Commodities have been a "hot mess" as a group with the exception of a few trends that we've been taking advantage of.

The last time we talked about Base Metals were in July, when we were looking for a bounce in Zinc.

Today, let's take a look and see if anything in the space has changed.

I know what you're thinking? A bearish play? In this market?

Believe it or not, there are some weak sectors out there, and there's a stock we're bearish on that may have just exhausted itself in a last-gasp dead-cat bounce which may be soon reverse and resume its downward trend.

This is the video recording of the December 2019 Conference Call for Members of All Star Options

From the desk of Tom Bruni @BruniCharting

It's been about 4 months since our last Canada update and many of the trades we outlined there have run their course, so today I want to look at 3 stocks with a common catalyst to spark their next move higher.

From the desk of Tom Bruni @BruniCharting

New Mystery Chart!

For those new to the exercise, we take a chart of interest and remove the x/y-axes and any other labels that would help identify it. The chart can be any security in any asset class on any timeframe on an absolute or relative basis. Maybe it's a custom index or inverted, who knows!

We do all this to put aside the biases we have associated with this specific security/the market and come to a conclusion based solely on price.

You can guess what it is if you must, but the real value comes from sharing what you would do right now. Buy, Sell, or Do Nothing?

Last week we discussed the potential near-term "oops" in India's major indices and those conditions remain very much intact.

With that being said, today's focus is on one sector and its largest component, both of which look vulnerable to further downside.

Let's take a look.

One of the tools we use for Indian stocks due to how top-heavy the market is are chart overlays of a sector/index's largest component and the underlying sector/index. The largest component in most cases can represent a major portion of an index and act as either a helium balloon or lead balloon, pulling the index up or down on a whim. When their performance diverges, that's when we want to pay attention.

Over the last few months, we've seen a divergence in the performance of Vedanta Ltd. which represents 19% of the Nifty Metal Index. Vedanta is making lower highs as the sector makes higher highs, suggesting that potential weakness could be ahead the group as a whole.

Click on chart to enlarge view.

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Annie Duke is the author of one of my favorite books, "Thinking In Bets". I often find myself recommending it to both colleagues and friends and family who aren't even in our business. While the book might be written by a poker player, and is somewhat about poker, it's really about the way we think, and this applies to market participation, but also life in general. It's a book I believe everyone should read, at least once.

In this podcast episode, I asked Annie about the differences between being humble in the face of the game we're playing vs being humble in the face of your opponent. This is a really important concept that really helps put things in perspective.

Behavioral Finance in general, as...

On December 6th, JC highlighted the Health Care Sector breaking out and the stocks he likes best for purchase.

If you want to play along, I've got an options trade in one of those stocks that profits on a run into new highs.

In this Episode of Allstarcharts Weekly, Steve and I discuss the less talked about tenets of Dow Theory. Everyone always likes to talk about the Dow Jones Industrial Average either confirming or diverging from the Dow Jones Transportation Average. But what gets forgotten is that there are many more tenets like Closing Prices are the most important, Identifying the direction of the Primary Trends and The Market Discounting Everything. Check out JC's 5 Most Important Dow Theory Tenets

This day and age we have other areas just as important, or even more important, than a group of Railroads, like what Charlie had when he first wrote down his Tenets in the late 1800s. Today we also compare the Dow Jones Industrial Average to the Semiconductor and Homebuilders Indexes as well as incorporate a series of ratios with Consumer Staples and Financials. It's more of an "and" than an "or" for us when it comes to Dow Theory.

Believe it or not, there isn't a bull market EVERYwhere. Of course, if you give yourself a steady diet of SHOUT!TV! then this is not a surprise to you because everything is bearish (on TV).

As we begin the last leg of 2019 into the holidays, trading often gets a little uneventful (last year being a MAJOR exception). Feels to me a great time to be putting some delta-neutral income trades on. 

Healthcare is the latest of the American Sectors to break out to new all-time highs. I think Financials are next, but for today's conversation, let's focus on the task at hand: Healthcare is a space we want to own.

First of all, here is that breakout. It rarely gets cleaner than this:

Click on Charts to Zoom In

Another 35% of upside in this sector would be consistent with historical moves in the past and would be perfectly normal, as far as I'm concerned.

The bigger question, really, is which industry group is going to be the main driver?

The obvious choice appears to be Medical Devices. When all these stocks and sectors were churning sideways since early 2018, the relative strength was already here. You can't deny that. Look at this beauty:

We incorporate a top/down approach here at All Star Charts. By the...

Did you notice that the U.S. Financials Sector Index is just 3.5% away from its infamous all-time highs in 2007 before the financial crisis?

That's right, $XLF is approaching this level once again, for the 3rd time in almost 13 years. Is this finally going to be it? Are we really going to start a new bull market in Financials?

I think yes and I'm going to tell you why.

First here is the chart I'm referring to and its 3rd attempt to get through this level: