Katie Stockton reviews some of Fairlead’s best trades of 2025, including Tesla and Estee Lauder
The turn of the year is a good time to reflect on your methodology, so we reviewed what worked best for us in this forum in 2025. Market timing added value in another year characterized by positive momentum and narrow leadership. A major correction early in the year emphasized the benefits of using technical analysis to manage risk and discover opportunities. Overall, it was a bullish year that saw both actionable breakouts and compelling turnarounds. Between February and April, the S & P 500 Index (SPX) saw a peak-to-trough intraday decline of 21.4%, with downside leadership coming from stocks that previously had the strongest momentum. In February, we showcased a downturn behind two names exemplary of the momentum factor: Goldman Sachs (GS) and Palantir Technologies (PLTR) . Their subsequent underperformance was damaging to the market but ultimately led to a great buying opportunity. Note: Just last week we became vocal on the potential for another correction in PLTR (access here ), and GS is on the verge of a new short-term counter-trend signal from the DeMARK Indicators. Fortunately, the harrowing downdraft created compelling counter-trend buying opportunities. In April, we featured bitcoin as a risk asset poised to benefit from oversold conditions and overly bearish sentiment. The cryptocurrency had seen a disproportionate peak-to-trough decline of 31.9%, making it difficult for new buyers to confidently add exposure, but the subsequent breakout above the 50-day moving average was a positive catalyst. Interestingly, we have a similar setup in bitcoin currently that we will be featuring in our next Cryptocurrency Compass report (inquire here ). The market trended strongly higher off the April low, allowing us to produce mostly bullish articles in the months that ensued, including a feature on the breakout in the technology sector and Invesco QQQ ETF (QQQ) in early July. But our post featuring a turnaround in Estee Lauder (EL) was even more opportunistic and memorable in that that stock staged a lasting bullish reversal following a strong counter-trend setup in an environment characterized by persistent weakness in the broader consumer staples sector. Another standout call highlighted a catch-up trade in platinum prices, which broke out from a long-term triangle pattern in early June. Gold and silver stole the headlines, while the lagging precious metal established a strong uptrend and began to outperform gold. Copper saw upside too after we featured it alongside platinum and later reiterated it ahead of a strong Q4. Interestingly, palladium also emerged from a major basing phase last year, and it looks like it is in the early innings of a bull market. Lastly, we are glad to revisit our contrarian bullish idea in Tesla (TSLA) from early August . The stock had been out of favor and was wound up in a consolidation phase ahead of an actionable breakout that was supported by our technical indicators. Volatility can produce opportunity, and TSLA is a good example of a stock with big intermediate-term swings that traders welcome. We believe 2026 will see even more volatility than 2025 while keeping a bullish bias, an environment that should continue to reward risk management and market timing. —Katie Stockton with Will Tamplin Access research from Fairlead Strategies for free here . 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