One of the best things I've done for TTI is bring on people who are smarter than me in areas I'm not.

Randy is our commodities and volatility analyst. He lives in the weeds of metals, energy, and VIX products.. the stuff most people glaze over. When he brings me something, I pay attention. Because it usually means the rest of the market is about to pay attention too.

He flagged something this week that I think is worth your time.

Hamilton

52.4. That's the latest ISM Manufacturing PMI print.. the second consecutive month above 50.

Manufacturing has been in contraction since 2022. Two straight months of expansion is the first signal of a potential trend shift.

And the metal that benefits most from a manufacturing recovery is one that almost nobody is talking about.

Copper.

Our research team ran a bottom up screen of the top 10% of stocks by 12 month momentum and asked a simple question: what industries are most represented?

The answer was semiconductors, gold, uranium, energy, metals, hardware..

Now look at that list again. How many of those industries directly depend on copper?

Semiconductors need copper. Hardware needs copper. Energy infrastructure needs copper. Data centers need copper. The AI buildout is, at its core, a copper story.

Half the strongest industries in the market right now run on the same raw material. That's not a coincidence. That's structural demand hiding in plain sight.

And despite all of this.. nobody cares.

Google search interest for copper is flat compared to gold and silver. Nobody is texting you about copper. Nobody is putting it in headlines. The metal just broke out of a multi decade base and everyone is looking the other way.

Here's what we're watching:

The historical relationship between ISM Manufacturing and copper prices is clear. In the majority of cases, the bottom in ISM marked the bottom in copper.

Here's where it gets good.. we now have two consecutive expansion prints for the first time in years.

So the setup has two real tailwinds. Structural demand from AI and the industries it feeds. And a cyclical recovery in manufacturing that has historically been the catalyst for copper moves.

The one thing to watch is relative strength. Copper has underperformed precious metals over the past year. But on a longer timeframe, January's monthly candle printed a clean reversal.. wick nearly 4x the body.

As Hamilton says.. for things to start going up, they have to stop going down.

Several copper names have already broken out and are pulling back to key fibonacci levels.

Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) is one of the purest domestic copper plays in the market.

It broke out into new all-time highs earlier this year and has just closed back down at the original breakout point. A good spot to start a new position for those of you who are looking for exposure. As long as it holds this level over the coming weeks, the path of least resistance shifts higher.

Listen.. the ingredients for a sustained move are there for the copper trade. Broad participation, a multi decade breakout, relative strength reversal signals, and two real demand drivers.

2026 could be the year someone actually texts you about copper.

Full breakdown with charts and the complete industry screen is live on Circle for Market Blueprint members.

There's always an uptrend somewhere,

Randy

P.S. If you want the weekly Flow Score reports that track where institutional money is actually moving, including our copper trades.. click here to join and lock in the founders rate (valid until Sunday).​