We're just about halfway through July, one of the slowest months for stocks, with an average return of just 0.99% since 1950.

It's slow, sure, but it is the last historical "up" month we tend to see until October.

When you can see where the smart money is going, you can cash in on the most sluggish markets. 

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These Are the Stocks to Watch for the Rest of July

As I'm sure you'll notice, there's not necessarily any rhyme or reason to the list I'm about to show you – they're not five oil stocks, or five tech stocks. In other words, if you notice any surface correlation or similarities between them, it'll be a coincidence. These aren't necessarily buy-and-hold candidates, either, so we're not too concerned with fundamentals or the most recent earnings report. It's all about the money coming in.

What these stocks do have in common is "behind the scenes." All signs point to institutions like hedge funds and pensions swooping in. These stocks all have an extremely high probability of big moves between now and early August.

Cadiz Inc. (Nasdaq: CDZI) is a 37-year-old land and water resource development company out of Los Angeles, Calif. Huge chunks of the Golden State are finding themselves with water trouble, and Cadiz owns around 45,000 acres in eastern San Bernardino County. It acquires and develops land with water resources and put it to all kinds of uses, like groundwater supply and storage, and, of course, agriculture. This stock is trading for less than $14 right now, down about $1.25 over the past five sessions on decreasing volume.

Alpha Pro Tech Ltd. (NYSE: APT) operates from Ontario, Canada. These folks make building materials, like housewraps, underlayments, and seam tape. If you've ever seen a home under construction wrapped up, you're probably looking at Alpha Pro products. They use that same materials expertise to make disposable protective clothing, like full-body suits, caps, and boots and shoe coverings. They make disposable masks, as well. APT shares had been trading above $8 until midweek last week, when they gapped much lower to $7.55. Apart from a high-volume rally that took the shares above $7.90 last Thursday, they've been trading in a narrow band between $7.55 and $7.10 on the low end.

Micron Technology Inc. (Nasdaq: MU) ought to be familiar to lots of folks. The Boise, Idaho-based big-cap company makes flash memory and dynamic random access memory (DRAM) sticks for computers, along with storage "memory." The stock hit a one-year high above $95 back in April and has been coasting lower since then; it's down around 2.6% over the last five sessions, starting back on July 8, when it moved sharply lower. Volume hit a low last week but has been steadily increasing since July 9.

Mexico City-based Grupo Televisa SAB (NYSE: TV) is, by some measures, the largest producer of Spanish-language content in the world. It has dozens of media properties throughout Latin America and controls more than half the television stations in Mexico. It owns four Mexican networks dominating popular sports and telenovela (think "soap opera") programming and owns more than 20 worldwide Spanish-language networks. Here in the United States, most people catch Televisa programming on Univision. One thing it has in common with the rest of the stocks on the July watch list is it's down over the past five days on slackening volume, falling from $14.08 to $12.99 before recovering slightly to $13.60.

And rounding out the list is Vancouver-based ElectraMeccanica Vehicles Co. (Nasdaq: SOLO). This company designs and manufactures electric vehicles (EVs) for the Canadian market, but they're starting to become available in the United States. Its unusual-looking Solo three-wheeled "city car" is sure to turn heads wherever it turns up, and it just might turn up in big numbers because it costs just $18,500 and buyers are eligible for a whole raft of credits and incentives. Its eRoadster concept, which combines 1950s Porsche 356 Speedster looks and styling with 21st century EV technology could be a cult hit. SOLO is the cheapest stock of the five, trading at just $3.83. Like the rest of the watch list, it's seen decreasing volume and price recently.