The next new trade in our Paid-to-Play portfolio is:

When the worst stocks on the planet can't go down any more, that's usually good information.

We saw a lot of Small-cap Growth, Arkk Funds, Biotech, Chinese Internet and many of those other "Growthy" areas bottom out this Spring, and some of the last ones in June.

At the Mega-cap level, nothing caused more shareholder wealth destruction than Facebook, down 60% from its highs less than a year ago.

But look where prices stopped falling:

B. Riley Financial $RILY Director Randall Paulson reported another purchase of stock in the asset manager. His last purchase was in early May.

New Bull Market or just a Bear Market Rally?

That's the question I keep seeing.

And it's a fair one to ask.

Thanks to everyone who made it live last night for our Monthly Charts Strategy Session.

With a few breadth thrusts in recent weeks, and a little preview of what a weaker dollar could do to this market, we had plenty to talk about.

This question included: New Bull or Mean Reversion in a Bear?

I think the S&P500 tells an interesting story. You've got that massive top that formed throughout the past year, completing with a break of support this Spring.

And after further selling, the bounce has brought it back all the...

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

It doesn’t matter which way you slice it. The current market environment is a US dollar story.

Whether you’re talking about stocks or commodities, a rally in risk assets isn’t happening against a rising dollar.

It’s that simple.

You probably think I say the same thing every week. That’s because I do.

Of course, I throw in a well-defined trade setup here and there, but always within the context of the dollar and its impact on the major asset classes.

It’s that important. 

As the US Dollar Index rally is well underway, it’s interesting some individual USD crosses are finding resistance at historical levels of interest to both the currencies involved and risk assets!

Here’s a chart of the US dollar/Swedish krona cross zoomed out to the late 1990s: 

...

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

There's been no getting away from it.

These last few months have been rather lackluster if you're a crypto trader.

But that's perfectly fine.

The market should never be your dopamine fix. The ability to sit on the sidelines for long periods of time -- as difficult as it may be -- is often the differentiating factor separating mediocre traders from good ones.

Even in the face of this recent strength, there's still not a whole lot to discuss.

Cryptocurrencies have completed multi-year distribution patterns and are now retesting their breakdown levels from the underside.

There are most definitely mean-reversion trade opportunities out there. But they're low-conviction, counter-trend in nature, and messy.

Meanwhile, Ethereum and many other names have bounced nicely back into supply zones following their respective rallies.

If this tape has reflected anything, it's to be very aggressive in taking any profits. This is particularly true considering the countless whipsaws we've seen over the recent months.

So, for today's note, we wanted to be a little obnoxious in pointing out all this...

From the desk of Willie Delwiche.

The largest insider transaction on today's list is a Form 4 filing by Artal Group, which reported a purchase of roughly $40.4 million in Lexicon Pharmaceuticals $LXRX.

Artal Group now owns 83,835,950 LXRX shares, representing a roughly 47.5% ownership stake.

This is the video recording of our August 1st Monthly Charts Live Strategy Session

Certain stocks that have displayed strength over the past few months are making new highs. Here we have a long idea from one such outperformer.