In the 16 months since we launched the All Star Charts Paid-to-Play options service, subscribers have enjoyed positive risk-adjusted returns with far less volatility and smaller drawdowns than a simple investment in the S&P 500. They've also learned how to execute our strategies to produce incredible outperformance versus comparable ETF benchmarks that seek to sell options premium.
But one thing we can all agree on is that we wish it could be simpler.
In an effort to simplify your trading lives, we'll begin presenting our daily trades and open positions in an easier format!
Instead of receiving numerous emails throughout the day alerting you to actions in the portfolio and producing repetitive videos that few of you are watching (we have the viewership data!), we're going to send you ONE DAILY DIGEST that packs far more punch.
The market is speaking. It wants higher prices. The year-end, seasonality-driven rally may be taking hold. Or it may be something else? It doesn't really matter. We only follow price, and right now prices in certain stocks are pointing us to start taking some directional bets.
Today's trade is in an industry-disrupting name that has already had an impressive move over the past week that we feel is only the beginning of a much larger drive.
Check out this chart of everyone's favorite ride-hailing service Uber Technologies $UBER:
The Nasdaq100 index just went out at the highest levels in history relative to the much broader Russell3000 Index.
Technology represents about 50% of the Nasdaq100, with Apple's weighting coming in at 11% of the index and Microsoft currently at just over 10%.
But the Nasdaq100 is a good representation of these mega-cap names, because Amazon, Google, Meta and Tesla all carry huge weightings. Remember, none of these stocks are in the Tech Index.
So the Nasdaq100 broadens it out to what most people consider "Tech".
Here's the QQQ hitting new all-time highs relative to Russell3000:
Sometimes investors forget that there are 500+ stocks in the S&P500, 30 stocks in the DJ Industrial Avg and approximately 3000 stocks in the Russell3000.
This is all free and public information.
But still, investors forget, especially during times when it's most important to remember.
That's just human nature.
We take things for granted until we need them the most.
This quarter has been a prime example.
You see, while the S&P500 and other indexes were making new lows last month, the list of stocks making new lows had already peaked in early October.
From the Desk of Steve Strazza @sstrazza and Alfonso Depablos @Alfcharts
This is one of our favorite bottom-up scans: Follow the Flow.
In this note, we simply create a universe of stocks that experienced the most unusual options activity — either bullish or bearish, but not both.
We utilize options experts, both internally and through our partnership with The TradeXchange. Then, we dig through the level 2 details and do all the work upfront for our clients.
Our goal is to isolate only those options market splashes that represent levered and high-conviction, directional bets.
We've had some great trades come out of this small-cap-focused column since we launched it back in 2020 and started rotating it with our flagship bottom-up scan, Under the Hood.
For the first year or so, we focused only on Russell 2000 stocks with a market cap between $1 and $2B.
That was fun, but we wanted to branch out a bit and allow some new stocks to find their way onto our list.
We expanded our universe to include some mid-caps.
To make the cut for our Minor Leaguers list now, a company must have a market cap between $1 and $4B.
Crude oil is relinquishing its leadership role. Gold and silver are catching a bid. And copper is digging in at former support.
But it’s not only base and precious metals bouncing off critical levels…
Check out our Equal-weight Commodity Index refusing to roll over:
Our commodity index, comprised of an equally weighted basket of 33 commodities, is finding support at a shelf of former highs. This is the principle of polarity at its finest – former resistance turning into support.