I came down with a pretty bad cold this weekend. Most of my Sunday was spent quarantined in my office so I wouldn't get my kids sick (4yr old and twin 2yr olds).

Of course, rather than laying in bed resting, I was in my office looking through charts.

I couldn't help myself.

It's my way of relaxing. And as it turns out, I do feel a lot better today than I did when I woke up yesterday.

But one thing I was able to do was go one by one counting stocks, sectors and indexes all over the world to see if these ugly rumors about weakening market breadth were true.

As it turns out, they're just lies. 

Market breadth continues to expand as more and more countries around the world are hitting new highs, not fewer.

We already discussed how Earth is Hitting New All-time highs. 

But if you go one by...

The bull market rages on, despite any ugly rumors you might here that it's over.

They love pretending that the bull market is done, because scaring you is good for business.

Telling you the world has never been a better place is just not good for the noisemaking community. 

It's good for investors though! That's us...

Anyway, historic back-to-back years for the stock market now continues to expand broadly all over the world.

Here is the "Earth Index" closing the month once again at a new all-time high.

Notice how the United States barely represents half of this Index.

In some of the other Global Indexes, the U.S. carries a much higher weighting, over 80% in some cases.

50% of the Index is about right in my opinion. 

You've got a lot of UK and Europe in this one, so it should be no surprise that the London FTSE 100 and the broader London FTSE 350 both closed the month at new all-time highs again yesterday.

Here is the broadest measure of European Equities, which include all the small-caps, mid-caps and large-caps, also hitting new all-time highs:

But keep in mind that the strength we're...

As more stocks, more sectors and more countries around the world start to participate in this bull market, any of the short sellers who overstayed their welcome are getting blown up.

Good.

This is a classic characteristic of healthy bull market environments. I would encourage you to go back and study every bull market ever. You'll find that investors who own stocks are much more profitable than those who are selling stocks.

It's just math.

Here's the thing about short sellers that I think gets forgotten. Short sellers are guaranteed future buyers. Longs are only promising to be future sellers. 

The thing is that when shorts are getting squeezed, these can become forced liquidations. And margin clerks don't use limit orders. They'll spray the market, and it will crush you if you're on the wrong side of that.

But if you're on the right side - pay day!

Here is a list of stocks where short sellers are the most vulnerable to get blown up:

The list begins with names that have a high short interest. Then we look at the ones where the number of shares short are exponentially greater...

Yesterday we saw the Nasdaq100 close at new all-time highs, on an equally-weighted basis!

I keep being told that market breadth is weakening, mostly from people who haven't even bothered to count. 

So let me ask you...

Is the equally-weighted Nasdaq100 closing at the highest level in its entire history evidence of broadening strength, or a weakening market?

I'm old enough to remember when they were telling me that this was all just a "bear market rally" and that we shouldn't be buying stocks.

Then it was, "Only 6 stocks going up", so we shouldn't be buying stocks.

Now they're telling me that market breadth is weakening, when it's actually broadening, and that we shouldn't be buying stocks.

You know what we've been doing this entire bull market? We've been buying stocks, and laughing about it along the way.

You've had a front row seat to it all.

And this was just while it was mostly U.S. stocks doing well. Now we're seeing broadening participation all over the world, with areas like Latin America hitting new multi-month highs, Europe hitting all-time highs, and now Southeast Asia really getting going

Here is...

I've been getting this question quite a bit lately: Does Breadth even matter?

And the answer is yes. It's a market of stocks.

Go back and study all the bull markets in history. You'll notice how as the bull market progresses, you get more and more stocks participating to the upside. You tend to see sector rotation and new leaders emerging. You also see expansion in participation across countries around the globe.

This is what is currently happening. It's all of the above.

In Bear markets, however, these things do not happen. It's actually the opposite. You see fewer and fewer stocks going up, while more and more stocks are breaking to new lows. The sector rotation turns into the last leaders catching down to the losers. And you see stock market indexes in countries all over the world falling in price, not rising. 

When you weigh all the evidence, it's quite obvious that we are currently in the first category, and certainly not in the second one.

How can market breadth be deteriorating, when participation just keeps expanding?

How can you tell me with a straight face that breadth is weakening, when the...

It's hard to imagine what it is that these investors are all so bearish about.

I mean, we're in the middle of a bull market, where we know historically it pays way better own stocks than to be selling them. We know. We have the data.

And yet, accordingly to the latest AAII survey, more individual investors are bearish over the next 6 months than at any point since November of 2023.

Here's what stocks have done since then:

These are historic returns that have rarely been seen throughout stock market history. It's been practically straight up. 

The S&P500 is up almost 40%, while the Nasdaq100 is up over 45%. Financials and Communications are each up over 50%.Consumer Discretionary, Industrials and Technology are also major leaders during this period.

