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.

This is such a treat for me. I get to go to India to talk about Technical Analysis with hundreds of really smart and eager to learn investors from all over the country. The biggest investor conference of the year starts on May 24th and I will be the first presentation of the event. The 7th annual Traders Carnival will be Asia's largest 3 day residential conference and I could not be more excited to participate.

I was lucky enough to visit India for the first time this January. I was blown away by the experience. We had about 200 people at an event at Bloomberg in Mumbai where I was the keynote speaker. The enthusiasm for Technical Analysis was amazing. I've never seen anything like it.

This is such a treat for me. I get to go to India to talk about Technical Analysis with hundreds of really smart and eager to learn investors from all over the country. The biggest investor conference of the year starts on May 24th and I will be the first presentation of the event. The 7th annual Traders Carnival will be Asia's largest 3 day residential conference and I could not be more excited to participate.

I was lucky enough to visit India for the first time this January. I was blown away by the experience. We had about 200 people at an event at Bloomberg in Mumbai where I was the keynote speaker. The enthusiasm for Technical Analysis was amazing. I've never seen anything like it.

Excuse the pun, it was too easy.

Everybody loves a deal. And that couldn't be more obvious after looking at a monthly chart of Costco $COST going back to the financial crisis that bottomed out in 2009. Shoppers clearly have been filling Costco parking lots and their carts, as the monthly chart has been a beautiful uptrend with very little volatility.

From the desk of Tom Bruni

I know you're probably tired of hearing this intro over and over again, but to start this post I want to reaffirm that at Allstarcharts we remain in the camp that stocks in the U.S. and globally are headed higher. Normally we focus on the sectors that are leading and making new all-time highs, however, the Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF $XOP is breaking out of a multi-year consolidation, signaling a new intermediate or long-term uptrend is beginning. As a result, we want to see which names in this space present the best reward/risk scenarios to take advantage of this thesis.

As Technicians we like to use the phrase “the bigger the base, the higher in space” when talking about breakouts from consolidations. Long periods of indecisive price action build a lot of potential energy that is then released once a stock breaks out of its range. This applies to any asset class on any timeframe because the psychology behind the pattern is exactly the same. We've written about bases before and they're common in our work, so click here if you're interested in learning more about this pattern.

As Technicians we like to use the phrase “the bigger the base, the higher in space” when talking about breakouts from consolidations. Long periods of indecisive price action build a lot of potential energy that is then released once a stock breaks out of its range. This applies to any asset class on any timeframe because the psychology behind the pattern is exactly the same. The weight of the evidence continues to suggest we want to be long equities, so I’ve taken a look through the Nifty Smallcap 250 and identified some of the best bases that are either breaking out or look poised to over the intermediate-term.

Last summer I wrote a pretty controversial post about the fact that everyone just assumed retailers were all going bankrupt and buying their stocks was foolish. My argument at the time was the exact opposite: I felt that to not be buying retail stocks was irresponsible. Here is that post titled, "Is This Really The End Of Retail As We Know It?". There many stocks at the time that presented us with well defined risk with rewards exponentially greater than any risk we were taking. That worked out very well for us.

At this point, we're still hearing this short retail narrative from stock market bears digging for anything they can think of to not admit they were very wrong. You see, that's the difference between people who make money and those who don't: the ability to change your mind. Remember, we're not here to be right, we're here to make money. Check your ego at the door or this market is going to rip your face off, as it has done to many retail bears.

One of my big arguments at the time was that this "Head & Shoulders Top" that everyone was pointing to wasn't...