This is the video recording of our September 28, 2022, Inside Scoop Weekly Strategy Session.

We continue to see insider activity in Adobe $ADBE this week.

This time, director David Ricks filed a Form 4 reporting purchases worth roughly $336,672.

ICONIQ Strategic Partners LP filed a Form 4 reporting the purchase of roughly $3.7 million in Braze Inc $BRZE.

The fund now has a total stake in BRZE of more than 28.70%.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @sstrazza and Alfonso Depablos @Alfcharts

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.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Welcome to our latest Minor Leaguers report.

We've had some great trades come out of this small-cap-focused column since we launched it back in 2020 and started rotating it with our flagship bottom-up scan, Under the Hood.

This year, we expanded our universe to include some mid-caps.

To make the cut for our Minor Leaguers list, a company must have a market cap between $1 and $4B.

And it doesn't have to be a Russell component — it can be any US-listed equity. With participation expanding around the globe, we want all those ADRs in our universe.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Check out this week's Momentum Report, our weekly summation of all the major indexes at a Macro, International, Sector, and Industry Group level.

By analyzing the short-term data in these reports, we get a more tactical view of the current state of markets. This information then helps us put near-term developments into the big picture context and provides insights regarding the structural trends at play.

Let's jump right into it with some of the major takeaways from this week's report:

* ASC Plus Members can access the Momentum Report by clicking the link at the bottom of this post.

Macro Universe:

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Our Top 10 Charts Report was just published.

In this weekly note, we highlight 10 of the most important charts or themes we're currently seeing in asset classes around the world.

A Quarter Century of Sideways

We like to use the Value Line Geometric Index as a representation of how the average, or median stock is making out. While the S&P might be a better illustration of the performance of an average portfolio, the Value Line shows us the performance of the average stock.

With prices cratering back beneath key prior-cycle highs, it’s not painting a very bullish picture for the broader market. These dot-com bubble and financial crisis highs ~510 are as important as any level in the stock market right now. If we’re below there, downside risks are elevated, and we’re on the sidelines. The fact that the median stock price has made zero progress since its 1998 peak almost 25-years ago tells you all you need to know about the damage the overall market has already endured. As long as VLG is below these former highs, we want to be prepared for more to come.

The largest insider transaction on today's list is a Form 4 filing by Daniel Durn, the CFO of Adobe $ADBE.

Durn reported a purchase worth roughly $936,357. He was appointed CFO this time last year.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza and Alfonso Depablos @AlfCharts

Our Hall of Famers list is composed of the 150 largest US-based stocks.

These stocks range from the mega-cap growth behemoths like Apple and Microsoft – with market caps in excess of $2T – to some of the new-age large-cap disruptors such as Moderna, Square, and Snap.

It has all the big names and more.

It doesn’t include ADRs or any stock not domiciled in the US. But don’t worry; we developed a separate universe for that; click here to check it out.

The Hall of Famers is simple.

We take our list of 150 names and then apply our technical filters so the strongest stocks with the most momentum rise to the top.

Let’s dive right in and check out what these big boys are up to.

Here’s this week’s list:

The most significant insider activity on today's list comes in Form 4 filings by Robert Harris and Jonathan Glaser, directors of Hudson Pacific Properties $HPP.

Harris and Glaser filed Form 4s reporting purchases worth a combined $393,320.

Tuesday night we held our September Monthly Conference Call, which Premium Members can access and rewatch here.

In this post, we’ll do our best to summarize it by highlighting five of the most important charts and/or themes we covered, along with commentary on each

Let’s get right into it!

Today’s Hot List is a short one.

Sometimes the best course of action ahead of a Federal Open Market Committee meeting is to sit on the sidelines until the dust settles.

This is exactly what insiders have done this week, as there’s been little activity in recent days, and almost none yesterday.