Hello All,
Jumping straight into it, it’s generally been a quieter week up until today, with the prior two sessions marking some of the lowest-volume days on record for the indices. However, today’s CPI report finally ignited a bit of volatility & more importantly, triggered a mini VaR shock, with both the dollar & bonds catching a flight-to-safety bid alongside defensives, whereas nearly everything else was sold indiscriminately.
Nevertheless, on the week thus far, the Nasdaq is the worst performing of the major indices, lower by 380bps, whereas the Dow, benefiting from the recent rotation out of Growth & into Value, is the best performing index, higher by 90bps.
For anyone who wants to follow an actively managed portfolio in real time:
I’ve joined Plutus as the cleanest, day-to-day way to track an actively managed portfolio in real time. It’s a live dashboard that’s broader, more diversified, actively managed by me, & updated continuously.
The Eliant Flagship is published on RunPlutus.
Once your Plutus account is approved, you’ll have the option to allocate right away. If you do, it’s straightforward: create an account, link your brokerage (Available only for IBKR at this time), & select the Eliant Flagship (or any of the baskets I’ve built). Your money stays in your account, and trades, position changes, and rebalances are replicated automatically so there’s nothing manual to manage. The idea is to make it easier to access an actively managed portfolio run by me without the overhead of traditional fund structures or high minimums, whilst you keep full custody of your assets & I stay focused on research, positioning, and portfolio construction.
Earlier in 2024, we launched a series titled Educational Pieces, covering a wide range of topics, many of which were suggested directly by you all (4-Part Series).
For those who may have missed the first installment, it covered topics including:
General background / knowledge on all option strategies
In-depth talk on risk / reversals & how to go about expressing / utilizing them
Options Structuring
When to used naked calls / puts vs. spreads
Choosing expiration dates
Identifying key pivots / supports / resistance zones
General briefing on stock gaps
What to look for in regards to fundamentals
Implementing fundamental / macro / technicals into a trade
Hedging
Creating risk/reward setups
Taking profits / managing losses
Overall Process
Book recommendations
A link to the original Educational Piece can be found here .
Given the positive feedback and how useful many of you found the first installment, we followed up with Educational Piece: Part Deux earlier in 2025 & for those who may have missed, a link to the piece can be found here & we then went on to release Educational Piece: Part Trois which can be found here.
And finally, the most recent installment, Educational Piece: Part Quatre, can be found here.
‘Risk management is the silent prerequisite for compounding & true wealth is built not by chasing the highest returns but by ensuring the survival necessary to realize them.’
Before we jump into the recap, in looking at the week thus far, as we had highlighted earlier, the general theme has been a rotation out of Growth / Momentum-oriented factors, which have been among the worst performers on the week, & instead into Value-oriented & lower-volatility groups, which have been among the best-performing factors.
And in regard to the specific factors and or ‘baskets’ we’ve built on Plutus, here are the best performers year-to-date:
1. Mission Critical Security Stack
3. Rebuilding U.S. Industrial Sovereignty
4. Industrial and Auto Analog Recovery
Whereas on the flip side, the worst performing baskets year-to-date have been:
Moving along, following today’s sharp reversal lower in the indices on the back of hotter-than-expected inflation data, breadth also rolled right back over after an initial pickup in upside participation, with the % of stocks above their 20D declining back to 31%, which remains firmly within oversold territory, although still isn’t quite an extreme reading.
And similar can be said on a broader timeframe too, as in the medium term, the % of stocks above the 50D has fallen toward 25%, which, again, is an oversold reading that is slowly starting to encroach on a more ‘extreme’ oversold reading.
And on top of the above, despite Spooz sitting just 160bps off all-time highs, the Fear-Greed Index has worked its way firmly back into ‘Fear’ territory & is even starting to encroach on ‘Extreme Fear,’ again emphasizing just how significant the under-the-hood ‘reset’ has been amid the recent deterioration in breadth, with even the ‘generals’ now starting to get dragged lower as well.
Historical context of the Fear-Greed Index overlaid with the S&P:
