The fine gentlemen at All Star Charts have released with latest Quarterly Playbook with themes to be aware of for the next three months, as well as trade ideas within sectors and individual stocks that are setting up. Head over here for a deep dive and great read.

One idea that stood out to me is an e-commerce company focused on pet supplies and medications. No.... not pets.com. LOL

Did you think it would be a historic stock market crash and a devastating global pandemic that would finally spark the rotation into emerging market stocks?

Yea me neither.

But here we are. 6 weeks of outperformance by Emerging Markets. Is this just another blip in the long-term downtrend for EM, particularly relative to US Equities?

We discussed this all in our NEW Q3 Playbook that was just published over the weekend.

Here's some perspective on the whole thing:

In early May we outlined the "Five Bull Market Barometers" we're watching to identify the beginning of a new bull market in stocks.

If you haven't read our initial post linked above, we'd encourage you to check it out so you understand what the rationale behind these five indicators is.

Now, let's see where these indicators ended the week.

This is our ASC Research Q3 Playbook.

The first section dives deep into the US Stock Market, and the second half covers International Stock Markets and FICC (Fixed Income, Commodities & Currencies).

You can skip right to the trade ideas here if you'd like, or give the full report a read!

As we head into the second half of the calendar year 2020, we start from scratch with our Q2 playbook and outline our thoughts on every asset class and our plan to profit in the quarter ahead.

Part 1 of this playbook will cover our macro view, touching on Equities, Commodities, Currencies, and Rates.

Part 2 of this playbook will delve deeper into Indian Equities, going sector by sector to identify the trends that matter.

Part 3 of this playbook will outline the individual stocks we want to be selling within the context of today's environment.

Part 4 of this playbook will outline the individual stocks we want to be buying within the context of today's environment.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Responses to this week's Mystery Chart were mixed. Some were betting on a breakout and buying while others wanted to fade this against the prior highs.

Others were waiting for more information, which is likely what we'd be doing. Thanks to everyone for participating.

But this chart is already packed with information. Let's dive in and talk about what it is.

As we head into the second half of the calendar year 2020, we start from scratch with our Q2 playbook and outline our thoughts on every asset class and our plan to profit in the quarter ahead.

Part 1 of this playbook will cover our macro view, touching on Equities, Commodities, Currencies, and Rates.

Part 2 of this playbook will delve deeper into Indian Equities, going sector by sector to identify the trends that matter.

Part 3 of this playbook will outline the individual stocks we want to be selling within the context of today's environment.

Part 4 of this playbook will outline the individual stocks we want to be buying within the context of today's environment.

As we head into the second half of the calendar year 2020, we start from scratch with our Q2 playbook and outline our thoughts on every asset class and our plan to profit in the quarter ahead.

Part 1 of this playbook will cover our macro view, touching on Equities, Commodities, Currencies, and Rates.

Part 2 of this playbook will delve deeper into Indian Equities, going sector by sector to identify the trends that matter.

Part 3 of this playbook will outline the individual stocks we want to be selling within the context of today's environment.

Part 4 of this playbook will outline the individual stocks we want to be buying within the context of today's environment.

Over the past month I've shared a few happy hour videos with some of my friends. You can find the video with Kimmy & Fahmy here, and my happy hour with Russo & Thrasher here.

Today I sit down with Venture Capitalist and active trader Howard Lindzon. We talked about his favorite stocks, what he's buying now and why. He's very open to discuss what's in his portfolio and is never shy about telling you what he thinks! We discuss $MELI $SFIX $SQ $BABA and $PAGS.

Conversations with Howard are always fun and I learn something every time. I hope you enjoy!

Quick update on our NKLA trade that we entered on Wednesday.

Eyes are on the Gold Market. All-time highs do a great job of getting everyone's attention, especially if it hasn't happened in a while. We're going on almost a decade since precious metals hit their peak and completely collapsed. As bad as Gold did, Silver really got destroyed. To put things in perspective, from the March 2020 lows, it will take a 328% rally in Silver just to get back to where it was in 2011. 

Today, let's focus on Gold. Are we going to make all-time highs? What is the all-time high? Do we look at weekly charts, monthly charts, daily charts? What actually is "The All-time High in Gold?".

First, let's keep in mind that this conversation would not even be necessary if we priced Gold in any other currency outside of the US Dollar. The Dollar strength, which is the denominator in this Gold conversation, has held it back, compared to what it's done priced in other denominations.

Look at this table showing all of them already making new highs:

So why should...

Yesterday's post on "Pulling The Weeds" from our portfolios got some great feedback, so thank you for that.

It also prompted a question about whether we should be adding Equity exposure as the indexes go higher or if we should be lightening up and trying to add back on weakness.

This is a very personal question that'll look different for everyone in practice. In this post, I want to provide a framework to use when thinking about this so you can identify what's most appropriate for your portfolio.

Remember, our job as Market Technicians is to ask the right questions and then allow the market to tell us the answer.

Believe it or not, there's a "tech" stock out there that is ripe for a short trade.

I know, I know.... shocking. I was surprised too.

And it's offering a nice bounce to sell into today, so let's get to it!

Our view remains that this is a new bull market in stocks, so we want to continue using any weakness towards 10,000 in the Nifty 50 to be adding exposure. With that said, just as we would pull the weeds out of our garden periodically to keep it healthy, we want to do the same with our portfolios.

And what better time to review your portfolio than at the end of the quarter?

In this post, we're going to show a few examples of stocks that remain out of favor...and their characteristics, so that you can identify any of the weeds in your portfolio and determine the best course of action for them.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

New Mystery Chart!

For those new to the exercise, we take a chart of interest and remove the x/y-axes and any other labels that would help identify it. The chart can be any security in any asset class on any timeframe on an absolute or relative basis. Maybe it’s a custom index or inverted, who knows!

We do all this to put aside the biases we have associated with this specific security/the market and come to a conclusion based solely on price.

You can guess what it is if you must, but the real value comes from sharing what you would do right now. Buy, Sell, or Do Nothing?