So it seems a strong US Dollar has been bad for global stock market ETFs due to local currencies exposure. This has damaged the bullish trends in otherwise strong economies and the team here at All Star Charts has been looking to identify the global ETFs that are holding up best and likely to lead when currency headwinds abate.

A favorite to lead the charge is the iShares Emerging Markets ETF -- $EEM. Tom Bruni likes the bull thesis here, but I'm not so sure it'll be that easy. Have no fear, I've got the perfect way to play our contradicting opinions with options.

I was confused too. But no, $DQ is not America's favorite destination for shakes, malts, and blizzards. But it is sexy in it's own way -- it's an energy company named Daqo New Energy in one of the hottest sectors we think will be leading stocks higher this year -- Solar Energy. According to wikipedia, $DQ is a Chinese company "engaged in the manufacture of monocrystalline silicon, polysilicon, and silicon wafers, primarily for use in solar photovoltaic systems." OK, sounds cool? It really doesn't matter to us, we're just following price, and we're going to trade it with options in a defined risk spread.

It might sound like we're beating a dead horse here, but the Russell 2000 printed another new all-time high yesterday (I know, it ended up being a red day, but that volume tho...) and there's just no way I can view this with any bearish context. Sure, perhaps it's extended and due for a rest (or gasp, a pullback) but it's simply irresponsible to be spouting actively bearish broader market calls in this environment right now.

As such, the team at All Star Charts keeps digging into the sectors that are looking like candidates to lead the next leg of stock market gains higher. Today, we've got our eye on the Biotech sector. 

The team here at All Star Charts is very bullish on the Oil & Gas Exploration & Production sector as discussed here (premium). Before we get into how we're going to play it, here's a little background to give color for our optimism for the opportunity we see, from our kid off the bench Tom Bruni:

Excuse the pun, it was too easy.

Everybody loves a deal. And that couldn't be more obvious after looking at a monthly chart of Costco $COST going back to the financial crisis that bottomed out in 2009. Shoppers clearly have been filling Costco parking lots and their carts, as the monthly chart has been a beautiful uptrend with very little volatility.

In JC's All Star Charts May Monthly Conference call for subscribers, there was a theme that he consistently revisited: Bonds are going lower.

There's no need to over-complicate this stuff. We could waste time arguing about what increasing interest rates means for the stock market, or yield's implications on policy decisions in Washington, the effect to be felt in the housing market, or how retirees savings may or may not be effected. That might fill airtime on SHOUT!TV, but all we care about here is positioning ourselves to make money. Leave the intellectual debates to the talkers.

We're the doers, and we want to position ourselves for further downside in bonds.

...then you simply have to get long The Granddaddy Oracle $ORCL here.

It appears Oracle has successfully digested the hit the stock took after it's most recent earnings report, and the stock is hanging just above the highs it set back in the year 2000! I could be wrong, of course, but I just don't see $ORCL holding around these levels for too much longer. There's just no way it recoups 2000 levels and then just stops here.

Earlier this week, JC pointed out that the software sector broke out to new all-time highs. I don't mean to keep harping on this, as you've no doubt read JC making this point over and over, but this sector making highs is simply not something we are likely to see if the overall market is pointing to a bear market.

The third largest component in the software index is Service Now, ticker $NOW. And we see an interesting opportunity developing.

In a recent report to Allstarcharts Premium subscribers, J.C. laid out a case why he's bullish on the Industrials sector and why that's important to the overall market. Not ever one to mince words: "we want to be buying right here right now and very aggressively. The bet is that Industrials are now heading higher and leading the market to new all-time highs." That sounds pretty convincing to me!

Just because a stock or an index is choppy and moving sideways doesn’t mean we can’t participate in some profits. There’s opportunity in every situation, especially with options.

Until proven otherwise, it is irresponsible to be positioning for a bear market right now. The talking heads and twitterverse all seem to be rooting for -- cheering for, even -- the S&P 500 to break it's 200-day moving average and crash further from there.

It's ok to root for any scenario you'd like, but it's simply unprofitable to act on opinions (yours or others) until there is a basis of fact to back you up. And the only facts we focus on here are those presented and derived by price and volume.

The weight of the evidence still points to higher prices in equities over the intermediate term, and as such we're hunting for bullish trades. Today's hunt yielded a developing opportunity in Caterpillar $CAT.

It's no secret that JC and I are extremely bullish on stocks. Just like you'd like to see in a bullish environment, we're being led higher by tech stocks. And there's no better barometer of health in the tech sector than seeing old bellweather Microsoft still hanging around new all-time highs and cruising comfortably above it's 200 day moving average.