Today on the Morning Show, JC was talking about bitcoin and how if you want to underperform the next leg higher in crypto, then own bitcoin. But if you really want to get some juice for the next crypto rally, the crypto mining stocks are how to participate!

In particular, both JC and Strazza like Riot Platforms $RIOT and Marathon Digital Holdings $MARA.

And specifically, we all like what could have been a recent "oops" or fakeout-breakdown that may have just shaken out all the weak hands, clearing a path for the next move to new cycle highs:

With $MARA flirting with breaking back above $16.00 per share today and implied volatility in the options near yearly lows, it feels like high time to catch the whipsaw back to highs.

Here's the Play:

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

The largest insider transaction on today’s list comes in a Form 4 filing from Steven J. McLaughlin of fintech-focused investment banking firm FT Partners.

McLaughlin revealed a purchase of $2.9 million in Expensify Inc $EXFY.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

It's been slim pickings with regard to stocks to trade, as the indices are in a holding pattern.

I'm sure they'll pick a direction soon.

As we know, August is typically a bumpy month, as is September.

Over the past few weeks we've been positioning ourselves for a Regime Change.

It's not so much the end of the world that's coming, as it is just healthy, normal sector rotation.

See: If not Tech, then What?

The most important chart that helps to explain what's going on is the S&P500 and Nasdaq100.

This is what being stuck below overhead supply looks like:

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

It was a tough day today, with a lot of stop-outs.

The indices are still stuck under their respective resistance zones.

I did come out ahead today by a few points, but it was a struggle.

$LLY saved trading today.

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

Gilbert Gottfried would like this trade.

The famous duck on our television screens that interrupts nearly every commercial break during football season is setting us to pay us back for all those annoying "Aflac!" utterances.

New all-time highs + low volatility sets up my favorite trade.

The largest insider transaction on today’s list comes in a Form 4 filing from the CEO and chief business and strategic operations officer of Cerevel Therapeutics Holdings $CERE.

The two executives reported purchases for a combined amount of $2.5 million.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

Moody’s hampered the mood of the market by downgrading a few of the banks' credit ratings.

Late in the day yesterday, $QQQ started to lift higher, but that's a no-go this morning.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza.

Welcome back to Under the Hood, where we'll cover all the action for the week ended August 4, 2023. This report is published bi-weekly and rotated 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 options activity, or...

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @sstrazza and Alfonso Depablos @Alfcharts

This is one of our favorite bottom-up scans: Follow the Flow.

In this note, we simply create a universe of stocks that experienced the most unusual options activity — either bullish or bearish, but not both.

We utilize options experts, both internally and through our partnership with The TradeXchange. Then, we dig through the level 2 details and do all the work upfront for our clients.

Our goal is to isolate only those options market splashes that represent levered and high-conviction, directional bets.

We also weed out hedging activity and ensure there are no offsetting trades that either neutralize or cap the risk on these unusual options trades.

What remains is a list of stocks that large financial institutions are putting big money behind.

And they’re doing so for one reason only: because they think...