After some recent events over the weekend, I thought this would be as good of a time as any to remind everyone, once again, what Technical Analysis actually is....

Technical Analysis is the study of the behavior of the market, and therefore its participants, as opposed to the goods and the services in which a particular market deals. 

If you are recognizing that the trend for stocks is up, or maybe down, you are a Technician.

If you acknowledge, in any way, that the fed purchasing bonds impacts market prices, you are a Technician.

If you think volatility for stocks is low, or high, or that the Volatility Index $VIX is even a thing, you are analyzing a price derivative of the S&P500, and therefore, performing classic technical analysis.

Are you analyzing the behavior of the market and its participants, or the goods and services in which the market deals?

All of these above represent the former, and completely ignore the latter.

This week I had a fun chat with Manish Khatta over at Potomac Funds.

He asked me a fun question, that if I could only take one chart with me, what would it be?

What do you think I said?

Give it a watch and see for yourself:

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

As many of you know, we run A LOT of scans here at All Star Charts. In fact, I gave a presentation about them this past weekend at Chart Summit which you can rewatch here.

In this post, we're going to share a free trade idea from our Young Aristocrats list which is one of my absolute favorites of all the various bottoms-up scans I regularly run.

The rationale behind the list and corresponding monthly column is to catch strong stocks when they are still in the early stages of their dividend growth phase* in hopes that by doing so, we'll be buying some of the future Dividend Aristocrats...

From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley

Pockets of strength are once again emerging within the Commodity space.

We pointed out that both the CRB Index and the ASC EW33 Commodity Index were breaking above key resistance levels, pointing to a burgeoning upside move last week.

That upside move has now materialized!

We saw Industrial Metals -- including Copper, Steel, and Aluminum -- continue to follow-through as they grind higher. 

But this week’s biggest moves came from the Agricultural Commodities.

Let’s take a look at the recent strength in Ags using our custom ASC Equally-weighted Agriculture Index.

Believe it or not, it's not just Apple that makes desktop and laptop computers. I know, some of the newer generations of consumers may be shocked to learn this.

But way back in the Before Times, there was another computer maker that dominated the consumer space and invented novel ways to deliver them to consumers.

These days, they are a long way from the mass market dominance they once enjoyed, but investors in the stock are enjoying the fruits of a resurgence.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @IanCulley

We recently held April’s Monthly Conference Call, which our Premium Members can access and rewatch here.

In this post, we’ll summarize the call by highlighting 5 of the most important charts/topics we covered, along with commentary on each.

Let’s dive into it.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza and Grant Hawkridge @GrantHawkridge

The credit market is overflowing with information. 

We haven’t discussed it too much lately… but that doesn’t mean we aren’t paying close attention.

It would be foolish to overlook it. After all, they call Bond traders the “smart money” for a reason... Right?

We’ve recently discussed the theme and likely implications of how so many major stock market indexes - in both the US and abroad, are hitting very logical levels of overhead supply right now.

We think it’s no coincidence that all of this is occurring at the same time. And you’ll never guess what else…

We’re also seeing this very same behavior from some of the most important Bond Market ratios we track, as many are currently running into crucial inflection points.

I get asked a lot about why I don't think this is the beginning of a more severe correction.

We've been in the camp that the stock market is a hot mess, particularly in the U.S.

The indexes don't tell the whole story. OK, maybe the Nasdaq does a little...

And we went over all of that on last night's Live Video Conference Call.

But one chart that stands out to me that continues to suggest that this is more of a mess, rather than the beginning of a new crash, similar to last year or even Q4 2018.

It's the list of new lows.

Readers of All Star Charts research are no doubt familiar with the team's focus on relative strength. They are often comparing sectors against each other to uncover where hidden strength (or weakness) is hiding out. It's one thing to see how a stock or a sector is performing on absolute -- dollar and cents -- terms. But seeing how investors favor one sector versus another offers important insight into how the marketplace is perceiving risk and opportunity.

This analysis often forms the bedrock of our best discoveries.

From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley

Last week, we highlighted the USD testing a critical level against the Rand. This is a theme we've been seeing a lot in a variety of USD crosses recently and will discuss more in a post later this week.

We’re finally beginning to see some resolutions from these key levels, and they're revealing some very valuable information regarding the Dollar’s strength and the likely future direction for the $DXY Index itself.

In this post, we'll take a look at some examples of this theme by showcasing two forex pairs from Northern Europe that are currently breaking down at major inflection points against the USD.

But before diving in, let's set the stage a bit...

What are some of the major developments in G-10 pairs that are driving the US Dollar Index right now?

From the desk of Willie Delwiche.

From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley

Check out our latest Mystery Chart!

What we do here is take a chart that’s captured our attention, and remove the x and y-axes as well as any other labels that could help identify it.

This chart can be of any security, in any asset class, on any timeframe. Sometimes it’s an absolute price chart, other times it’s on a relative basis.

It might be a ratio, a custom index, or maybe the price is inverted. It could be all three!

The point is, when we aren’t able to recognize what’s in front of us, we put aside any biases we may have and scrutinize it objectively.

While you can try to guess the chart, the point is to make a decision…

So let us know what it is… Buy, Sell, or Do Nothing?