Ted

Follower of Jesus Christ, husband to a beautiful wife, retired police officer and student of the markets using modified CANSLIM strategy.

[TraderLion @TraderLion]

How to Find A+ Trade Setups!

Join @RichardMoglen Here 👇

https://t.co/8ZPV16WAOn

[iain @ohiain]

I've realized the majority of my profits have never come from buying the breakout itself.

It's come from buying the pullback after the breakout.

Almost every trade I take starts with a stock coming out of a large base. I'm talking about names that have spent months, and sometimes years, moving sideways while institutions accumulate.

Then eventually something changes... maybe it's earnings, or it's a new product cycle. Maybe it's a theme gaining momentum? Whatever the catalyst is, price finally starts leaving the range.

And funny enough, that's where the 99% get excited.

Ironically, that's where I usually become patient.

The breakout gets my attention, but the pullback is often where I get involved.

1 of my favorite setups is the first pullback after a major base breakout. If I miss that one, I'll usually focus on the second consolidation. In my experience, these are often the "highest quality" opportunities because the stock has already proven it can break out, institutions have already shown their hand, and now I'm simply waiting for the market to give me a lower-risk entry.

I like to think about it this way:

- A breakout is the market making a statement.
- The pullback is the market asking a question.

"Are buyers actually willing to defend this area?"

That's what I'm trying to figure out.

When a stock pulls back after breaking out of a large range, I'm paying very close attention to how it behaves. Does it immediately fall apart? Or does it hold key levels and refuse to give back much ground?

When it comes to behavior, I look for TIGHTNESS.

If a stock breaks out 20%, then spends the next two weeks trading in a very tight range while volume dries up, that's constructive behavior to me. Sellers are becoming exhausted while buyers continue absorbing supply. The tighter the action becomes, the more interested I become!

Volume is another huge clue.

During the breakout, I want to see volume expand. That's evidence that institutions are participating. Then during the pullback or consolidation, I want volume to contract. If volume is exploding on every red day, that's usually not what I want to see. But if volume starts drying up while price remains near highs, that's often a sign that selling pressure is becoming limited.

1) Price tells me what happened.
2) Volume tells me how much conviction was behind it.

I also spend a lot of time studying the personality of a chart.

Some stocks are constructive, and some stocks are sloppy.

Some names respect the 9EMA for weeks + months. Others constantly undercut and reclaim support before moving higher. Some stocks have violent shakeouts. Others grind methodically higher.

This is why I constantly study prior winners.

I'm trying to understand how a stock behaves when it's healthy.

> Does it respect moving averages?
> Does it recover quickly after pullbacks?
> Does it close near highs?
> Does it show relative strength on market weakness?
> Does it stay tight?

Those are the little nuances that I look for from a potential leader.

A simple list I look for:

1) Find a stock breaking out of a large base.
2) Confirm relative strength v.s. the market + sector.
3) Wait for the first or second pullback.
4) Watch volume dry up.
5) Look for tightness near major support.
6) Execute on 15 or 30min pivot reclaim.
7) Risk against the low.

Most people think the money is made by finding the perfect breakout... but I've found the money is usually made by finding the strongest stocks and then having the patience to wait for the first real opportunity to join the trend.

If the stock is truly a leader, the breakout is often just the beginning.

The first pullback is where the real asymmetric opportunity tends to show up. That's where I want to be positioned. That's where risk is usually the smallest.

And if the trend continues, that's often where the biggest winners begin!

Chart: $AMKR.

[jack schwager @jackschwager]

trading to make quick money is a terrible idea. - Lukas Frohlich @TheShortBear 4/n https://t.co/b9PLYapuJD

[MARKET INSIGHTS! @IManghaila]

Most people think legendary traders succeed because they've got secret formulas endless patterns, or hidden indicators

[Ameet Rai @AmeetRai]

$HOOD Stage 1 forming out well. Keeping an eye on this.

[Ted Zhang @TedHZhang]

How to make sure the trend is your friend?

