Boxing champ and tiger-owning supporting cast member in the movie hit The Hangover has a popular expression attributed to him. And it might just summarize what I think the current stock market is all about.

I’ll explain that in a moment. As well as why if you have been investing for less than 10 years and do not read THIS article, I’m going to guess it will cost you at least 10% of your liquid net worth over the next 10 years. Yes I mean that.

I had nothing to do with the article, I’m just supporting its conclusions. Because I see it every day, on my way to seeking out helpful investing content, as anyone else would.

Enough of the BS marketing masquerading as “advice,” delivered in most cases (74% according to this study) by people who embody the term “don’t confuse genius with a bull market.” In the words of song from Joe Jackson, 1980s pop/rock icon who Dana and I saw in concert last month (43 years after the last time I saw him!)…

”Is that the best you can do?”

Next, a quick update on what is quickly becoming not just my “go-to” approach to navigating 2026 and beyond - it is rapidly pushing most other “good ideas” I have about how to combat the machine-driven casino that is the stock market, to the sidelines. Maybe forever.

Frankly, I’ve debated over the years whether ETF Yourself was the best name we could have used to describe what we do here. And why we think it is an oasis in a sea of investment hype, ignorance, arrogance, and downright incompetence. And with stocks acting too much in tandem, I think we got the name right.

I’ll summarize the latest happenings around this simple core portfolio in 3 pictures. The first 2 are the track record, as anyone can look up at ROAR.PiTrade.com. This is a “moderate risk” portfolio, not a “beat the S&P 500 when it is up every year” portfolio. Because the latter means you’re signing up for being down 30% when that index falls 37% (as it did for the full year 2008), or squeaking out 1-2% a year the next time the S&P 500 goes 12+ years with a total return of 0% (2000-2013…look it up).

Year To Date, the automated, weekly-rebalanced ROAR 10 as we call it, is up 8.2% through Monday night’s close. I know people like to focus on that. I don’t. I focus instead on what my portfolios DO NOT do.

In the case of this one, it has been ahead of that moderate risk portfolio benchmark at nearly every point during the current year. And, it has been above a zero return all year. I know that may not seem like much if you have not been through a bear market, but there will come a time when it will be the biggest “I wish had knew” for a generation of investors. Maybe 2 generations.

The record on ROAR 10 back to the start of 2020 shows that it is a whisker short of doubling that initial $10,000 hypothetical investment. $19, 715. That’s 10.9% annualized. Without losing more than 8.2% from any peak to trough point along the way. Heck, half the semiconductor stocks lost more than that overnight a few times during July!

Again, I do not care what the S&P 500 does. If you do, and are willing to accept the risk, there are many TikTok and Instagram “experts” that will gladly sell you something. Or more to the point, get you to “like and share” so advertisers will pay them to pitch you…whether they believe in what they are saying or not.

The final picture is my current model portfolio for ROAR 10. Both versions, the automated one, and the live one I update via my own account though PiTrade.com. We’ll soon be merging those 2 into the automated model.

Because as we informed our “inner circle” subscribers earlier today, we are are going to offer a more comprehensive version of this portfolio very soon, one that will be the closest thing to “Rob’s personal portfolio” (minus the bond ladder) as I’ve had since I last managed client accounts as an advisor (2020).

In 11 days (August 15th), our monthly Substack will increase to $25/month and $200/year. Our current price is $15/month or $150/year so if you are looking for more in depth research, consider taking advantage of this deal while it lasts. Try us out for a month and cancel at any time. If you’ve been paying monthly and are enjoying what we’re putting out, take advantage of the savings now. Try us for a year and make a small investment in your portfolio building skills.

Here’s that automated and live model allocation as of Monday night:

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In 13 days (August 15th), our monthly Substack will increase to $25/month and $200/year. Our current price is $15/month or $150/year so if you are looking for more in depth research, consider taking advantage of this deal while it lasts. Try us out for a month and cancel at any time. If you’ve been paying monthly and are enjoying what we’re putting out, take advantage of the savings now. Try us for a year and make a small investment in your portfolio building skills.

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Again today, I’ll share with you my latest read on hundreds of stocks and ETFs. But even there, as I’ve said here in recent weeks, at this point in the market cycle, you are either actively learning to manage risk, or you are left with hoping the market recovers soon. I don’t like to lose control over the money I worked decades to accumulate, and I’m quite sure you don’t either.