You see, stocks don't go up or down in price based on "fundamentals". Prices move based on positioning. And when individual investors are all bullish, it's probably a good time to be selling.

More importantly, and definitely more actionable, is when individual investors are bearish. That's historically a great time to be buying very aggressively.

These are the...

Chinese stocks are on the move.

These Breakout Multiplier trades are all popping off one by one. 3 of them doubled today.

The Chinese Internet Index closed at its highest levels since mid-October, well before the Trump landslide victory (that was supposed to be the end of Chinese stocks).

It's actually been the exact opposite.

In fact, look Chinese Internet stocks relative to the U.S. Internet Index. The new lows could not hold, and now the face-ripper is here:

The rotation is real, and this is a perfectly normal characteristic of a bull market, which we are very much in.

There's a time and a place for everything. Buying China has not been a good idea for a long time. So it should be no surprise that the short interest in China is so high.

Those shorts have overstayed their welcome and now it's time for us to profit from their demise. The short squeeze you...

We've discussed this all year. What's the catalyst to send stocks and other risk assets ripping in the first half of the year?

It's the U.S. Dollar. 

I continue to be impressed with just how resilient stocks have been, despite the Dollar's relentless bid over the past 4-5 months.

And now here we are, with so many people crying all weekend about something they call "tariffs", and they're slamming the Dollar.

It's all happening right at the 61.8% retracement of the entire '22-'23 decline. Do you think that's a coincidence?

I do not.

When it comes to the stock market, we always like to do a sum-of-the-parts analysis, whether it's the S&P500, or Dow Industrials or NYSE components. We call it market breadth.

We go through the exact same process in forex markets.

If you think that the US Dollar is going to fall, sending stocks and other risk assets souring, then you'll need to see a bid in other forex markets.

We can go one by one if you want. But I brought 2 important ones with me that I think are about to rip, confirming the US Dollar weakness.

Here's the Canadian Dollar breaking below former support, and...

Futures are down this morning, but barely.

Bonds have been flat for most of the overnight session. So has Gold.

If this was real volatility, you would actually see the volatility. Currently, we are not.

I've spent the weekend preparing for tonight's LIVE Monthly Charts Strategy Session.

I've analyzed thousands of companies, indexes and intermarket relationships all over the world.

Here's the conclusion.

Wait for it....

This is a bull market.

And Tariffs or no Tariffs, as investors, I believe that it's still business as usual as long as these uptrends remain in place.

For the S&P500, we're looking at about 5600, or 560 in the $SPY. If we're above that, then the series of higher lows and higher highs is still intact.

For the Nasdaq100 $QQQ that level is right at 500.

For the Dow Jones...

The strategy this year has been simple.

Whenever you hear them say the word "Tariffs", you call your broker, or open your brokerage account, and you buy more stocks, particularly the Chinese ones.

And who is "they" exactly? 

You know who "they" is. Mostly the noisemakers. People who produce tv shows about "trading", or write "news" articles about financial markets. Permabears looking for their next excuse to make poor decisions...

You know, they!

"They" are the ones we want to fade. 

"We" are the ones who we want to make money.

And so every time they tell you the stock market is going to fall because of something they call "Tariffs", we just buy more stocks betting that stocks will rise in price (because or despite these so called, "Tariffs").

So far this is working. China doubled the returns of the Nasdaq100 in January, with the $FXI returning 4.7% last month. Meanwhile, the Chinese Internet ETF $KWEB rallied almost 7% for January.

As a reminder, we are in the midst of a bullish momentum thrust regime for Chinese stocks, so this shouldn't be surprising.

That momentum thrust, that consistently shows...

This morning is just a friendly reminder to turn off the TV.

There's nothing on there to help you. It's not their job to help you make better and more informed investing decisions.

In fact, it's quite the opposite. Their only job is to convince you that you need to come back and keep watching.

That's it. That's literally their only job.

Some people are too weak to overcome their tricks, and instead fall for the old trap of, "I need to watch so I can stay informed".

 implications, however, are NOT that you'll be more informed. In fact, you're actually going to be a lot more misinformed.

Again, their job is NOT to inform you, or even to help you. That's never been their job, not matter how much they pretend that it is.

So don't fall for the trap of traditional media. If they've proven anything over the years, it's that they cannot be trusted.

Turn it off. And put on some music instead.

I'll let you know when I'm on tv, and you can turn it on for a few minutes. Or better yet, I'll just send you the video replay.

But everything you need to know you'll see right here first. 

Now, with that in mind,...

The replay of this week's LIVE video Conference Call is available for Premium Members of ASC Research. 

Click here to sign up and catch up on the replay, download the 100+ charts and review each of the new trade ideas.

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