[Mike Webster @mwebster1971]

Drops tomorrow morning on YouTube channel Webby5150

[stockbee @PradeepBonde]

Good breadth thrust with 685 stocks up 4% today. It was raining setups

[TraderLion @TraderLion]

Most traders spend all their time looking for the perfect entry signal, completely ignoring the portfolio mechanics that actually dictate their bottom line.

Veteran trader Don Vandenbord points out that structural flaws like cash drag and improper position sizing are the true culprits behind chronic underperformance. When you hold too much cash during a trend or size a position based on emotion rather than math, you sabotage your own returns before the trade even plays out. Standardizing risk is the only mathematical way to protect your account.

Fix the business side of your trading before you worry about the next setup.

[stockbee @PradeepBonde]

It is a short-term breadth oscillator measuring the number of stocks making 20% moves up or down in the last 5 days.
Extremely high bullish readings trigger market pullbacks, and extremely bearish readings trigger bounces.
Buerish signal takes 3 to 5 days to activate. A bullish signal typically works immediately.
It is calibrated based on past data.

[Jeff Sun, CFTe @jfsrev]

"The second you think you are smarter than the 10 & 20 day MA, that's when you are doomed for mediocrity. Trust me. I talk from experience."

- @Qullamaggie, Market Wizard

[Lone @lonextrades]

Qullamaggie on Nailing Down Setup Variations

“Why do you think your level of trading success is so rare? Obviously everyone sets out with their ultimate dream of making as much money as you have from the markets, but very few are able to achieve it. From what you’ve described here and your strategy, it all sounds very simple — it is, you know — not to discredit any of the hard work you’ve put in. But no, you know, why do you think so few make it to the big time?

I think also it’s just purely education. Uh, I think a lot of people — even some pretty decent, successful traders — I think they would do even better if they really went back and looked at thousands of examples of that setup they trade, or the setups they trade, and really nailed down all the variations of those. And look at also maybe the overall market: like what was the overall market doing when there were a lot of setups and when that setup worked really well, versus what was the market doing when there weren’t any setups and the setups weren’t working any well. I think that that’s gonna improve your edge by a significant margin looking at all these variations.”

[Julian Komar 🚨 Market Update Premium @BlogJulianKomar]

Most traders are looking for cheap stocks.

I look for strong stocks. 🚀📈

Every single one of my biggest winners came from this free screener.

Not because the screener finds winners.

Because it finds stocks with the characteristics of past winners.

Here’s what I look for 👇

1. Massive Relative Strength: The stock should already be outperforming the market. Strong stocks tend to get stronger.

2. Clear Uptrend: EMA8 above EMA21 and both moving higher. I want institutions already pushing the stock higher.

3. Fast Movers: ADR% above 4.5. Big winners rarely move 1% per day.

4. Huge momentum: At least 70% above the 52-week low. Most monster winners start from positions of strength.

5. Consistent Performance: Positive performance over the last 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months. I want proven leadership.

6. Liquid Stocks: Enough volume to allow institutions to build meaningful positions.

The screener is only the first step.

Now the real work begins:

• Study the chart
• Research the story
• Look for accumulation
• Wait for a tight setup
• Buy only when the risk/reward is attractive

The goal is not to buy every stock in the screener.

The goal is to find the next exceptional winner.

📎 Free Screener for TradingView: https://t.co/FfuBt33xQb

These patterns repeat.

I've taught this process to thousands of traders.

You can learn it too.

[Roy Mattox @RoyLMattox]

On our Tuesday monthly podcast "Mattox Musings on the Market" we had the most abbreviated session in the last 7 years but we noted that we would provide our views when we had them. We entirely skipped discussing stocks until we had more clarity. Wes and I felt we needed a price catalyst one way or another. We came in today 60% long and closed the market session up 95% as we added $crwd $dell $iwm $crwd $ddog and $lly. Our views are forthcoming. We are bullish. Anecdotal signals are bull/bearish surveys, put/call spike indicators and Naaim reports. More importantly, we feel there are a lot of investors that are panicking on this 8% pullback in the QQQ in the past couple of weeks. Simply stated we feel that people who have sold in the last 5-10 days will regret it and leave 20-30% on table by the end of the year. Wes and I feel that we will have a great year performance in 2026 . The last 2 weeks will be a speed bump nothing more. Do not panic here. Good trading.

