From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

First up is the $1.3B pet health & wellness services provider, Petco $WOOF:

We first covered Petco in June, after the retailer had its best 3-day rally in history.

With a 200% run-up in the month of May, the stock earned a few months of digestion, and that is exactly what's played out.

Last week, it rallied over 50% on the heels of earnings, sparking a new short squeeze.

With a 29% short...

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Welcome to The 2 to 100 Club.

In this scan, we look to identify the strongest growth stocks as they climb the market-cap ladder from small- to mid- to large- and, ultimately, to mega-cap status (over $200B).

Once they graduate from small-cap to mid-cap status (over $2B), they come on our radar. Likewise, when they surpass the roughly $30B mark, they roll off our list.

But the scan doesn't just end there.

We only want to look at the strongest growth industries in the market, as that is typically where these potential 50-baggers come from.

Some of the best performers in recent decades – stocks like Priceline, Amazon, Netflix, Salesforce, and myriad others – would have been on this list at some point during their journey to becoming the market behemoths they are today.

When you look at the stocks in our table, you'll notice we're only focused on Technology and Growth industry groups such as Software, Semiconductors, Online...

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Last week, we outlined a short squeeze in Phathom Pharmaceuticals $PHAT, which has been working for us.

It doesn't seem like the market is finished squeezing the short sellers out of their biotechnology positions.

Today, we're discussing yet another biotech stock that has a ridiculously high days-to-cover ratio and short interest.

More importantly, the risk couldn't be more well-defined.

So, we're stepping up to the plate and taking another swing at a short squeeze.

With fall approaching us, things are beginning to change.

The weather is perfect for golfing, the Kansas City Chiefs are back to dominating the NFL, and it's the best time of the year for Natural Gas futures.

In July, we outlined asymmetric risk/reward setups in Natural Gas futures and 4 natural gas stocks.

As we expected, it has taken some time for these setups to come to fruition. 

However, the cleanest fossil fuel has carved out a textbook reversal pattern and looks poised to blast off any day now.

Here's the average monthly performance for Natural Gas futures over the past 3 decades:

Natural Gas has a tendency to rally in the fall as September and October are the two best months of the year.

The longer-term structure is also shaping up quite nicely:

Historically, we've seen demand for methane step in at this level time and again.

But these bottoms have been messy...

So instead of getting chopped up in a range, we like the monthly MACD as a mechanism for timing our entry.

This long-term...

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Our Hall of Famers list is composed of the 150 largest US-based stocks.

These stocks range from the mega-cap growth behemoths like Apple and Microsoft – with market caps in excess of $2T – to some of the new-age large-cap disruptors such as Moderna, Square, and Snap.

It has all the big names and more.

It doesn’t include ADRs or any stock not domiciled in the US. But don’t worry; we developed a separate universe for that. Click here to check it out.

The Hall of Famers is simple.

We take our list of 150 names and then apply our technical filters so the strongest stocks with the most momentum rise to the top.

Let’s dive right in and check out what these big boys are up to.

Here’s this week’s list:

*Click table to enlarge view

We filter out any laggards that are down -5% or more relative to the S&P 500 over the trailing month.

Then, we sort the remaining names by their proximity to new 52-week highs.

This leaves us with only the strongest stocks. Let’s talk about some of...

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Precious metals stocks have been ripping since Gold futures resolved a multi-decade accumulation pattern earlier this year.

But most of these stocks don't have much short interest...

We love to trade stocks with high short interest as there is a built in catalyst of forced buyers when the stock makes an upside move.

Today, we're outlining a trade for a precious metals stock with an extremely high days-to-cover ratio and short interest.

First, check out this long-term uptrend in A-Mark Precious Metals $AMRK:

There aren't many precious metals stocks that look this good...

Here's how we're trading it:

The stage is set for a strategic shift.

Since this summer, safe haven assets have been catching a bid and outperforming across the board.

Investors are paying attention to growth indicators like ISM and PMI data. Other investors are looking at CPI and paying extra-close attention to the Fed… 

Here's the US Core Inflation Rate along with the 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF $IEF. Since inflation peaked and rolled over in 2022, bonds have been building a massive base:

However, similar to economic growth data, inflation is a lagging indicator.

The same is true for employment.

Here's the unemployment rate along with the 2s/10s spread.

We are starting to see some pressure in the labor market, which goes hand-in-hand with rising treasury spreads.

July job openings dropped to 7.67 million, the lowest since January 2021. This marks a significant decline from the March 2022 peak of 12.2 million. 

There were only 1.1 jobs for every unemployed person, down from 2.0 last year. Major declines were seen in healthcare, government, and transportation. Voluntary quits decreased to 3.3 million...

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Welcome to The 2 to 100 Club.

In this scan, we look to identify the strongest growth stocks as they climb the market-cap ladder from small- to mid- to large- and, ultimately, to mega-cap status (over $200B).

Once they graduate from small-cap to mid-cap status (over $2B), they come on our radar. Likewise, when they surpass the roughly $30B mark, they roll off our list.

But the scan doesn't just end there.

We only want to look at the strongest growth industries in the market, as that is typically where these potential 50-baggers come from.

Some of the best performers in recent decades – stocks like Priceline, Amazon, Netflix, Salesforce, and myriad others – would have been on this list at some point during their journey to becoming the market behemoths they are today.

When you look at the stocks in our table, you'll notice we're only focused on Technology and Growth industry groups such as Software, Semiconductors, Online...

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

When investing in the stock market, we always want to approach it as "a market of stocks."

Regardless of the environment, there are always stocks showing leadership and trending higher.

We may have to look harder to identify them depending on current market conditions. But there are always stocks that are going up.

The same can be said for weak stocks. Regardless of the environment, there are always stocks that are going down, too. 

We already have multiple scans focusing on stocks making all-time highs, such as Hall of Famers, Minor Leaguers, and the 2 to 100 Club.

We filter these universes for stocks that are exhibiting the best momentum and relative strength characteristics. 

Clearly, we spend a lot...

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

The biotech market has a great divide between the haves and have-nots. Some stocks have experienced tremendous markup phases, while others can't seem to get out of the doghouse.

Today, we're covering a biotech stock that has rallied nearly 200% this year. 

Despite this rally, the short sellers have continued to add to their positions and are close to carrying their largest short position ever.

With the stock coiling at a shelf of former highs from last summer, we're betting the short sellers are on the verge of unwinding their positions and sparking a short squeeze.

The current market environment is creating a unique opportunity for bonds. 

With the charts signaling strong potential for gains into year-end, now is the moment to take action and add some bond exposure to your portfolio. 

With some big reversals underway, the timing couldn’t be better to capitalize on these new trends. 

Not only are we seeing a growing list of base breakouts for treasuries, corporate bonds, and bond ETFs, but the intermarket landscape is turning increasingly favorable for fixed income in general.

Let’s jump in and discuss why we’re buying bonds here and how we want to express this thesis.

The fed is giving us a clear indication these days that we’ve seen the peak in interest rates for now. The odds of a rate cut at the September meeting in a few weeks are at 67.5%. 

Click the table to enlarge the view.

This data is from the CME FedWatch Tool as of August 29, 2024.

In this kind of...

If you're like me, you probably spend too much money on coffee every morning.

And that's not likely to change... but that's okay!

We can profit from an upside move in the commodity and hedge our exposure.

We've had tremendous success trading Cocoa futures in the last several years. 

We're also close to buying Cotton futures as they look to trap the bears below a key polarity zone.

There's a trend here: soft commodities keep rewarding us for owning them.

We think Coffee is next.