For stock-pickers like me, the action in this market is overwhelmingly positive. Out of 150 or so stocks that I'm holding, about 140 gapped higher Monday morning. Market breadth is running 6,000 gainers to 1,500 decliners, and there are over 1,200 stocks hitting new 12-month highs.
While the indices are nicely higher, with the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) up around 0.5%, small-caps are flying, with the Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) up around 1.7%.
I've been yammering about this for quite a while, but this market is offering some of the best stock-picking since the internet bubble in 2000. This actually is better in a number of ways as many of the stocks are not as grossly extended as some of the names back then, and many have very strong stories. This isn't just "page views" or some crazy metric being used to justify crazy valuations.
The main themes Monday morning are bitcoin, cannabis, stocks priced under $10, small biotechnology, and smaller-cap stocks in general.
My Stock of the Week is one I've discussed many times recently -- Alto Ingredients (ALTO) , which was previously called Pacific Ethanol (PEIX) . The company changed its name to reflect a shift into specialized, high-quality ethanol for various purposes.
Some of the top names on my screens are ones I've discussed many times in recent columns. Xeris Pharmaceuticals (XERS) , for example, was named as my top small-cap, New Providence Acquisition Corp. (NPA) is my top "space" play, and Aurinia Pharmaceuticals (AUPH) was recently highlighted as a bottom-fishing play.
Some others that I'm looking good include Village Farms International (VFF) , Evogene (EVGN) , Gamida Cell (GMDA) , Trulieve Cannabis (TCNNF) , Cresco Labs (CRLBF) , Draganfly (DFLYF) , Esports Entertainment Group (GMBL) , GAN Ltd. (GAN) , and Canaan Inc. (CAN) .
I've been a net seller this morning into some of these gaps simply as a matter of prudent money management, but typically my methodology is to look for buys later in the day, and I may even rebuy some of the names that I reduced this morning.
This is an amazingly strong market for stock-pickers. Don't squander the opportunities by looking for market tops.
