Was 2022 such a hard year in the market like the media keeps telling you?

Or was it just a normal year that was hard, because every year is hard?

I think about this a lot.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza and Alfonso Depablos @AlfCharts

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 which you can check out here.

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...

The largest insider transaction on today’s list comes in a Form 4 filing by director Roxanne Austin, who revealed a $2 million purchase in CrowdStrike Holdings $CRWD.

CRWD is trading at its lowest level in years as it looks to find support at its key former highs from 2019.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

First and foremost, a very happy and healthy New Year to all! Wishing you and your family a year of happiness, health, and prosperity.

That was a nice bounce overall in the market. Hopefully it holds.

We're officially half the way through this year's Santa Claus Rally.

I like to check in on this one as it goes on because of the impact it's had on past markets.

It's a week full of trades!.

There are so many opportunities out there in this stock market that keeps on grinding higher.

The bulls continue to get rewarded throughout the back half of the year and we see no evidence of that slowing down.

Yesterday's Long Tesla Call is setting up nicely.

Over in our Trading Room, we traded $TSLA from the long side both yesterday and already this morning, successfully both times.

The ...

Durable Capital Partners makes another appearance on our list, as the hedge fund continues to increase its position in Duolingo $DUOL.

This time, Durable Capital bought a total of $2.4 million worth of DUOL.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

I've said many times that this market is not for the faint of heart.

The $SPX broke 3,800. Next support is at 3,780, then 3,764. Resistance is at 3,840.

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 the stocks showing the best momentum and relative strength characteristics. 

Clearly, we spend a lot of time identifying and writing about leading stocks every week, via multiple reports.

Now, we're also highlighting lagging stocks on a recurring basis.

Welcome to the Short Report.

We publish this...

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

The indices dropped all morning long.

Santa has not come to town just yet.

This is the video recording of our December 28, 2022, Inside Scoop Weekly Strategy Session.

One thing I know about this time of the year is that whipsaws thrive.

We call it Whipsaw Hunting Season.

The lack of liquidity, and lack of interest due to other life priorities, creates over-extended and exaggerated moves that otherwise would not be allowed to occur under normal supply and demand conditions.

But since the b-squads are on the desks, you regularly get failed moves this time of the year that result in very fast moves in the opposite direction.

For some great examples see $GDX in December 2016 and check out $TLT in December 2013, among many others.

These were nasty failed moves that ripped the short sellers' faces off into the new year.

We see these sorts of moves born around this time every single season. It's perfectly...