Just to be clear, I'm no expert when it comes to NFTs.

Later this week I'll publish the latest podcast with Justin Paterno, Portfolio Manager of the new NFT fund by OSPREY that I'm an investor in.

But today I wanted to share some of my recent experiences with the new STEPN App and NFT.

I'm earning GST Coin to go running. In fact I've made about $150 worth of this Utility Coin in the past 3 days alone. That's one hundred fifty United States Dollars!

You can see the price of the STEPN coin here since the new issue last month:

Energy names have been working for us. So there's no reason to turn off the spigot just yet. Of course, mindful of our exposure in energy-related sectors already, I want to try to keep any additional risk exposure as limited as possible.

With this in mind, today's play is a bullish bet that we think will take some time to materialize. And we're going to use that assumption to help us lever into a trend at a cheaper cost of participation using a calendar spread.

Author's note

In conjunction with the All Star Charts quarterly playbook, this week's report is a copy of the crypto note we'll be attaching to the playbook.

It covers the themes we're monitoring, a few trades we like taking, and what we anticipate for the asset class moving into the second quarter.

Hope you had a great long weekend.

Cheers guys.

As we move into the second quarter, we leave behind a messy period in the world of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin ended the first quarter slightly lower while the entire asset class, measured by the total market capitalization, experienced a 9% loss. In this period, the new highs list among the alts has been ominously quiet as participation waned.

There’s been little in the way of market action in this environment. Staying on the sidelines in elevated stablecoin positions has been rewarded, while those who overtraded and bought into breakouts were punished.

I was at a family get together this weekend filled with Easter egg hunts, good wine and some great eats.

It was my wife's side of the family and some of them are familiar with what I do.

"So what are we doing about this upcoming recession, JC?"

"It's quite obvious a recession is coming..."

I responded with a question,

"How much of all that is already priced into the market?"

We’ll lead off today with an update on the big activist story we’re all paying attention to.

After meeting last week to discuss Elon Musk’s takeover offer, Twitter’s $TWTR board announced the adoption of a “poison pill” that makes it economically untenable for Musk to acquire more than 15% of outstanding shares.

It’s also being rumored that Musk is considering taking on partners for his bid for the company.

Today we sit down with my old pal Larry McDonald.

When it comes to the bond market, Larry is the guy I want to talk to. And with Bonds getting off to their worst start to a year, maybe ever, what better time than the present to dive into the fixed income markets?

While I had him, we also discussed the equities markets, commodities, metals and Crypto.

This was a fun one.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

I caught the last 30 minutes-ish of the live Elon Musk interview on TED Talks Thursday morning and I found it riveting. Sadly, I missed most of the discussion regarding his recent splashes with Twitter.

Picking up when I did, there were other things I should’ve been doing (writing this note, for example), but I was immediately hooked. I couldn’t peel myself away from it.

It felt like a real earnest look into the mind of a savant.

Say what you will about Elon Musk the Man, Elon Musk the Innovator, Elon Musk the Political Animal, or Elon Musk the Podcaster and Tweeter. I’m not here to pass any judgments on who he is, what he stands for, or how he accomplishes his aims.

What stood out for me during the chat was the laser focus he has on things he puts his mind to.

When he mentioned that he understands deeply how EVERY piece of his cars are made and assembled, and when he uttered that there is nobody on Planet Earth currently living who knows more about manufacturing then him, I believed him. He wasn’t trying to impress us with this information. He was saying it matter-of-factly.

Yet, as impressive as all his accomplishments (and...

I read a book recently that got into the fact that any and all edges in trading, no matter how robust, degrade over time.

The author listed a variety of reasons, but the biggest one that caught my attention is that if the edge is so good, then the simple act of making a bunch of money exploiting this edge will eventually get discovered. 

This is an incestuous business where people talk. Brokers talk to their clients. Clients talk to their industry contacts. Word gets around about so and so making all kinds of money.  And then copycat traders act and move in to also take advantage of said edge. And this crowding in will work to eventually minimize or trivialize the edge.

Then it’s back to square one. 

It's Saturday Morning Chartoons time. 

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.

You can find the whole list of trades here.

Below you'll find the full PDF of this week's charts:

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 Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley  

Commodities are off to another record year -- and it’s only April!

Crude oil and friends are leading the charge as the energy-heavy CRB Index is up 34% year to date. 

Oil ripped above 100 in February and has been in a corrective phase since. The energy complex remains red-hot though, with natural gas futures breaking to fresh 13-year highs this week.

While crude oil finds its footing, its derivatives -- heating oil and gasoline, are coiling just beneath all-time highs and gearing up for some massive base breakouts.

We’re also seeing some bullish data points for the broader oil and gas industry as crack spreads are expanding and signaling a healthy demand for black gold. This bodes particularly well for oil refiners.

All of this price behavior is what we like to call rotation.

It's an essential characteristic of any real bull market, and it’s exactly what we’re seeing from commodities these days.

In fact, we’re even seeing...

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Dividend Aristocrats are easily some of the most desirable investments on Wall Street. These are the names that have increased dividends for at least 25 years, providing steadily increasing income to long-term-minded shareholders.

As you can imagine, the companies making up this prestigious list are some of the most recognizable brands in the world. Coca-Cola, Walmart, and Johnson & Johnson are just a few of the household names making the cut.

Here at All Star Charts, we like to stay ahead of the curve. That's why we're turning our attention to the future aristocrats.

In an effort to seek out the next generation of the cream-of-the-crop dividend plays, we're curating a list of stocks that have raised their payouts every year for five to nine years.

We call them the Young Aristocrats, and the idea is that these are "stocks that pay you to make money."

Imagine if years of consistent dividend growth and high momentum and relative strength had a baby, leaving you with the best of the emerging dividend giants that are outperforming the averages.

By adding our...