Markets like this are my “bread and butter.” Anyone can make money when SPY and QQQ set new records every day. That’s “beta” not “alpha.” Making money during a frenetic month like this? That takes a process, a discipline. Here’s the latest on mine.

*In 16 days (August 15th), our monthly Substack will increase to $25/month and $200/year. Our current price is $15/month or $150/year so if you are looking for more in depth research, consider taking advantage of this deal while it lasts. Try us out for a month and cancel at any time. If you’ve been paying monthly and are enjoying what we’re putting out, take advantage of the savings now. Try us for a year and make a small investment in your portfolio building skills.

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In 2026, it can’t be avoided…unless you know how to spot it.

Here’s what I’m talking about. You see, while I review hundreds of stock and ETF charts to identify the most interesting setups in both directions, that comes out each Thursday via Fresh Charts. But the week’s effort is continuous. And Tuesdays can often be a helpful guidepost.

Such as today, when I poured through my go-to list of 75 ETFs that I think still matter.

*In 18 days (August 15th), our monthly Substack will increase to $25/month and $200/year. Our current price is $15/month or $150/year so if you are looking for more in depth research, consider taking advantage of this deal while it lasts. Try us out for a month and cancel at any time. If you’ve been paying monthly and are enjoying what we’re putting out, take advantage of the savings now. Try us for a year and make a small investment in your portfolio building skills.

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As of August 15th, our monthly Substack will increase to $25/month and $200/year. Our current price is $15/month or $150/year so if you are looking for more in depth research, consider taking advantage of this deal while it lasts. Try us out for a month and cancel at any time. If you’ve been paying monthly and are enjoying what we’re putting out, take advantage of the savings now. Try us for a year and make a small investment in your portfolio building skills.

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My regular readers know I’m a big sports fan. Like many of us are. I grew up on baseball, became a bit of a savant around America’s Pastime, and over the years added NFL football and NHL hockey to my faves. But for reasons I still can’t quite decide…and it is not the big-time gambling, since I’m a cheapskate wagering guy…I’m really into horse racing.

So much so that Dana and I decided to spend some time this summer in a place we are fairly familiar with from a long time ago. We attended separate colleges at roughly the same time, both in Upstate NY (Albany for me, Union for her). So this is both nostalgic and, as a racing fan, I must say…like heaven on earth. And that’s besides the major upgrade in weather versus our South Florida HQ!

So, with Saratoga racing season (where they’ve been doing this since 1863!) in high gear up here, and our friends on the west coast having just started their annual “boutique racing meet” at the iconic Del Mar meet in San Diego, here’s a horse racing-inspired look at how I “handicap” the current race to profit from the global markets.

Below, you will see 7 ETFs, the “horses” in this race for the money (your money and mine). I’ve set odds for each to be the best performer in this “horse race” between now the end of September (close of Q3). That’s a few weeks after Saratoga and Del Mar close their annual seasons.

And, investing as in racing, winning is the big payoff. But finishing, second third, and even fourth and fifth in some situations can bring you a positive return on your investment, I’m not focused entirely on picking THE winner. Because as is the mantra around here, first we try to avoid the worst-case finishers, then make as much as we can on the rest.

Here’s the field for the 1st ETFYourself.com summer derby!

*As a reminder, starting August 15th, our monthly Substack will increase to $25/month and $200/year. Our current price is $15/month or $150/year so if you are looking for more in depth research, consider taking advantage of this deal while it lasts. Try us out for a month and cancel at any time. If you’ve been paying monthly and are enjoying what we’re putting out, take advantage of the savings now. Try us for a year and make a small investment in your portfolio building skills.

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As of August 15th, our monthly Substack will increase to $25/month and $200/year. Our current price is $15/month or $150/year so if you are looking for more in depth research, consider taking advantage of this deal while it lasts. Try us out for a month and cancel at any time. If you’ve been paying monthly and are enjoying what we’re putting out, take advantage of the savings now. Try us for a year and make a small investment in your portfolio building skills.

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We will be taking a break from live sessions for four weeks and will return on August 18th. However, future sessions and recordings will no longer be available for free subscribers.

If you are enjoying these sessions and would like to continue participating or watching the recordings, we invite you to lock in our annual rate of $150/year before the price increase. This will guarantee you access to all of our live sessions as well as our full research reports. We hope you will continue to learn from us by making a small investment in your education.

Starting August 15, all monthly renewals of ETFYourself.com will be at $25/month. Our annual price will be $200.

My professional investing career turned 40 years old this year. I’ve been in some investment-related capacity, working for pay, since August of 1986. During that time, I’d say I’ve had maybe 6 or 7 “moments of clarity” that stood out. So one about every 6 years.

I just had one of them. And I can’t stop thinking about it. So I’m writing to you about it today.

There was the moment in my rookie year when I found out with everyone else that the stock market could fall 22% in a single day. 10/19/1987. I remember it like it was yesterday. Even what I had for lunch that day. Just don’t ask me to remember what color suit I was wearing (even money’s on blue).

Then there was the late 1990s, when I taped together a presentation to show to clients (yes, scotch tape), in order to hide some of the answers, gameshow-style. I was coaching them on what was possible if the stock market cratered as it had in the 1970s, and what type of impact that could have on their portfolios. I said it was the late 1990s. It was actually late 1999. In March of 2000, the stock market topped, and for the next 13 years, its return was about…0%.

Later on, there was my “discovering” and starting to use inverse mutual funds, the ancestor of the inverse or “bear” ETFs I now use proactively to hedge and profit from declines in the broad market, sectors, and even single stocks. That was around 1998.

It was followed by my study of dividend investing with my then-college-aged son, which later resulted in the creation of YARP (Yield At a Reasonable Price), my biggest "intellectual property” achievement until last year, when we formalized the ROAR (Return Opportunity And Risk) Score, to help short-cut stock and ETF charting for investors, and help them build their own portfolios.

I just had another “one of those” moments. Here’s what happened, and how I’m going to put it into “overdrive” to help our subscribers*. Stick around to the end as I reveal the 5 charts I’m watching.

*Starting August 15th, our monthly Substack will increase to $25/month and $200/year. Our current price is $15/month or $150/year so if you are looking for more in depth research, consider taking advantage of this deal while it lasts. Try us out for a month and cancel at any time. If you’ve been paying monthly and are enjoying what we’re putting out, take advantage of the savings now. Try us for a year and make a small investment in your portfolio building skills. Last free live session is today at 4 PM EST. Sign up HERE.

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Register HERE to join us tomorrow, Tuesday, July 14 at 4 PM EST.

This Tuesday, July 14, will be the last free session. We will be taking a break for four weeks and will return on August 18th.

We wanted to let all of our live session participants know starting August 15, all monthly renewals of ETFYourself.com will be at $25/month. Our annual price will be $200.

If you are enjoying these sessions and would like to continue participating or watching the recordings, we invite you to lock in our annual rate of $150/year before the price increase. This will guarantee you access to all of our live sessions as well as our full research reports. We hope you will continue to learn from us by making a small investment in your education.

HERE is the registration link for Tuesday’s session at 4 PM EST. Previous sessions can be viewed on our YouTube channel @ETFYourself.

We thank you for your continued patronage and welcome any feedback!

As of August 15th, our monthly Substack will increase to $25/month and $200/year. Our current price is $15/month or $150/year so if you are looking for more in depth research, consider taking advantage of this deal while it lasts. Try us out for a month and cancel at any time. If you’ve been paying monthly and are enjoying what we’re putting out, take advantage of the savings now. Try us for a year and make a small investment in your portfolio building skills.

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Last week, we debuted this new feature of our paid subscription service. It is simply my chart reads on more than 800 stocks and ETFs, refined for you to list only what I consider to be the best and worst “setups.” Again, this is to speed your own research, not tell you what to buy and sell, as that is a personal decision. This is research.

At the end of this week’s quick and easy ticker table, I’ve also included a summary listing of how last week’s setups fared. Depending on subscriber feedback, we’ll decide how to track each week’s setups, if at all. As always, we appreciate anything you’d like to tell us to help us to help our subscriber base.

Now, here’s this week’s Fresh Charts and that “mark to market” report from last Thursday’s report. Note that in last week’s free debut edition, I covered only the 100 largest stocks in the S&P 500. This week, I went through them all.

I’m here to be this community’s go-to technical analyst, so if you have any ideas of what else to cover (or what you feel is less important to cover, let me know. If we get enough responses, we’ll really be able to craft this around our paid subscriber base.

As of August 15th, our monthly Substack will increase to $25/month and $200/year. Our current price is $15/month or $150/year so if you are looking for more in-depth research and want to experience our full content, consider taking advantage of this deal while it lasts. Try us out for a month and cancel at any time. If you’ve been paying monthly and are enjoying what we’re putting out, take advantage of the savings now. Try us for a year and make a small investment in your portfolio building skills.

Join us live on Tuesday for our last free live session. We will be taking a break for a few weeks and when we return live on August 18th, all sessions and recordings will be paid-only. Register HERE for the final session where Rob will teach How to create a simple DIY income portfolio using ROAR.PiTrade.com.

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Thanks to all who joined us on our live session yesterday. Here is the recording for anyone who would like to review:

1 more session until we go paid-only

These sessions and corresponding videos will be availabe for free for only one more week. We will be taking a live-session break for a few weeks starting mid-July (though we do not rule out a last minute session if something crazy needs to be addressed!) . When we come back on August 18, all sessions and recordings will revert to paid-only.

Register HERE and join us for our final free session, Tuesday, July 14 at 4 PM EST.

As of August 15th, our monthly Substack will increase to $25/month and $200/year. Our current price is $15/month or $150/year so if you are looking for more in-depth research and want to continue seeing these live sessions, consider taking advantage of this deal while it lasts. Try us out for a month and cancel at any time. If you’ve been paying monthly and are enjoying what we’re putting out, take advantage of the savings now. Try us for a year and make a small investment in your portfolio building skills.

Subscribe now

It is true what Yogi Berra said. You can observe a lot just by watching. The late, great NY Yankees Hall of Fame catcher left us with a lifetime of learning, including that quote. As you might know, I’m a bit of a baseball historian, and that includes the culture of the game, not simply the on-field activity.

And when it comes to Yogi quotes and a lot more about how baseball and life intersect, Yogi’s granddaughter Lindsay Berra has done some great work preserving that, including the family’s creation of a museum in my home state of New Jersey, and a documentary about Yogi’s life, career and impact after his playing days. It is great stuff for sports fans and investors alike.

I say that because when I think about why I feel so strongly about my stock and ETF charting, which I started at age 16 when my late father, a big Yankees and Yogi fan his entire life, taught me. Using pencil and graph paper, writing the charts by hand.

But you can speed up the process nowadays. So much so that using Barchart.com’s quick flipcharts tool, I can zip through watchlists in minutes, looking for what I consider to be high-percentage setups. Kind of like Yogi Berra’s remarkable percentage in not only getting to the World Series with this team, but winning it. 15 appearances in 19 years, and 10 wins.

Last Thursday, I debuted a new feature here. Fresh Charts provides a quick, to the point, bottom-line analysis of the best setups I see across several hundred charts each week. It is not a “buy/sell” list. There are plenty of those around, and from what I gather, their batting average is well below Yogi’s .285 lifetime mark. Getting a hit 28.5% of the time, and knocking 358 homers while guiding the pitching staff was a Hall of Fame resume for him. A 28% “hit” rate on trades is not quite HOF material.

As I see it, if I’m looking at upwards of 1,000 stock and ETF charts every weeks, and often multiple times a week for some segments of that list, the best thing I can do to transfer what I see to you is to document it weekly. Markets are more antsy than I’ve ever seen, so that’s why I chose a weekly snapshot, not a “buy this now” sort of thing.

As I see it, if you are a true DIY investor, you want the RESEARCH. We provide plenty of answers in our model portfolios and that is where you can go to truly “copy off Rob’s paper.” All you want, across multiple models. Some are reserved for premium subscribers, but most are free for anyone who enters their email address to sign up.

With Fresh Charts, the goal is to get you the “raw material” each week, so you can personalize it as you wish. But there’s another component: how to read the charts. That’s what I’m devoting this week’s issue to.

Continue on to see how I have determined, over 130,000 hours of market-watching and investment decisions, how to assign nearly any chart I see, in any time frame, to 1 of 8 different stages of the price trend cycle.

How is this different from ROAR? Time frame and use case.

ROAR’s best application is buiding portfolios, where the holdings are long-term, but the adjustments to the weights/sizes of those positions is managed actively. That’s why we call my main one ROAR 10 ETF.

Fresh Charts is about a shorter time frame. The idea is that from all of those hours of chart-reading, and making instant decisions as to which ones make the “first cut” and which are “cut first” from consideration, we can narrow the field of good trading candidates.

From that point, however, everyone has a different style. I won’t stick with most trades that fall 5% from where I bought them, maybe 10% at times. Others might be more patient. I also do not let my winners run as others might. I used to, but I just do not trust the markets like I once did. Not with algorithms, indexes and many other factors turning what used to be “price discovery” into a casino atmosphere. That makes me want to not overstay my welcome. Sort of like when we recently spent 3 nights in Las Vegas. If we had spent 8-10 nights, I think we would have entered the land of “diminishing marginal returns.” And I’m not much of a casino gambler. I’m talking about the constant vibe, mayhem and stimulus.

Yogi Berra was great for many reasons. Part of it was his relunctance to buy into what was popular, and chart his own course. That came out in some of his quotable gems.

I think investors can learn a lot from that. I also think that approach maps directly on to what I’ll focus on in this week’s issue, as well as in our Tuesday live show today:

Anatomy of a Winning Chart: What I Look For Before I Trade

I say it all the time: we are subscriber-driven. That’s what got us this far. So if the Tuesday live crowd (join us HERE) decides that a more Fresh Charts-driven discussion is the best use of our time each week, there’s a good chance we will morph the show into that.

Now, to the main topic for this week. That’s reviewing the 8 stages of a chart that I’ve stapled to my brain over the decades. It is my style, my creation. And hopefully, it will help you. I’ll provide a example of each by showing a current ETF chart that I think represents each stage. There’s enough going on these early-summer markets to do that.

As Yogi Berra said, after a lot of (chart-)watching, I think I’ve learned a lot. And I am here to coach our subscribers, using those decades of learning and doing.

Here we go!

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Register HERE and join us tomorrow, Tuesday, July 7 at 4 PM EST.

Rob will delve deeper into our new Fresh Charts segment and share insight as to what makes an appealing chart. As always, bring any questions you may have. Your feedback always makes for a more lively discussion and we can all learn from each other!

2 more sessions until we go paid-only

These sessions and corresponding videos will be availabe for free for the next two weeks. We will be taking a live-session break for a few weeks starting mid-July (though we do not rule out a last minute session if something crazy needs to be addressed!) . When we come back, all sessions and recordings will revert to paid-only.

As of August 15th, our monthly Substack will increase to $25/month and $200/year. Our current price is $15/month or $150/year so if you are looking for more in-depth research and want to continue seeing these live sessions, consider taking advantage of this deal while it lasts. Try us out for a month and cancel at any time. If you’ve been paying monthly and are enjoying what we’re putting out, take advantage of the savings now. Try us for a year and make a small investment in your portfolio building skills.

Subscribe now

In order to provide as much value as possible to our paid subscribers, we are going to take our revamped Sunday edition “behind the paywall.” This week’s edition is the last “free” one. With the recent edition of our Fresh Charts weekly feature, the ETFYourself.com paid subscription will now include:

Tuesdays: Weekly ROAR (Blunt, bottom-line broad market opinions)

Thursdays: Fresh Charts (Best/worst trade setups from with a watchlist of 800+ stocks and ETFs)

Sundays: A highlighted digest of Rob’s articles for Barchart and Seeking Alpha. During the first half of 2026, Rob wrote more than 300 articles OUTSIDE OF ETFYourself.com. Our Sunday weekly issue has been re-engineered to distill the key takeaways from 10-15 research articles each week to a 2-3 minute summary.

That’s more than 150 posts a year, for $150 a year. For now.

As of August 15th, our monthly Substack will increase to $25/month and $200/year. Our current price is $15/month or $150/year so if you are looking for more in depth research, consider taking advantage of this deal while it lasts. Try us out for a month and cancel at any time. If you’ve been paying monthly and are enjoying what we’re putting out, take advantage of the savings now. Try us for a year and make a small investment in your portfolio building skills.

Subscribe now

The ETFYourself.com Sunday Summary

The Realist’s Guide to 2026: Cracks in the Core, “MANIA,” and How We Protect Our Capital

• Tech Volatility Hits 23-Year High

• OpenAI IPO Delay Marks AI Stock Peak

• MANIA Hardware Trade Replaces Magnificent 7

• Cash Yields Quietly Beat Top Tech Equities

• Copper Trends Forecast Upcoming Macroeconomic Health

• Industrial Concentration Mimics Tech Sector Risks

• Index Concentration Penalizes Average Retail Investors

• Prepare For High-Volatility Historic Market Half

• Protect Assets With Simple Two-ETF Strategies

• AI Capex Threatens Market But Lifts Software

Let’s skip the Wall Street cheerleading and look at what the charts are actually telling us right now. If you’ve been following my work at ETFYourself.com, you know I don’t care about market hype; I care about risk management and preserving your hard-earned capital. Right now, the structural cracks under the surface of this market are widening, and if you’re blindly riding passive index funds, you’re exposed.

The AI Mirage and the “MANIA” Pivot

First up: the AI trade is fracturing. OpenAI’s decision to delay its IPO filing isn’t just a scheduling hiccup—it’s a massive red flag. It exposes the reality of unsustainable cash burn and exhausted retail demand, signaling what I believe is the death knell for overhyped AI equities, with 50% sector haircuts likely on the horizon.

Meanwhile, the old “Magnificent 7” narrative is dead. The smart, fast money has rotated into the high-stakes “MANIA” hardware trade—specifically Micron (MU), AMD, Intel (INTC), Broadcom (AVGO), and Nvidia (NVDA). This isn’t a “buy-and-forget” portfolio; it’s a high-volatility battlefield. If you are going to play here, you need to use tactical tools, like hedging or trading your exposures via leveraged ETFs like SOXL or inverse tools like SOXS to defend against sudden downside. At the same time, keep an eye on software; while massive corporate AI capex poses a systemic risk to the broader indexes, it’s opening a unique backdoor that could propel the tech-heavy IGV ETF to new records.

The Illusion of Index Safety

If you think hiding out in broad index ETFs makes you safe, think again. Tech stock volatility has quietly surged to a 23-year extreme. The divergence between the Nasdaq-100 and S&P 500 volatility indexes tells us the bull market clock is ticking down fast.

Want proof that things are broken under the hood? Over the past year, simple, boring Treasury bills quietly beat out 40% of the individual stocks inside the QQQ. Let that sink in. Nearly half of the tech-heavy index underperformed cash, but a few mega-caps masked the damage.

This illusion of safety isn’t restricted to tech. Look at the Industrials (XLI)—it has quietly become an un-diversified, top-heavy mess driven entirely by its top three holdings. Even when major developments occur—like SpaceX making waves in the Russell 1000 (IWB)—the resulting forced index concentration means retail investors are the ones left holding the bag, taking on concentrated, single-stock risks they never signed up for.

Your Action Plan for a Historic Second Half

Macro economic indicators are calling for heightened defensiveness. “Dr. Copper” is currently on the examination table, and its price action is setting up a crucial diagnosis for the macro economy that you cannot afford to ignore.

As we enter what promises to be a historic, highly volatile second half of 2026, asset protection is paramount. When the SPY or QQQ inevitably stumble, you don’t need a complicated, over-engineered institutional strategy to stay safe. Real asset protection is simple. By running a tactical, dual-ETF mix of broad equity exposure and cash equivalents, you can capture the upside while keeping a firm hand on the exit door. Don’t let Wall Street tell you to just “buy and hold” through a storm. Check your risk level, simplify your defense, and protect your capital.

Read the Full Deep Dives Here:

• Find my comprehensive technical data and market analysis on my Barchart Author Page.

• Read my full macroeconomic commentary and portfolio strategy breakdowns on my Seeking Alpha Author Page.

🚀 Level Up Your Strategy

Reading is the first step; execution is the second. Take action with these exclusive tools and community events to maximize your market edge:

• Join the Community: Meet our ROAR.PiTrade members every Tuesday at 4 PM EST ) to discuss these charts live with Rob Isbitts. Register HERE. These sessions are available to the public for free only 2 more weeks.

• Track Risk: Monitor macro market conditions dynamically. Check out the ROAR score on Pitrade.com.

  Save 20% on ROAR.PiTrade

• Get the Charts: Dig into the technicals yourself. Start a 30-Day Free Trial of BarChart Premier.

• Deep Research: Expand your toolkit. Get $30 off Seeking Alpha Premium.

As many of you know, I’ve been a professional investor for 33 years and have been charting stocks for 46 years. My “bread and butter” is producing quick chart takes with a strict focus on identifying major risk points—because managing risk when things get stormy is where I’ve done my best work over the decades.

With a rapidly growing Substack audience, I wanted a way to download the chart analysis running through my brain directly to you in a format that is time-efficient, affordable, and helps you think for yourself. I originally planned a daily 20-stock trading portfolio, but with so many stocks and ETFs to cover, a daily obligation is not in your best interests, or mine.

Instead, I called an audible: I am delivering my raw, ongoing chart work in its simplest, most adaptive form.

