Saturday Setup March 22, 2025

  • Indices: Mixed between Neutral and Bear Quiet market regimes, we are only focused on daytrading ES. I have a Curvy long entry on to buy NQ for a swing trade. 
  • Metals: This has been a really great trade for us. We just exited Gold (Swing Beast) long for +2.5R, still long (Swing Beast) Copper, and went short (Curvy) yesterday in Silver, all with stops adjusted up to lock in profits. Another Swing Beast buy signal just fired on Gold.
  • Energy: Neutral action and looking for Curvy mean reversion moves higher. Currently long (Curvy) RBOB and in profits. 
  • Currencies: Currency pairs remain in Bear Quiet or Neutral regimes. No trades
  • Bonds: Neutral regimes but like Indices. No trades
  • Ags and Softs: Still a lot of volatility in these markets. No trades.
  • Crypto: Long (Curvy) Bitcoin, flat on all altcoins.

Returns

  • Quant portfolio is currently at +5.4% on the year.
  • Macro Discretionary portfolio is up +10.6% on the year. 
  • SPX is -4.97% on the year.

You can find real-time alerts for both portfolios in our Collective

This week, in the Quant portfolio (the one I run), we were long Gold, Copper, RBOB, Bitcoin, and short Silver, bringing us back above the High watermark for the year. 

Equities are always on everyone’s mind, as it touches nearly every part of the economy. 

So, let’s see how things are looking in this correction. 

The S&P 500 (top chart) has reacted up nicely off of the 10-week SMA bounce for the NYSE Advancing Issues $ADV (the bottom chart). These low levels in the $ADV have given major bottom signals historically. 

We’ve been looking for this since I wrote (and filmed) a video about it two weeks ago. 

The bottoming action in Equity Indices is what we expect to happen when we get our longer-term bottoming signal on $ADV. 

Historically, March and April have been strong months for the S&P 500 ($SPX) going back to 1971.

And going back to 1999 (since Dot Com Bubble).

Since 2008 (Global Financial Crisis).

Since the 2018 meltdown.

Since Covid (2020).

Keep in mind that in 2018 and 2020, we had the COVID crash in March 2020 and the Ukraine Invasion in 2022, which would explain the weaker performance recently. That being said, it is a stronger period for equities seasonally if historical analogs are useful. 

And as luck would have it, we have a long setup in Equity Indices.

Not a result of this seasonality, but a purely systematic trade. 

The Nasdaq is in the Neutral Market regime, which dictates only taking a Curvy mean reversion trade with clearly defined risk and stop loss and profit targets. 

And that’s exactly what we’re doing.

You can watch the video of the Weekly Market Overview [HERE], where I cover all of this (every week) in further detail. It’s a nice companion to reading this, to start your weekend research. 

Regimes Dashboard

Current Positions

Long $HG (Copper) – Trend
Long $BTCUSD (Bitcoin) – Trend
Long $RB (RBOB Gasoline) – Mean Reversion
Short $SI (Silver) – Mean Reversion

Setups for next week

Currencies- 
Euro I’m looking for a Curvy mean reversion short. 
Swiss Franc is also setting up for a Curvy short in the neutral regime. 

Metals- 
Gold re-entry on a new Swing Beast setup long signal after trail stopping out Friday.

Equities- 
Nasdaq is setting up to pull me into a Curvy Mean reversion long as discussed above.

Crypto- 
Currently long only Bitcoin, but much like the seasonality of equities, I’m expecting to see the crypto momentum system switch back on and come roaring back to life in some of the altcoins. 

If you are interested in the strategies that I use. 

And you can work with me on building out your trading business in the Trading Thunderdome

Until then, stay disciplined.

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Brandon Beylo

Value Investor

Brandon has been a professional investor focusing on value for over 13 years, spending his time in small to micro-cap companies, spin-offs, SPACs, and deep value liquidation situations. Over time, he’s developed a deeper understanding for what deep-value investing actually means, and refined his philosophy to include any business trading at a wild discount to what he thinks its worth in 3-5 years.

Brandon has a tenacious passion for investing, broad-based learning, and business. He previously worked for several leading investment firms before joining the team at Macro Ops. He lives by the famous Munger mantra of trying to get a little smarter each day.

AK

Investing & Personal Finance

AK is the founder of Macro Ops and the host of Fallible.

He started out in corporate economics for a Fortune 50 company before moving to a long/short equity investment firm.

With Macro Ops focused primarily on institutional clients, AK moved to servicing new investors just starting their journey. He takes the professional research and education produced at Macro Ops and breaks it down for beginners. The goal is to help clients find the best solution for their investing needs through effective education.

Tyler Kling

Volatility & Options Trader

Former trade desk manager at $100+ million family office where he oversaw multiple traders and helped develop cutting edge quantitative strategies in the derivatives market.

He worked as a consultant to the family office’s in-house fund of funds in the areas of portfolio manager evaluation and capital allocation.

Certified in Quantitative Finance from the Fitch Learning Center in London, England where he studied under famous quants such as Paul Wilmott.

Alex Barrow

Macro Trader

Founder and head macro trader at Macro Ops. Alex joined the US Marine Corps on his 18th birthday just one month after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He subsequently spent a decade in the military. Serving in various capacities from scout sniper to interrogator and counterintelligence specialist. Following his military service, he worked as a contract intelligence professional for a number of US agencies (from the DIA to FBI) with a focus on counterintelligence and terrorist financing. He also spent time consulting for a tech company that specialized in building analytic software for finance and intelligence analysis.

After leaving the field of intelligence he went to work at a global macro hedge fund. He’s been professionally involved in markets since 2005, has consulted with a number of the leading names in the hedge fund space, and now manages his own family office while running Macro Ops. He’s published over 300 white papers on complex financial and macroeconomic topics, writes regularly about investment/market trends, and frequently speaks at conferences on trading and investing.

Macro Ops is a market research firm geared toward professional and experienced retail traders and investors. Macro Ops’ research has been featured in Forbes, Marketwatch, Business Insider, and Real Vision as well as a number of other leading publications.

You can find out more about Alex on his LinkedIn account here and also find him on Twitter where he frequently shares his market research.