Both Bitcoin and Ethereum have surpassed psychological levels of $50,000 and $3,000, respectively, following impressive rallies. Now, the risk versus reward scenario tilts towards the speculative end, as indicated by our breadth metrics, which highlight increasing activity within the altcoin space. Simultaneously, equity markets confront a challenging seasonal period amidst a backdrop of a strong dollar.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza.

Welcome back to Under the Hood, where we'll cover all the action for the week ended February 16, 2024. This report is published bi-weekly, in rotation with The Minor Leaguers.

What we do here is analyze the most popular stocks during the week and find opportunities to either join in and ride these momentum names higher, or fade the crowd and bet against them.

We use a variety of sources to generate the list of most popular names.

There are so many new data sources available that all we need to do is organize and curate them in a way that shows us exactly what we want: a list of stocks that are seeing an unusual increase in investor interest.

Click here for a behind-the-scenes look at our process.

Whether we’re measuring increasing interest based on large institutional purchases, unusual...

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

Gold’s beginning to attract some attention.

Not because it was shooting higher but because it kept trading while most respectable markets closed in observance of Presidents Day.

US stocks, grains, and other god-fearing commodities did not trade. So investors needed something to talk about other than Bitcoin. 

But as gold stole the headlines, no one was talking about platinum.

I like that platinum isn’t attracting too many eyeballs right now.

Here’s why…

In today's Daily Digest, we'll review:

1. New position in XLU.
2. No adjustments are needed today.
3. An exit in USO.
4. Current status of open campaigns.

Let's dig in!

From the Desk of Steve Strazza and Alfonso Depablos

The largest insider buy on today’s list comes in a Form 4 filing by Deerfield Asset Management’s James Flynn.

The investment firm reported a purchase of $37 million in Larimar Therapeutics $LRMR.

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

Gold’s beginning to attract some attention.

Not because it was shooting higher but because it kept trading while most respectable markets closed in observance of Presidents Day.

US stocks, grains, and other god-fearing commodities did not trade. So investors needed something to talk about other than Bitcoin. 

But as gold stole the headlines, no one was talking about platinum.

I like that platinum isn’t attracting too many eyeballs right now.

Here’s why…

Platinum futures are carving out a potential multi-year reversal pattern.

A series of former highs (the 2021, 2022, and 2023 peaks) mark a critical area of overhead supply and our breakout level at approximately 1,140.

But no one seems to care – probably because price is trading well below a reasonable risk level. 

Precious metals – not just gold and silver – are a range-bound mess at best. Yet glimmers of hope lie within platinum’s sideways chop.

Momentum (14-week RSI) is oscillating within a bullish regime. Price is also holding above the 2022 and 2023 lows.

I understand if those data points...

And we're back...

The new all-time highs in the S&P500 and Nasdaq100 earlier this month have been well documented.

What they don't tell you is that the equally-weighted versions of those market-cap weighted indexes are just now getting back to their late 2021 highs.

They never even broke out. In fact, they're finally just getting back to where they started.

We discussed this yesterday and what we're doing about it. I highly encourage you to watch yesterday's Emergency State of the Markets Livestream.

Here's the S&P500 Equally-weighted Index running into those former highs:

Good morning,

Welcome to your daily crypto clarity

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Ethereum seems to be following through on last week's momentum, with the ETHBTC ratio closing up +2.91% on Monday.

The Worldcoin token has seen an impressive, almost tripling as the platform surpassed 1 million daily users on its World App.

Ethereum staking deposits hit $85B, or 25% of the circulating supply.

FEATURED CHART

By all means, this is a Bitcoin-driven market, both in market returns and the prevailing narrative. Much of this has been centered around the recent Bitcoin spot ETFs, which for the first bring Bitcoin into the realm of traditional finance. But now, there are talks of a similar ETF for the second largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum. Financial services firm Bernstein said Ethereum is "probably the only other digital asset likely to get a spot ETF approval by the SEC", giving an approval a 50% chance by May and a 100% chance by year's end.

Given the market is a forward-looking...

These are the registration details for our LIVE Mid-month Conference Call for Premium Members of All Star Charts.

Our Live Call will be held on Friday February 23rd @ 3PM ET. As always, if you cannot make the call live, the video and slides will be archived and published here along with every other live call since 2015.

Here are the details for Friday afternoon:

Good morning,

Welcome to your daily crypto clarity

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Bitcoin's trend is unequivocally higher, with prices lingering around 50,000.

Last week saw the greatest net aggregate flow across all products, averaging just under half a billion dollars worth of inflows each day.

Microstrategy is up $4B on their Bitcoin bet.

FEATURED CHART

Open interest on Binance, the largest crypto derivatives marketplace, for both Bitcoin and Ethereum hit all time highs denominated in US dollars. As open interest rises, it points to growing attention from market participants in the derivatives market as new positions and contracts are continuously opened. As more positions are being opened, notable rises in open interest tends to proceed elevated volatility.

WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR

The seasonal trend for equity markets, with which crypto is closely correlated, is entering a tumultuous few weeks.

Nvidia, a key player...