From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

Aside from Gold’s new all-time highs, commodities look rough.

Natty gas is falling below two bucks. Copper is retesting four. And Corn is rolling to its lowest level since 2020.

But of all the vulnerable commodities contracts, only one area stands out as a viable short: cattle.

Volatility is blowing out for the second day in a row.

I'll cut to the chase. This is a good time to sell defined-risk, delta-neutral options credit spreads.

We're going to do it again today.

In today’s Daily Digest, we’ll review the following:

1. No new position today.
2. Adjustment to XME position.
3. Exited XRT at profit target.
4. Current status of open campaigns.

Let’s dig in!

The market hates it when bonds are making outsized moves.

It's less about when rates are rising or when rates are falling.

The bigger point here is that when interest rates are making very aggressive directional moves, that's what brings the volatility to the stock market.

And that's exactly what's happening:

We've been here before.

It's been 24 years since we've been here. 

But this is familiar territory

We saw historic underperformance from Technology stocks immediately after the sector reached the same levels it just reached last month.

Should we expect the same? In other words, should Tech keep underperforming, paving the way for other sectors like Financials, Industrials, Energy and Healthcare to outperform for a while?

Is that why the equally-weighted S&P500 just closed the month at new all-time highs? Because the largest weighting of the Market-cap weighted version is struggling to make any progress?

Here's Technology relative to the S&P500 getting back to those former highs from early 2000:

This is the video recording of our August 1st Monthly Charts Live Strategy Session

Here's this week's crypto roundup. It's an opportunity for us to take a step back, set aside the distractions, and delve into the key charts shaping the crypto complex.

VIX is near its highest level of the year and this is being reflected in options premiums nearly across the board.

It's also earnings season, so we want to be careful not to get caught in any potential earnings-driven landmines.

With this in mind, I've got a big cap name that has already reported earnings, is trading in a range, and is still exhibiting elevated options premiums -- the perfect recipe for a delta neutral options trade.

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

Remember when anything priced in yen was trending higher?

It wasn’t too long ago that if you were looking for an uptrend, all you had to do was throw the yen in the denominator, and voila.

Just last month, the dollar hit a new 34-year high against the yen—levels not seen since the 1980s.

But the tables are turning in favor of the Japanese currency.  

While most central banks are either cutting interest rates or considering future rate cuts, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) is hiking—a policy shift that puts a bid beneath the yen…

A couple of months ago, I highlighted buying yen futures above .6500.

Fast forward to today, and I’ve adjusted the entry-level to the former 2022 and 2023 lows at approximately .6625:

The shelf of...

In today’s Daily Digest, we’ll review the following:

1. No new position today.
2. Adjustment to XLC position.
3. No exits since the last report.
4. Current status of open campaigns.

Let’s dig in!

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 technical analysis to the mix,...

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...