From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

New Mystery Chart!

For those new to the exercise, we take a chart of interest and remove the x/y-axes and any other labels that would help identify it. The chart can be any security in any asset class on any timeframe on an absolute or relative basis. Maybe it’s a custom index or inverted, who knows!

We do all this to put aside the biases we have associated with this specific security/the market and come to a conclusion based solely on price.

You can guess what it is if you must, but the real value comes from sharing what you would do right now. Buy, Sell, or Do Nothing?

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Just as we focus on the strongest markets and stocks to find opportunities during equity bull markets, we look to identify the weakest areas during bear markets. We just want to be in the strongest trends, regardless of their direction.

A few weeks ago we ran some statistics to highlight US stocks that were bucking the trend during the selloff, as those would be the areas to focus on if/when equities eventually regained their footing. While many names have fared well, we were a bit early as the market soon broke below our risk management levels, putting us in a position where we no longer want to be long stocks.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

New Mystery Chart!

For those new to the exercise, we take a chart of interest and remove the x/y-axes and any other labels that would help identify it. The chart can be any security in any asset class on any timeframe on an absolute or relative basis. Maybe it’s a custom index or inverted, who knows!

We do all this to put aside the biases we have associated with this specific security/the market and come to a conclusion based solely on price.

You can guess what it is if you must, but the real value comes from sharing what you would do right now. Buy, Sell, or Do Nothing?

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Thank you to everyone who responded to this week’s Mystery Chart.

We had a few buyers but most of you were selling at this logical level of interest or exercising patience to see how prices react here. A few responses also pointed out that this likely isn't the best time to enter on the long side but are anticipating an eventual breakout and would be buyers if and when we get it.

This is the same camp we'd fall into and we provide details why in the original Mystery Chart post. With that as our backdrop, let's look at the chart.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

We look at a variety of intermarket ratios that span just about every asset class in order to get a read on interest rates. Here is one that we don't discuss too often, but its relationship with the 10-Year Yield is obvious from looking at the chart below.

The S&P High Beta/S&P Low Volatility (SPHB/SPLV) ratio made significant lows around the same time and place as the 10-Year has several times over the past decade.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

New Mystery Chart!

For those new to the exercise, we take a chart of interest and remove the x/y-axes and any other labels that would help identify it. The chart can be any security in any asset class on any timeframe on an absolute or relative basis. Maybe it’s a custom index or inverted, who knows!

We do all this to put aside the biases we have associated with this specific security/the market and come to a conclusion based solely on price.

You can guess what it is if you must, but the real value comes from sharing what you would do right now. Buy, Sell, or Do Nothing?

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

In this report, we cover our Coronavirus Custom Index which is comprised of stocks we believe benefit from the coronavirus as well as a playbook to profit from these strong performers. 

To be clear, we didn’t find these stocks looking for coronavirus plays, we found these through our ordinary process of scanning for relative strength. We were simply looking for stocks that have been bucking the trend during the recent selloff. With that said, it was hard to ignore the results when we thought about what these companies do.

Here is our All Star Charts Coronavirus Custom Index making higher highs and higher lows recently while the broader market squanders near bear market territory.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Thanks to the handful of you for playing and entertaining this week’s Mystery Chart.

My apologies if this one was a bit of a layup, but that was the point. You were all buyers and so are we. Since we're all in agreement let’s dive right in and talk about why we’re bullish on this chart but more importantly, why it matters.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

If you're reading this it's probably because you've read our Table of the Week where we identified roughly 100 of the strongest stocks in the S&P 500. After digging into the charts of all these stocks, we came up with a handful of setups that we believe are currently offering the best reward/risk. Here they are, in no particular order.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

We want to be buying stocks that are in the strongest uptrends. One way we identify them is by looking at momentum which we use the 14-day RSI for. The strongest uptrends do not get oversold, or fall to RSI levels below 30. In fact, the strongest uptrends often stay above the 40-50 level and constantly print overbought readings above 70.

The S&P 500 registered an extreme oversold reading below 20 during the violent correction that began in late February. Here's a look.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

New Mystery Chart!

For those new to the exercise, we take a chart of interest and remove the x/y-axes and any other labels that would help identify it. The chart can be any security in any asset class on any timeframe on an absolute or relative basis. Maybe it’s a custom index or inverted, who knows!

We do all this to put aside the biases we have associated with this specific security/the market and come to a conclusion based solely on price.

You can guess what it is if you must, but the real value comes from sharing what you would do right now. Buy, Sell, or Do Nothing?

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Thank you to everyone who responded to this week’s mystery chart.

We had mostly "do nothing" responses again this week but buyers or potential buyers came in close second, many of which said they were waiting for confirmation of the momentum divergence and failed breakdown before taking action.

We only had a few sellers, which is interesting because that's the camp we'd fall into as long as prices remain below support.

One of the main reasons for our bearish bias towards this chart is the fact that it's been in a long-term downtrend and consolidations tend to resolve themselves in the direction of the underlying trend.