By Tom Dyson in Penny Trends:

Emerging markets and commodities are still leading the stock market higher. But this week, financial and clean-energy stocks have joined the front-runners.

The strongest commodities and countries have changed, too. Asian stocks were the fastest emerging markets out of the gate. Copper, lead, silver, oil, and platinum were the leading commodities. These assets have receded. Now, Russia, Ireland, Turkey, and Indonesia have the world's strongest stock markets... and coal and steel are the strongest commodities.

We monitor a list of 86 exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for this information. These ETFs represent every major currency, stock market sector, commodity, and country in the world. Each week, we publish the five strongest and weakest ETFs of the last three months in our "Big Trends" leaderboard. This exercise is one of the most important things we do each week...

It immediately shows us where the "big money" is flowing. We catch this big money momentum by buying into the strongest uptrends and selling the strongest downtrends.

Our leaderboard also shows us which sectors are fading from the spotlight. A sector with "relative weakness" is a good place to look for short-sell candidates. A sector with relative strength is a good place to look for long investments.

As the leaders go, so goes the entire market. That's a trading insight from Jesse Livermore, one of the greatest trend traders of all time.

By watching the market leaders, we'll get advance notice of trend changes in the general market. In the current cycle, we're watching Russia. It's been the strongest country for eight weeks. If Russia turns down, prepare for the whole market to fall. If Russia pushes higher, we bet everything else will keep rising, too.

For now, commodities and emerging markets are still leading the market and making higher highs. We won't fight this trend. It's a bull market, so we need to be long. It's that simple.

Crux note: Tom Dyson is the editor of Penny Trends, a new advisory service focused on short-term trend trading. In the past four months, Tom has recommended 9 trades, and all of them are showing a profit. The two best-returning trades are up 163% and 102%. Following Tom's advice in Penny Trends is the surest way to make big, quick gains in this choppy market. Click here to learn more...