We've adjusted a position in the Paid-to-Play portfolio today:

It's the weekly currency edition of What the FICC?

It’s victory at sea across currency markets. But it's not stopping the US dollar from cutting through the chop...

Check it out!

The most underrated element of technical analysis has to be relative strength.

It's impossible to outperform your benchmark if you own assets that are underperforming.

Much of this work is grounded in the overarching notion that asset prices trend while volatility mean-reverts.

But humans behave as if it's the opposite.

Relative strength is merely denominating prices in a different asset than the native currency. Like price trends, relative strength also exhibits a tendency to trend, rather than mean-revert.

So, what does that mean?

The most significant insider transaction on today's Hot List is a Form 4 filing by Mark J. Erceg, the CFO of Newell Brands Inc $NWL.

Erceg reported a purchase of $999,833 in NWL.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

As I write this note, the only reason the market is up is because of $NVDA’s earnings.

We have GDP today, and that might change the tune. Hopefully, we continue to hold $SPY 400.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

When investing in the stock market, we always want to approach it as "a market of stocks."

Regardless of the environment, there are always stocks showing leadership and trending higher.

We may have to look harder to identify them depending on current market conditions. But there are always stocks that are going up.

The same can be said for weak stocks. Regardless of the environment, there are always stocks that are going down, too. 

We already have multiple scans focusing on stocks making all-time highs, such as Hall of Famers, Minor Leaguers, and the 2 to 100 Club.

We filter these universes for stocks that are exhibiting the best momentum and relative strength characteristics. 

Clearly, we spend a lot of time identifying and writing about leading stocks every week, via multiple reports.

Now, we're also highlighting lagging stocks on a recurring basis.

Welcome to the Short Report.

We...

From the Desk of Willie Delwiche

The NAAIM exposure index surpassed its August high last month and has been on either side of its April high over the past two weeks. With price action cooling, active investment managers may regret their eagerness to increase equity exposure.    

Why It Matters: Active managers led the recent shift from pessimism to optimism. While sentiment overall doesn’t look ready to boil over at this point, there are some hot spots that could benefit from cooling. The NAAIM data, which has outpaced the recovery in price, is in that category. The broader sentiment risk is that a period of sideways price action leads reluctant optimists to turn bearish again. At this stage in the cycle we need bulls to have a bull market and a return to pessimism would likely add to downward pressure on price. This is all the more likely if volatility remains undiminished (only 4 years in the past quarter century began with more 1% swings in the S&P 500 than we have experienced so far this year) and breadth meaningfully...

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

$SPY struggled all day to stay above the 400 level.

Now we have support at 396.76. If we break that, we can see 393.20.

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

Challenging conditions prevail across currency markets. 

It’s victory at sea! 

But that’s not stopping the dollar from cutting through the chop.

Does that mean it’ll go on a run, applying downside pressure on risk assets?

It’s tough to say.

Nevertheless, I have one chart for you that provides clarity as the dollar begins to make its move.

Check out the triple-pane chart of the US Dollar Index $DXY, our G-10 currency index, and our US dollar advance-decline line:

At the top, we have six pairs dominated by the euro. I’ve been vocal about the significance of the euro trading below 1.08. It’s basic math.

The EUR/USD comprises more than half of the DXY weighting. If it’s trading below 1.08, it’s messy with downside risks – the perfect environment for a dollar rally.

It’s not just the euro. The lower two panes...

Slippery markets make for rising options premiums. And one sector ETF is currently rising head and shoulders above the rest, offering some juicy premiums for us to sell into along with a wide risk management band for us to dance in.

So let's take advantage of the rising fear in this sector for an opportunistic trade and potentially quick profits.

Equities had their worst session of the year yesterday, as the S&P 500 retraced 2% during the day.

This comes as rates and the US dollar push higher, with the yield on the 10-year US Treasury note making fresh three-month highs.

Surprisingly, Bitcoin seems to be bucking this recent selling pressure, and the short-term correlations between stocks and Bitcoin have flipped negative for the first time since the FTX fiasco.

During that period, Bitcoin crashed to its cycle lows of 16,000, while equity markets were hammering out their most recent bottom.

We've adjusted a position in the Paid-to-Play portfolio today:

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

We've got FOMC minutes coming today, so let's be on our toes.

We still run the risk that the $SPX can head down to 3,950.

The largest insider transaction on today’s list is a Form 4 filing by Abdiel Capital Advisors.

Abdiel revealed a purchase of $4.5 million in Appian Corporation $APPN.

This is the video recording of the February 2023 Mid-month Conference Call.

The stage is set for an epic rally. The catalysts are in place.

Yet messy conditions persist as we await ignition and blast off.

Regardless, we can use the current environment to find the most buoyant and promising names.

Check it out...

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

With the dollar beginning to rise, gold and silver are coming under some selling pressure.

Nevertheless, these shiny rocks and their related mining stocks are hanging tough.

Instead of getting bent out of shape, I plan on using the recent bout of selling as an opportunity.

When markets come under pressure, it’s time to identify the most resilient names. 

Why? 

The strongest stocks will likely lead the next leg higher.

Some call it the “beachball” effect. These names tend to rip higher after sellers fail to submerge these stocks.

And I have a potential beachball of a gold mining stock I want to share with you today…

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

The $SPX was down more than 1.5% today, but it was a slow and steady grind lower.

I didn't trade much today, as I want to wait for the right setup.

When I last wrote to you, I was mired in a spiral of frustration as I grappled with understanding what went wrong with one of my strategies, what I missed that opened the door to a larger-than-expected loss, and how to move forward.

I’m happy to report that I’ve come out the other side.

The only way out is through.

That’s always been true for me, at least.

My wife can attest: up until yesterday, for a week I’d been walking around like a grumpy zombie, lost in repetitive thought, running mind simulations of hundreds of scenarios and if/then situations. 99% of the ideas were just simple regurgitations of things I tried and failed at in the past. It takes tremendous effort for me to remind myself: been there, done that.

I often waste significant time and energy rehashing old tricks I’ve employed in the past...

From the desk of Willie Delwiche.

Dynamic Portfolio Update: Gold miners (GDX) are breaking down on a relative basis so we are selling the exposure we have there in the Tactical Opportunity Portfolio and re-deploying that capital to areas that continue to show leadership.

Coming into this week, we’ve seen more new highs than new lows every day so far this year. Improved breadth helped fuel a higher high for the S&P 500. But with the index dropping back into its December range and new highs struggling to expand, the going, for now, is getting rough.

More Context: If our perspective just goes back to the late-September/early-October lows, the pattern on the S&P 500 is an encouraging higher low followed by a higher high accompanied by improving breadth. If we push back a little further, we still get breadth improvement but the S&P 500 pattern is more ambiguous. This month’s higher high could be an eerie inverse of last fall’s lower low (which quickly reversed), though we haven’t seen enough deterioration to this point to argue for more defensive tactical positioning. So long as the S&P 500 is above the June lows and below the August highs, acknowledging that sideways is a direction would not be inconsistent with the cyclical weight of the evidence that is in...