This week on Happy Hour w/ Traders, I chat with 2 of the best in the business: Brian Shannon and Joe Fahmy. We've all been friends for a decade and I still learn from both of them every single time we talk.

The way I see it, I'm having these conversations anyway, so may as well hit record so you guys can learn from them the same way that I do.

Check it out!

Jeff Macke is the guy I turn to whenever I have questions about the Consumer. Anything retail, restaurants, internet sales, he's the one we want to listen to. Jeff and I have known each other for many years and are friends with a lot of the same people. Here's an old clip I found of him and I talking about Gold & Silver back in January 4, 2012.

In this episode we talk about the restaurant stocks, pharmacies, which areas he wants to avoid and which ones he wants to own. He says the pair trade of the decade could very well be: Long Shaquille O'neil (Papa Johns $PZZA) and Short Kanye West (The Gap $GPS). This was a really fun conversation. I picked up some good ideas and had a few laughs.

I hope you enjoy!

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

For the week ended Friday, July 10, 2020:

Every week we publish performance tables for a variety of different asset classes and categories along with commentary on each.

This week we're going to highlight our US Index and Sector ETF tables, and focus on the laggards as they are giving us the most important information for the current market environment. Let's dive into it.

No surprises here... The Nasdaq $QQQ outperformed aggressively once again last week, booking a +4.7% gain while Mid, Small, and Micro-Caps were all lower. The Nasdaq is the only US Index that is higher over the trailing month.

Here is a chart from our Q3 playbook which illustrates the strength from not only the Nasdaq 100 but also Technology $XLK and Semiconductors $SOXX. It's impossible to be bearish when all these charts are at all-time highs.

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I'm really enjoying these virtual Happy Hours I've been doing with my friends. You guys seem to enjoy them so I'm happy to keep recording these chats. I'm having the conversations anyway right?

Stay tuned, I have some fun videos coming up with Bart in San Diego and another one with Joe Fahmy & Brian Shannon.

You can catch up on Happy Hours w/ Traders here.

• Howard Lindzon
• Dan Russo & Andrew Thrasher
• Kim Sokoloff & Joe Fahmy

Today I want to share a video of a...

Did you think it would be a historic stock market crash and a devastating global pandemic that would finally spark the rotation into emerging market stocks?

Yea me neither.

But here we are. 6 weeks of outperformance by Emerging Markets. Is this just another blip in the long-term downtrend for EM, particularly relative to US Equities?

We discussed this all in our NEW Q3 Playbook that was just published over the weekend.

Here's some perspective on the whole thing:

This is our ASC Research Q3 Playbook.

The first section dives deep into the US Stock Market, and the second half covers International Stock Markets and FICC (Fixed Income, Commodities & Currencies).

You can skip right to the trade ideas here if you'd like, or give the full report a read!

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Responses to this week's Mystery Chart were mixed. Some were betting on a breakout and buying while others wanted to fade this against the prior highs.

Others were waiting for more information, which is likely what we'd be doing. Thanks to everyone for participating.

But this chart is already packed with information. Let's dive in and talk about what it is.

Over the past month I've shared a few happy hour videos with some of my friends. You can find the video with Kimmy & Fahmy here, and my happy hour with Russo & Thrasher here.

Today I sit down with Venture Capitalist and active trader Howard Lindzon. We talked about his favorite stocks, what he's buying now and why. He's very open to discuss what's in his portfolio and is never shy about telling you what he thinks! We discuss $MELI $SFIX $SQ $BABA and $PAGS.

Conversations with Howard are always fun and I learn something every time. I hope you enjoy!

Eyes are on the Gold Market. All-time highs do a great job of getting everyone's attention, especially if it hasn't happened in a while. We're going on almost a decade since precious metals hit their peak and completely collapsed. As bad as Gold did, Silver really got destroyed. To put things in perspective, from the March 2020 lows, it will take a 328% rally in Silver just to get back to where it was in 2011. 

Today, let's focus on Gold. Are we going to make all-time highs? What is the all-time high? Do we look at weekly charts, monthly charts, daily charts? What actually is "The All-time High in Gold?".

First, let's keep in mind that this conversation would not even be necessary if we priced Gold in any other currency outside of the US Dollar. The Dollar strength, which is the denominator in this Gold conversation, has held it back, compared to what it's done priced in other denominations.

Look at this table showing all of them already making new highs:

So why should...

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

New Mystery Chart!

For those new to the exercise, we take a chart of interest and remove the x/y-axes and any other labels that would help identify it. The chart can be any security in any asset class on any timeframe on an absolute or relative basis. Maybe it’s a custom index or inverted, who knows!

We do all this to put aside the biases we have associated with this specific security/the market and come to a conclusion based solely on price.

You can guess what it is if you must, but the real value comes from sharing what you would do right now. Buy, Sell, or Do Nothing?

In this episode of The Money Game, Phil wanted to talk about the importance of exercise. He compares the human mind and body to auto racing and how in order to succeed, the car must be in great condition. For Financial Advisors, Traders, Portfolio Managers and Analysts, we regularly go through very stressful times, and in other cases very boring times. In order to put ourselves in a position to excel, we need to have our minds right. The best way to make sure the mind is in top working order, is to make sure the body isn't being ignored. They work together.

Phil reiterates a lot of points that are probably familiar to a lot of us who focus on physical and mental health, which is fantastic. But for those of you looking for a spark, just to get the ball rolling, Phil offers some advice on easy ways to get started. He also discusses the Height-to-Waste Ratio and what we should be looking for. I thought that was really helpful too.

I encourage you to sign up for Phil Pearlman's FREE weekly newsletter: ...

Last month I shared a video of my Happy Hour with Traders Kimmy Sokoloff and Joe Fahmy. You guys sent in amazing feedback and I really enjoyed doing it. So today, I want to give you a peak at my conversation with Andrew Thrasher and Dan Russo. They both love drinking wine and we've always had that in common, so we discussed some of our favorites as well as our thoughts on the stock market and bond market.

It's cool to be able to sit back and relax with two of the smartest guys out there and hear what they have to say. I hope you enjoy!