This is the video recording of our March 4th Monthly Charts Live Strategy Session

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza.

Welcome back to Under the Hood, where we'll cover all the action for the week ended March 1, 2024. This report is published bi-weekly, in rotation 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...

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

You can’t keep the gold bugs down.

They’re a hearty bunch full of true grit, choosing to focus on the silver lining while persevering through countless downturns.

Gold, on the other hand, has been an easy target…

This morning, my Head Technical Analyst Steve Strazza joined me on The Flow Show to put our heads together on a new trade:

Strazza loves the Energy sector here, and of all the charts he likes, I liked this one in Valero Energy $VLO the best:

Best of all, options premiums are near the lowest levels of the year for $VLO:

This isn't entirely surprising. The stock has been consolidating just below all-time highs since early 2022. And the consolidation has been continually tightening.

Sideways markets may not stop you out of your positions, but they are likely to wear you out. And when traders are exiting their positions giving up on the thought of any directional movement, options premiums tend to decline because few participants feel the need to protect their positions or aggressively bet on accelerating...

Last week was Crypto Week here at All Star Charts.

And I think the market got the memo.

Bitcoin just hit $65,000 for the first time in over two years.

Not sure if you got the memo, but this is still a Bull Market in stocks.

That hasn't changed.

Just to be clear.

And this, I think, is where defining who you are and your time horizon is really important.

This is the weekly post that aggregates all the charts we put together throughout the week and organizes them all into one, easy to flip through deck.

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

US Treasuries are taking a back seat to risk assets.

Bond market volatility is declining. Credit spreads are tightening. And Emerging Market high-yield bonds ($EMHY) are breaking out. 

Meanwhile, stocks are posting new all-time highs.

So, how high will interest rates climb over the near term?

My gut tells me not far — at least not in the coming weeks or months…

Check out the US benchmark rate finding resistance at approximately 4.33:

Last month’s high marks a logical ceiling for the US benchmark rate. 

Those former highs coincide with a key retracement level based on the run-up into the October 2023 peak. Plus, the 10-year yield paused at the same level for almost a month during last year's rally. That’s not a coincidence.

If the US 10-year breaks above 4.33, volatility will hit...

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

What happened to those everyday commodity contracts the average investor follows?

I’m talking about crude oil, gold, and copper.

These days, it’s all about cattle futures, orange juice, or cocoa hitting an all-time high. 

I’m sure everyone down at the NYMEX or the folks over at the CBOT in Chicago are having a ball. But what about the stock traders trying to get a piece of the action?

Sure, the energy trade is starting to work again. But gold has been a range-bound mess since the summer of 2020. And gold mining stocks have been an absolute dumpster fire.

It just doesn’t make sense amid a commodity bull run…

No, the absence of gold and copper...

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

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 stocks from around the world.

Here's this week's list:

...

What a month for investors!

My understanding is that due to higher inflation, February now has 29 days.

And so here we are: March 1st.

You know what that means?

New Monthly Charts are now available, and we'll be going over it all together this Monday March 4th @ 6PM ET.

Premium Members can register for that here.

In the meantime, check out the monthly candlesticks for Crude Oil Futures. Look at this massive base above support:

One thing we've learned from well over 100 years of Tradfi, is that during bull markets the laggards catch up to the leaders.

We see the opposite during bear markets, where the remaining leaders end up catching down to the culprits that are already leading the way lower.

You see, with Bitcoin and Ethereum getting all the headlines with their new highs this month, Solana had been the largest crypto currency that was missing in action.

And well here you have it, Solana now joining the party, and being added to the new 52-week high list: