From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

The US Dollar Index $DXY is still dealing like an old-school ace on the mound.

I don’t care what stock market bulls or technology investors want to believe.

The buck has been lights out since July.

And just because it found itself in a bit of trouble last week doesn’t mean it can’t retire the side…

The index pulled back to a key retracement level at approximately 105 on Friday:

Unsurprisingly, the dollar bore down at this critical area as it coincides with a logical support zone. 

But, when we take a closer look… 

Sellers are digging in, seeing the spin on the ball, with runners in scoring position.

Check out last week’s breakdown:

The DXY undercut the January and March pivot highs from earlier this...

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:

We've adjusted a position in the Paid-to-Play portfolio today:

We had a resting GTC order filled at our profit target in the Paid-to-Play portfolio today:

From the Desk of Steve Strazza and Alfonso Depablos

Today’s largest insider transaction is another Form 4 filing by Bahram Akradi, founder and CEO of Life Time Group Holdings $LTH.

Akradi reported an LTH purchase worth $1,142,934. His last purchase was in August.

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:

Do the hard thing.

Make it hurt.

Then do it again.

If these were the first three lines people read in a book about profitable trading, odds are many wouldn’t make it past the first page.

It’s natural for humans to want to avoid pain, to choose the easy path, and to put in the least amount of work for the maximum amount of output. Business schools call this “efficiency.”

And you can find plenty of examples in the real world where this is good, solid advice.

Trading is not one of those places.

The hard truth is that 80-90% of people who attempt trading in any capacity, frequency, or timeframe eventually end up net losers.

We've adjusted a position in the Paid-to-Play portfolio today:

We had a resting GTC order filled  in the Paid-to-Play portfolio today:

We had a resting GTC order filled at our profit target in the Paid-to-Play portfolio today:

From the Desk of Steve Strazza and Alfonso Depablos

Today’s largest insider transaction is another Form 4 filing by the president and CEO and a director of Sarepta Therapeutics $SRPT.

Together, the two executives bought SRPT shares for a total of $5,9 million.

Everyone knows that it's a market of stocks.

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.

We discussed the lack of new 52-week lows already...