[Lone @lonextrades]

Qullamaggie on the Emotional Reality of Trading

“Well, what can I say? It’s been an emotional roller coaster so far today. Emotional roller coaster. And that’s why it’s so hard — you get really frustrated, you get angry, you feel fear. You have all these feelings like fear of missing out, fear of taking a big loss, uh, fear of missing a big trade. And you have all these things happening — you know, you have alerts going off near open, you have this and that happening, you have to manage your existing positions so nothing is going to zero in your portfolio. Everything is happening at once and you have to do these rational trading decisions: correct sizing, correct stop loss, you know. Identifying a good setup, it’s just really, really, really hard. And it takes years to become good, and still you fuck it up constantly like all the time. Like was it last week I had like… I think I was 50 or hundred k and lost not… not hundred k I think, but like 50k and missed profits because I fat-fingered stuff. You know, super hard.”

[Marios Stamatoudis @stamatoudism]

"Nothing good ever happens below the 20MA."

70% of the trading game is about Defense. When markets are trending higher before a pullback, the most at risk is your ''Growth State Capital'' (unrealized gains). When the market actually reverses and you start holding more cash, your ''Principal Capital'' (the money you actually own) starts to come into play - being at risk.

Days like today can be even more painful because losing your Principal carries a different level of pain. Progressive exposure and strategic positioning are key when indices fall below the 20MA, until they revert back above.
Opening a ton of positions just because the market bounces for one day below the 20MA creates big Open Risk without actual Growth State capital. In case things revert like they did today, you end up losing more of your Principal Capital, creating a spiral effect.

Always remember: Defense first. Great offense can only be achieved if great defense has already been established.

[Matt Petrallia, CMT @theEquilibrium]

I was both surprised and honored to receive this thoughtful video testimonial for my trading mentorship service from @KynaKosling .

She is brilliant at crystallizing information and digging deep to piece together 'puzzles' that confront us all as traders. Her recommendation could not be more satisfying. Thank you, Kyna!

[Richard Moglen @RichardMoglen]

A Market Cycle system allows you to determine how aggressive you should be trading.

https://t.co/wMwSbzNhsp

[Jeff Sun, CFTe @jfsrev]

26 Relative Strength that already bounced above rising 10/20-day MAs while market $SPY and $QQQ (cap-weighted) bounced below their 20-day MAs.

$RXO — Trucking
$OKTA — Software Infrastructure
$NTAP — Software Infrastructure
$BB — Software Infrastructure
$SNOW — Application Software
$APPS — Application Software
$VSH — Semiconductors
$MRVL — Semiconductors
$ARM — Semiconductors
$ALAB — Semiconductors
$STUB — Internet Content & Information
$GENI — Internet Content & Information
$PENG — IT Services
$KEEL — IT Services
$CLOV — Healthcare Plans
$TXG — Health Information Services
$FPS — Electrical Equipment & Parts
$GH — Diagnostics & Research
$UMAC — Computer Hardware
$DELL — Computer Hardware
$HPE — Communication Equipment
$VSXY — Apparel Retail

[Martin Luk @martinlukkt]

On bounce days after a distribution day, I was often tempted to go long and found myself mostly on the wrong side of the trade and getting stopped out. Those losing trades guided me to learn and develop the pullback short setup.

Those days are tricky and deadly. They don't only dig you into a deeper hole; but more importantly, throw off your rhythm and alignment with the market, which could easily lead to chasing or revenge trading.

Take a break and come back with a refreshed mind later. I wish I can learn it earlier.