Over the last quarter, we saw the market really struggle to pick a direction and get going. There were a lot of sideways moves and a lot of failed breakdowns. Currently, we've seen a resumption in the positive trend in most sectors, supported by market breadth.

Today we're taking a look at stocks from the Industrial Manufacturing sector. A handful of stocks are signifying what could be a good bullish going forward.

So let's see what we have today!

What if the outperformance we've seen from the United States stock market for so long is behind us?

Is your portfolio prepared for an environment where US stocks underperform the rest of the world?

What about your peers?

Do you think Financial Advisors across the country have positioned their clients to take advantage of outsized returns outside the United States?

I talk to a lot of people.

And my answer is no. A big fat obnoxious NO.

I don't think they're ready at all. And the pain could last a while.

By the time your average financial advisor gets off the golf course and notices how poorly positioned their clients are, it's usually much later in the cycle.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Welcome to our latest Minor Leaguers report.

We’ve already had some great trades come out of this small-cap-focused column since we launched it in 2020 and started rotating it with our flagship bottom-up scan, Under the Hood.

We recently decided to expand our universe to include some mid-caps…

For about a year now, we’ve focused only on Russell 2000 stocks with a market cap between $1 and $2B. That was fun, but it’s time we branch out a bit and allow some new stocks to find their way onto our list.

The way we’re doing this is simple…

From the desk of Steve Strazza @sstrazza

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 also weed out hedging activity and ensure there are no offsetting trades that either neutralize or cap the risk on these unusual options trades.

The market has been different over the past two weeks compared to the past two months. We're seeing a resumption in trend in several sectors and today Fertilizers are in focus.

Let's take a look at the trade for this week!

Some people think that Small-cap stocks underperformed last year.

But those are probably the ones left holding the bag in small-cap growth stocks.

You see, Small-cap Value stocks did great!

One for the record books, in fact.

This is our ASC Research Q1 2022 Playbook.

With the current market environment giving us many mixed messages, what better time to dive in and see what's happening underneath the surface?

• Stocks (International & U.S.)
• U.S. Sectors & Industries
• Market Breadth & Sentiment
• Commodities
• Currencies
• Intermarket Analysis
• Crypto Currencies
• New Trade Ideas
• Overall Strategy

Have you noticed the sense of entitlement from investors left holding the bag in these growth stocks?

Why is that our problem?

The rest of the planet doesn't care about your obsession with U.S. growth stocks. It's a much bigger world out there.

Oh, you fell for that narrative about a female rock star portfolio manager?

Too bad.

Oh, you decided to buy stocks that historically do poorly in rising rate environments, during a rising rate environment?

Too bad.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Our Hall of Famers list is composed of the 150 largest US-based stocks.

These stocks range from the mega-cap growth behemoths like Apple and Microsoft – with market caps in excess of $2T – to some of the new-age large-cap disruptors such as Moderna, Square, and Snap.

It has all the big names and more.

It doesn’t include ADRs or any stock not domiciled in the US. But don’t worry; we developed a separate universe for that which you can check out here.

The Hall of Famers is simple.

We take our list of 150 names and then apply our technical filters so the strongest stocks with the most momentum rise to the top.

Let’s dive right in and check out what these big boys are up to.

Here’s this week’s list:

One of the processes we absolutely love to follow is the Top/Down Analysis approach. In this process, we identify the larger trend and then zoom in and analyse the characteristics that stand out. We look at the asset classes, identify the strongest one, and then deep dive. Next, we look at sectors and identify the pockets of outperformance. Finally, we take a look at an actionable trade that suits our risk and reward parameters.

So let's see what we have this time around!

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're selling a $NVDA February 260/240 Bull Put spread for an approximately $4.75 credit. This means we’re in the regular February monthly expiration options and we’re short the 260 puts and long an equal amount of 240 puts to define our risk.

Check out our short video with the thought process behind these trades: