We got some nice feedback on our top-down scan from last weekend so I think we’ll make it a regular thing.
This is a clear and simple leadership scan, which is why I like it so much.
We are drilling down to a trade idea following the traditional top down approach. It doesn’t get any better than that.
We start with the best sectors, then drill into the subgroups. We pick one, and then take a look at the top stocks in it.
This week, Materials is the big standout—jumping two spots in our sector rankings. It’s no surprise. Commodities are on a tear and participation is expanding. This means we should expect more materials stocks to start working. And we’re already seeing it.
Upon digging deeper, we found Metals & Mining stocks have been doing a lot of the heavy lifting for the sector....
International equities keep grinding higher with broadening participation.
And then we have the US indexes, which have been sideways, in high and tight fashion, since mid-May.
That changed this week…
The bulls got what they needed as a long list of these coils resolved higher.
We’ve been particularly interested in speculative growth, and ARKK is a great example of this bull flag theme, so let’s go there:
This is the same pattern we are seeing all over right now. A big time advance off the April lows into a 3-4 week continuation pattern.
And if there’s one thing we know about continuation patterns it is that their resolution should mark the continuance of the preceding price trend. Well, that...
Two weeks ago, I wrote about the breakout that was brewing in silver.
And it wasn’t just about the price action in gold.
There were finally other signals emerging and suggesting higher prices for the precious metal. We just needed to see if those trends had legs.
The silver/gold ratio is everything when it comes to risk appetite. It’s the oldest intermarket indicator in the world of commodities. Here’s what I said about it:
“If I end up being right about silver, we’re going to see the silver/gold ratio fail this breakdown and scoop higher”.
The writing was already on the wall for an epic bear trap, and this week it fired.
The silver/gold ratio just had one of its best weeks in history and failed this topping pattern with authority.
Our International Hall of Famers list is composed of the 100 largest US-listed international stocks, or ADRs.
We've also sprinkled in some of the largest ADRs from countries that did not make the market cap cut.
These stocks range from some well-known mega-cap multinationals such as Toyota Motor and Royal Dutch Shell to some large-cap global disruptors such as Sea Ltd and Shopify.
It's got all the big names and more–but only those that are based outside the US. You can find all the largest US stocks on our original Hall of Famers list.
The beauty of these scans is really in their simplicity.
We take the largest names each week and then apply technical filters in a way that the strongest stocks with the most momentum rise to the top.
Based on the market environment, we can also flip the scan on its head and filter for weakness.
Let's dive in and take a look at some of the most important...
Back in October, I put on a bullish position in Cameco ($CCJ). It was a diagonal call calendar spread: I bought January 2026 $80 calls and sold December 2024 $65 calls against them, paying a net debit of $3.50.
The idea was pretty straightforward: I wanted to own the long-dated $80 calls, but I wanted them cheaper—so I financed them by selling front-month calls.
Had I done nothing after that—just sat on my hands—the short December calls would’ve expired worthless, and I’d still be holding the January 2026s. I’d be down about $1.25 on the trade today. Not ideal, but manageable.
But I didn’t do nothing.
As CCJ started to slide in November, I began actively managing the position. I rolled the short calls five separate times, each time pushing them out to a later month and collecting a bit more premium. Each roll chipped away at my initial cost basis:
By April 16, I had reduced my downside risk so much that the entire campaign had flipped into a 77-centnet credit!. If CCJ continued to go nowhere or down, all my options would eventually expire worthless and I’d actually walk away a small winner...
Today's trade is in a biotech stock. And the word "biotech" should cue thoughts of "risky" and "volatile."
And this trade is no exception. So I'm going to get creative, utilizing a spread to lower my cost of participation, define my risk, and give me two paths to profitability.
We love our bottoms-up scans here at All Star Charts. We tend to get really creative when making new universes as we want to be sure they will deliver us the best opportunities the market has to offer.
However, when it comes to this one, it couldn't be any simpler!
With the goal of finding more bullish setups, we have decided to expand one of our favorite scans and broaden our regular coverage of the largest US stocks.
Welcome to TheJunior Hall of Famers.
This scan is composed of the next 150 largest stocks by market cap, those that come after the top 150 and are thus covered by the Hall of Famers universe. Many of these names will someday graduate and join our original Hall Of Famers list. The idea here is to catch these big trends as early on as possible.
There is no need to overcomplicate things. Market cap is a quality filter at the end of the day. It only grows if price is rising. That's good enough for us.