From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Welcome to The Minor Leaguers.

We've had some great trades come out of this small-cap-focused column since we launched it back in 2020 and started rotating it with our flagship bottom-up scan, Under the Hood.

For the first year or so, we focused only on Russell 2000 stocks with a market cap between $1 and $2B.

That was fun, but we wanted to branch out a bit and allow some new stocks to find their way onto our list.

We expanded our universe to include some mid-caps.

To make the cut for our Minor Leaguers list now, a company must have a market cap between $1 and $4B.

And it doesn't have to be a Russell component — it can be any US-listed equity. With participation expanding around the globe, we want all those ADRs in our universe.

The same price and liquidity filters are applied. Then, as always, we sort by proximity to new highs in order to...

New all-time highs have a funny way of shifting perspectives.

Not too long ago, many considered gold a “dumpster fire,” a “hot mess,” or an “opportunity cost.”

All were fair assessments. 

Everything changed last month when gold rocketed to its highest recorded level.

Yet, for some reason, investors weren’t buying into its strength.

But a 12% gain over the past five weeks has quickly turned reluctant investors into ravenous speculators.

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

New all-time highs have a funny way of shifting perspectives.

Not too long ago, many considered gold a “dumpster fire,” a “hot mess,” or an “opportunity cost.”

All were fair assessments. 

Everything changed last month when gold rocketed to its highest recorded level.

Yet, for some reason, investors weren’t buying into its strength.

But a 12% gain over the past five weeks has quickly turned reluctant investors into ravenous speculators.

In today's Flow Show, me and Steve Strazza came out swinging with an opportunity to add to an already winning options trade.

Back in late January, we entered into a bullish longer-term bet in Wells Fargo $WFC. You can read about it here. That original position still has until January 2025 to play out (another nine months).

But take a look at this high & tight flag forming on the eve on their next earning release scheduled for this Friday morning:

To us, this screams an opportunity for an upside resolution happening with the earning report being the catalyst.

Looking into the monthly May expiration options, premiums are not bad for a play targeting a measured move to the $70 area.

Here's the Play:

In today's Daily Digest, we'll review:

1. New position in ITB (Home Construction).
2. No adjustments are needed today.
3. No exits since the last report.
4. Current status of open campaigns.

Let's dig in!

From the Desk of Steve Strazza and Alfonso Depablos

The largest insider buy on today’s list comes via a Form 4 filing by Castor Maritime.

The global shipping company reported a purchase of roughly $10 million in Eagle Bulk Shipping Inc $EGLE.

The NYSE Oil Index includes the leading companies involved in the exploration, production, and development of petroleum.

This index dates back to 1984 so it's got some history to it.

It also includes a lot of Energy stocks headquartered outside the United States, giving investors a much more global perspective, as the NYSE tends to do.

On Friday, this index closed at the highest price ever.

A brief prefix.

To my knowledge, Ethena's governance token is only listed on exchanges that aren't available to US members. I try to make the majority of all trade ideas accessible to everyone, but I don't want to rule out trades those in other areas of the world will be able to access.

Hope you understand.

Chopsolidation has been the key theme in recent weeks. Crypto markets have been in a process of digesting their recent gains, and now we await the next signal.

Aside from a small number of A+ setups, I'm being patient and giving the market time to consolidate. This seems like the prudent course of action.

Did you see Gold just close at the highest price in history?

This is something we've never ever seen before - Gold closing out a week above $2300/oz.

It's the highest valuation for Gold in its entire history.

This is what that looks like:

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.

The most profitable part of a new market regime is how long it takes most investors to come around to it.

Humans are creatures of habit.

It's not easy to just shift an entire mindset, especially one that was over a decade in the making.

"I'm a Growth Investor"

"There is no reason to invest outside the United States"

"Stocks & Bonds. What are Commodities?"

"Why would I invest in Gold, when I can own more Tech?"

"The government...