This week’s issue is below, and it is free to all of our subscribers. After this maiden issue, it will go behind the paywall, and only our paid subscribers will receive it. As a reminder, a paid subscription to ETF Yourself is currently $150 a year or $15 a month.

Starting August 15, all monthly renewals of ETFYourself.com will be at $25/month. Our annual price will be $200.

Subscribe now

What is Fresh Charts all about?

Each week, I analyze hundreds of stock and ETF charts, to answer 3 simple questions.

1. Which charts look good to me this week? (Best Setups)

2. Which charts look bad to me this week? (Worst Setups)

3. Which charts do not evoke a strong view? (Do not appear in the report)

Tuesday vs. Thursday: What’s the Difference?

• Tuesdays (Weekly ROAR): Macro, big-picture thinking and intermediate-term risk scores to help guide portfolio allocation.

• Thursdays (Fresh Charts): Pure, short-term chart analysis. No portfolio management—just a weekly research report to supplement your DIY investing.

Key Universes Reviewed

Each week, I review approximately 800 tickers from the following master watchlists:

• S&P 500 Stocks (500 tickers)*

• Microcap List (All 150 holdings of ETF ticker: FDM)

• International Markets (Rob’s country/international ETF list of 80 ETFs)

• Rob’s ETF Watchlist (75 ETFs; full list at ROAR.PiTrade.com)

* Note: in this free issue, I analyzed the S&P 100 (100 biggest stocks). Starting with the first paid issue next week, I’ll cover all 500.

About Fresh Charts

Fresh Charts is designed to identify short-term market opportunities by evaluating technical chart patterns across hundreds of liquid securities.

• The Objective: To scout for “high percentage shots” from more than 1,000 weekly tracked tickers.

• The Timeline: Focuses strictly on a short-term horizon (10–20 trading days) using daily charts.

• The Schedule: Updated every week following Wednesday’s market close and delivered Thursdays.

⚠️ Important Clarification: This is NOT a list of investment recommendations. It is a curated collection of stock and ETF tickers analyzed strictly through technical chart patterns by Rob Isbitts (me).

Q: Rob, why don’t you do “buy/sell” picks like a million other investing “experts?”

As my longtime subscribers know, I’m not like the others. It is up to you to decide if and how that helps you. I am here to coach by showing you what I see, on a regular basis, and discussing how my analysis and opinions evolve. There are plenty of “top picks” publications out there, so they are very easy to find.

Here, our mission is not simply to “give DIY investors a fish” but to “teach them to fish.”

How you use my observations, both in Tuesday’s Weekly ROAR and this new Thursday Fresh Charts post, is entirely up to you. Which ones to consider and how to gain exposure to them (small share position, large share position, deploying options, etc.).

I was a fidicuary investment advisor for 27 years, and retired from that role in 2020. Back then, I mapped my trade setups to our clients’ portfolios. This is research, and you’re the captain now! And we want to make you the best one you can be.

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Complementing the ROAR Score

This report is designed to complement—not replace—the ROAR Score approach (ROAR.PiTrade.com). That site is all about replacing “picks” with “portfolios.” Learning to manage your wealth like a portfolio manager (my old job!) will create much more wealth for investors over time, and with far less risk of disaster along the way.

• ROAR Scores gauge a ticker’s risk of major loss on an intermediate-term basis and are automated to help direct multi-security portfolio allocations (like my popular ROAR 10 ETF model).

• Fresh Charts focuses solely on immediate, actionable chart reading. That’s why we call them “setups” not picks or trades.

We Value Your Feedback

How can we make this new report more valuable to your investing process? Send your questions and feedback to info@sungardeninvestment.com.

Now, here’s this week’s Fresh Charts!

During yesterday’s ROAR.PiTrade Live session, we gave an overview of our upcoming feature, Fresh Charts, debuting this Thursday. Watch below to learn about this exciting new feature.

As a reminder, our next two Live sessions will be free. We will be taking a summer break for a few weeks and will return on August 18th, at which point live sessions and recordings will revert to paid-only. If you are a free subscriber and would like to continue participating or watching the recordings, we invite you to lock in our annual rate of $150/year before the price increase.

Starting August 15, all monthly renewals of ETFYourself.com will be at $25/month. Our annual price will be $200.

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HERE is the registration link for the July 7 and 14 sessions at 4 PM EST. Previous sessions can be viewed on our YouTube channel @ETFYourself.