My favorite Head & Shoulders Patterns are the ones that aren't that at all.

Markets trend. We know that for a fact. That's why Technical Analysis works. Because as Technicians, we're identifying primary trends.

And since we know that market returns do not fall under a normal distribution, and in fact, prices actually trend, it gives us a huge advantage over those who purposely choose to ignore price.

Funny how people like to ignore the only thing that actually pays anybody.

I always thought that was so strange.

Anyway, in today's example of "Not a Head & Shoulders Top", we take a look at Copper Prices. If you have any exposure whatsoever in the market, stocks, bonds or otherwise, then this is a resolution that will interest you and most certainly impact the value of your portfolio.

So is this a massive top in Dr. Copper? Or just a continuation pattern that will resolve higher, in the direction of the underlying trend?

This is the video recording of our October 4, 2021 Monthly Charts Live Strategy Session

From the desk of Steve Strazza @sstrazza

This is one of our favorite bottom-up scans: Follow The Flow. In this note, we simply create a universe of stocks that experienced the most unusual options activity — either bullish or bearish… but NOT both.

We utilize options experts, both internally and through our partnership with The TradeXchange. Then, we dig through the level 2 details and do all the work upfront for our clients. Our goal is to isolate only those options market splashes that represent levered and high-conviction, directional bets.

We also weed out hedging activity and ensure there are no offsetting trades that either neutralize or cap the risk on these unusual options trades. What remains is a list of stocks that large financial institutions are putting big money behind… and they’re doing so for one reason only: because they think the stock is about to move in their direction and make them a pretty penny.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza.

Welcome back to our latest "Under The Hood" column, where we'll cover all the action for the week ended October 1, 2021. This report is published bi-weekly and rotated with our "Minor Leaguers" column.

What we do here is analyze the most popular stocks during the week and find opportunities to either join in and ride these momentum names higher or fade the crowd and bet against them.

We use a variety of sources to generate the list of most popular names. There are so many new data sources available that all we need to do is organize and curate them in a way that shows us exactly what we want: a list of stocks that are seeing an unusual increase in investor interest.

To quote the great philosopher Tupac Shakur, "All Eyez On Me". 

Makaveli - The Don would agree, if he were here, that the focus needs to be on the US Dollar and Interest Rates.

The implications will most likely impact every single asset class you've ever heard of.

Here's the recent US Dollar strength as it runs into former resistance and key Fibonacci retracement:

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:

The stock market had a good day. But Commodities have had a great year.

The relentless bid for commodities doesn't stop.

Here is the CRB Commodities Index going out at new 6-year highs:

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley

Energy is the clear leader in the commodity markets right now. Our equally-weighted energy index is up 13.76% over the trailing month and 6.58% in the last five days.

The emerging strength from this group is supported by a rising rate environment that could be just getting started.

So, crude oil to 100 dollars and natural gas to 9?

Maybe! But before we get ahead of ourselves, there are still plenty of mixed signals and divergences that need to be resolved.

One that stands out is the lack of confirming price action between economically sensitive commodities. Let’s take a look!

Here’s a chart of Crude Oil futures, Copper futures, and Copper Miners $COPX:

These are the registration details for our Live Monthly Candlestick Strategy Session for Premium Members of All Star Charts.

This month’s Video Conference Call will be held on Monday October 4th @ 6PM ET. As always, if you cannot make the call live, the video and slides will be archived and published here along with every other live call since 2015.

Here are the details for Monday evening:

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Our International Hall Of Famers list is composed of the 50 largest US-listed international stocks, or ADRs.

These stocks range from some well-known mega-cap multinationals such as Toyota Motor and Royal Dutch Shell to some large-cap global disruptors such as Sea Ltd and Shopify.

It’s got all the big names and more--but only those that are based outside the US. You can find all the big US names on our original Hall Of Famers list.

The beauty of these scans is really in their simplicity.

We take the 50 largest names each week and then apply technical filters in a way that the strongest stocks with the most momentum rise to the top.

Let’s dive in and take a look at what some of the largest stocks around the world are doing.

Here’s this week’s list:

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza and Grant Hawkridge @granthawkridge

Bond yields are breaking higher across the board. So, it’s essential to understand that some stocks do better amid rising rates, while others prosper in markets with low growth and low yields. 

For instance, cyclical and value stocks should outperform in a rising rate environment.

Meanwhile, growth, tech stocks, and any long-duration assets (bonds) typically lag. They become less attractive during periods where more economically sensitive areas offer more appealing opportunities.

And we’re already seeing this rotation into the rising rate beneficiaries, while growth stocks have come under pressure in recent weeks.

In today’s post, we’ll look at market internals of these groups to see what they suggest about recent price action.

We can compare growth to cyclicals by analyzing the ratio of Large-Cap Tech $XLK to Energy $XLE.

And we can further illustrate this growth-versus-value relationship through a variety of derivatives. They all tell similar stories.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley

We’re finally starting to see resolutions in the bond market.

The 30-year yield is back above 2.00%, the 10-year has reclaimed 1.40%, and the 5-year yield has cleared 1.00% for the first time since February 2020.

Now that it appears rates have picked a direction, what are the implications for the other two major asset classes, stocks and commodities?

As we highlighted last week, we want to look at cyclical and value stocks along with economically sensitive commodities, specifically energy and base metals.

And, in case you haven’t heard, higher yields should also put a bid in financials.

Earlier in the month, we pointed out the relationship between the 10yr-3mo spread and Regional Banks $KRE relative to the S&P 500 $SPY.

Today, we want to follow the same train of thought but apply the analysis to Broker-Dealers $IAI.

Here’s the chart of the 10-year 3-month treasury spread overlaid with the IAI/SPY ratio: