Nifty Auto index is suggesting we want to be looking to the sector for opportunities on the long side, despite the overall lack of direction in the cap-weighted index over the last few months. To avoid being redundant I'll refer you to that post for the full explanation of this thesis and get right into the Auto stocks we want to be buying.

Click on chart to enlarge view.

Equal-weight indexes are one of the most valuable tools we use here at Allstarcharts. They provide a perspective on the overall strength or weakness of an index's components that's not otherwise seen in the cap-weighted version. The confirmation or divergence signals generated by comparing the two often acts as a leading indicator, letting us know whether the cap-weighted index's move is supported or if we should be on the lookout for a potential reversal.

Below we've created an equal-weight Nifty Auto index in blue, which is constructed by assigning the same weighting to each of its 15 components. We've plotted it against the cap-weighted Nifty Auto index in green.

Click on chart to enlarge view.

From the desk of Tom Bruni @BruniCharting

Every now and then I use mystery charts to source people's raw opinions and challenge my own thinking. Not knowing what a chart represents helps eliminate biases and any ideas we may already have in our heads. And so today I'm back, selfishly, looking for thoughts on the chart below.

Click on chart to enlarge view.

So it seems a strong US Dollar has been bad for global stock market ETFs due to local currencies exposure. This has damaged the bullish trends in otherwise strong economies and the team here at All Star Charts has been looking to identify the global ETFs that are holding up best and likely to lead when currency headwinds abate.

A favorite to lead the charge is the iShares Emerging Markets ETF -- $EEM. Tom Bruni likes the bull thesis here, but I'm not so sure it'll be that easy. Have no fear, I've got the perfect way to play our contradicting opinions with options.

From the desk of Tom Bruni @BruniCharting

The US Dollar Index is up roughly 7.5% since it's February lows, a move that has hit many of the global stock market ETFs we follow due to their local currency exposure. The Frontier Markets ETF $FM is among those hit hardest, down roughly 16% since late January. With that in mind, we like to focus on strength and there are three global ETFs that continue to hold up well and should lead if/when strength in the US Dollar subsides.

Click on chart to enlarge view.

I'm having a great time here in Mumbai at the 7th annual Traders Carnival. I had the opportunity to sit down with Navneet SalujaDsouza from Bloomberg Quint to discuss my process and approach to markets.

Here is the video in full:

Options are a leveraged instrument, and if you're not careful, it's easy to find yourself exposed to more risk than what you're comfortable with. A subscriber to All Star Options pinged me this week with some questions and I thought our discussion might be fruitful to everyone...

I'm having a great time here in Mumbai at the 7th annual Traders Carnival. I had the opportunity to sit down with Navneet SalujaDsouza from Bloomberg Quint to discuss my process and approach to markets.

Here is the video in full:

I was confused too. But no, $DQ is not America's favorite destination for shakes, malts, and blizzards. But it is sexy in it's own way -- it's an energy company named Daqo New Energy in one of the hottest sectors we think will be leading stocks higher this year -- Solar Energy. According to wikipedia, $DQ is a Chinese company "engaged in the manufacture of monocrystalline silicon, polysilicon, and silicon wafers, primarily for use in solar photovoltaic systems." OK, sounds cool? It really doesn't matter to us, we're just following price, and we're going to trade it with options in a defined risk spread.

Everyone always wants to talk about how high the stock they just bought is going, or how much money they're going to make on a new position. "JC I think Apple goes to a Trillion Dollar Market Cap!" or "JC Bitcoin is going to $100,000!". These are things I hear frequently, or at least some sort of variation of these comments.

This is perfectly normal behavior. We should not be afraid of it. But more importantly, I think we need to be aware of the implications of these feelings. The thing is, once we are already in a position, our emotions get involved. When our stress levels rise, we act emotionally, rather than logically. This is how we're hard-wired. It would be abnormal for us not to think this way. But again, the important thing is to be conscious of it and not let it dictate our actions.

Everyone always wants to talk about how high the stock they just bought is going, or how much money they're going to make on a new position. "JC I think Apple goes to a Trillion Dollar Market Cap!" or "JC Bitcoin is going to $100,000!". These are things I hear frequently, or at least some sort of variation of these comments.

This is perfectly normal behavior. We should not be afraid of it. But more importantly, I think we need to be aware of the implications of these feelings. The thing is, once we are already in a position, our emotions get involved. When our stress levels rise, we act emotionally, rather than logically. This is how we're hard-wired. It would be abnormal for us not to think this way. But again, the important thing is to be conscious of it and not let it dictate our actions.

It might sound like we're beating a dead horse here, but the Russell 2000 printed another new all-time high yesterday (I know, it ended up being a red day, but that volume tho...) and there's just no way I can view this with any bearish context. Sure, perhaps it's extended and due for a rest (or gasp, a pullback) but it's simply irresponsible to be spouting actively bearish broader market calls in this environment right now.

As such, the team at All Star Charts keeps digging into the sectors that are looking like candidates to lead the next leg of stock market gains higher. Today, we've got our eye on the Biotech sector. 

The Financial Services, Energy, IT, and Consumer Goods sectors remain the leaders, while smaller sectors like Pharma and Media continue to lag the broader market. Our chart of the week is sticking with that theme by looking at the Nifty Metals and Nifty Infrastructure indexes, which collectively represent roughly 9% of the Nifty 500. Although these sectors have been consolidating near all-time highs for most of this year, recent developments suggest they may be vulnerable to further downside.

From the desk of Tom Bruni @BruniCharting

If you've been reading our content over these last few weeks, you've likely noticed we've been performing a lot of deep dives on the sectors we want to be involved in on the long side like Solar, Energy (premium), Retail, and Software (premium). Healthcare in general has been a laggard and the Medical Device space continues to lead, but now we're seeing Biotechnology start to break out as well. In this post we're focused on the equal-weighted Biotech ETF $XBI, as the cap-weighted $IBB is lagging significantly and remains weak. This out-performance by the equal-weight sector ETF signifies a broad-based rally is underway, so we're looking for the best names in the sector to take advantage of this theme.

As the daily chart below shows, the XBI has tried several...

The team here at All Star Charts is very bullish on the Oil & Gas Exploration & Production sector as discussed here (premium). Before we get into how we're going to play it, here's a little background to give color for our optimism for the opportunity we see, from our kid off the bench Tom Bruni:

After a long period of indecision and relative underperformance, the Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF $XOP is finally breaking out to the upside and confirming a new long-term uptrend. Many stocks within the sector have spent years making no progress and are now finally breaking out to the upside. Normally we focus on sectors showing relative strength and hitting new all-time highs like software (premium), but every sector has its day eventually (see retail) and it looks like these energy names are finally ready to participate...

From the desk of Tom Bruni @BruniCharting

It's been a rainy week here in New York, however, the Solar sector ETF $TAN was a bright spot as it broke out of a 2.5-year base. As a result, we've done a deep dive into the sector to identify several names that look to be offering asymmetric reward/risk opportunities on the long side.