Stan Weinstein's Stage Analysis

[isatrader]

Re: UK - BRBY stage 3 breakdown

...I post this as an demo, though also wonder, as this is a global brand, if it suggests caution on the recently buoyant US upmarket apparel sector.

Possibly, although you'd need to drill down into the details of sales figures to see where the weakness occurred, as even though it's a global brand it could still be affected more by a particular region such as Europe or Asia. Whereas, some of the US apparel brands might have a much larger weighting domestically in the US, which from the relative strength there, appears to be outperforming. But I agree it's certainly a reason to look in more detail if that's an area you are interested in.

 

[isatrader]

US Industry Sectors

I posted the US Industry Sectors at the weekend and the top 3 sectors where Technology (XLK), Consumer Discretionary (XLY) and Financials (XLF). So I thought it might be useful to look inside those sectors within the S&P 500 and see which stocks are the top 20 by Mansfield RS ranking in each for consideration.

One of my favourites which I traded earlier this year for a good profit is still AIG. It's currently 8th in the RS rankings for the XLF group and Weinstein picked it early in the year in his GTA report and it's currently attempting to make a new continuation move and needs a weekly close above 35.05.

Technology (XLK)

Consumer Discretionary (XLY)

Financials (XLF)

 

[lplate]

Re: NDZ

. . . From health sector, it is worth looking at NDZ - Nordion , as example of increased volume on recent up weeks, on very brink of b/o $10.45, and results due Wed 5 Sept 12.

http://scharts.co/UlAx07
This stock broke the 10.45 on volume, I had marked as "still on track, but not fully performing". Its claim for compensation against its isotope provider failed on Monday, and its 40% gap down goes to show that with an investment system you need:
either a guaranteed stop loss,
or to allow a stock no more than one week,
or to avoid the pharma/bio sectors or any stock with an outstanding court case

 

[isatrader]

Re: NDZ

NDZ - SharpCharts Workbench - StockCharts.com
This stock broke the 10.45 on volume, I had marked as "still on track, but not fully performing". Its claim for compensation against its isotope provider failed on Monday, and its 40% gap down goes to show that with an investment system you need:
either a guaranteed stop loss,
or to allow a stock no more than one week,
or to avoid the pharma/bio sectors or any stock with an outstanding court case

It's another great example of why risk management is so important; as when trading individual stocks there's always the possibility that something can cause an outsized gap when it opens the next day, such as an earnings miss, law suits, strikes etc, so it's essential that you know what you are trading; when it's results are, the ex-dividend days, any outstanding court cases or disputes etc. But on the flip side if you are trading individual stocks then you can also get the benefit to the upside when a company gets bid speculation or gets bought out etc. So it's important to protect yourself from letting a negative move like NDZ had from damaging your account through correct position sizing, guaranteed stop losses if available, or various other strategies. Personally, I have a column in my trading spreadsheet that calculates the "black swan risk" to always make sure that a single trade can't do irreparable damage to my account.

 

[vali83]

I have been going through the Consumer Discretionary and i found that GT looks promising. it has good volume just before the breakout over the 30 Week MA, Relative Strenght looks good, it went above resistance at 12. In the daily chart we can easily see that 50 MA is just crossing through the 200 MA.
If we look at the weekly chart we can see that the previous breakout tentative at the end of october 2011 didn't have enough volume. As this breakout seems to have enough, this might be it.

 

[isatrader]

I have been going through the Consumer Discretionary and i found that GT looks promising. it has good volume just before the breakout over the 30 Week MA, Relative Strength looks good, it went above resistance at 12. In the daily chart we can easily see that 50 MA is just crossing through the 200 MA.
If we look at the weekly chart we can see that the previous breakout tentative at the end of October 2011 didn't have enough volume. As this breakout seems to have enough, this might be it.

Hi vali, GT is not in the Consumer Discretionary sector, it's in the more defensive Consumer Staples sector, which although it is hitting new highs, it is falling in the relative strength rankings as other sectors start to outperform it.

The breakout point on GT looks correct to me. However, you're ignoring the large resistance zone that's it's now moving into from late 2011 that extends up to 15. I've attached a P&F chart with the price by volume so you can see what I mean.

Resistance is a key consideration of the method which needs to be evaluated before making a trade, as it can make all the difference between an A+ trade and a C- trade. Go to page 96 in the book and read what it says about this as it's very important imo.

So my opinion is that although you've found a Stage 2A breakout, that due to amount of resistance above that it's likely to only be a C- trade and take time to get back through that resistance and so I feel that you can find a better candidate still. But you're on the right track.

P.S. I like the improvement you made on your charts by making the moving average shaded to show the Mansfield RS in different shades when it's positive or negative.

[EDIT] One more mistake I've spotted though is that on your daily chart you said the 50 day MA is crossing the 200 day MA. If you look at your chart you've used the 30 day MA accidentally, as the 50 day MA still has a bit to go before it crosses the 200 day MA.

 

[vali83]

Isa,

Thank you so much for your feedback. It really helps me figure out and i am trying to learn by my mistakes. It's true GT is not in the Consumer Discretionary and i was using the wrong MA for the daily chart. I used another computer than the one i am using usually and I forgot to change the parameters. I will dig a little bit more to make sure i'll find a better candidate for buying, since i find your feedback very objective and true.

 

[lplate]

Re: Stan Weinstein's Stage Analysis p. 96

. . .
The breakout point on GT looks correct to me. However, you're ignoring the large resistance zone that's it's now moving into from late 2011 that extends up to 15. . . . . Resistance is a key consideration of the method which needs to be evaluated before making a trade, as it can make all the difference between an A+ trade and a C- trade. Go to page 96 in the book . . .So my opinion is that although you've found a Stage 2A breakout, that due to amount of resistance above that it's likely to only be a C- trade and take time to get back through that resistance and so I feel that you can find a better candidate still. . . .

Isa thank you for highlighting this in respect of GT (and also say of chinese internet stock SINA - 3 yr wkly 30w ema - StockCharts.com ) both of which to me look OK apart from the low volume.
Would a very simple way of saying this be that it is better to concentrate on new highs than on recoveries, viz. the trader's way not the investor's way, as on page 61? This also implies the traditional view of Stage 2 breakout, as in the p 11 snake, is not really what ideally you would do.

 

[isatrader]

Re: Stan Weinstein's Stage Analysis p. 96

Isa thank you for highlighting this in respect of GT (and also say of chinese internet stock SINA - 3 yr wkly 30w ema - StockCharts.com ) both of which to me look OK apart from the low volume.
Would a very simple way of saying this be that it is better to concentrate on new highs than on recoveries, viz. the trader's way not the investor's way, as on page 61? This also implies the traditional view of Stage 2 breakout, as in the p 11 snake, is not really what ideally you would do.

What I've noticed is that new people to the method are drawn to the investor entry point that tends to have more resistance and needs much more time to work out. I'm not saying that it's not what you should be looking for, but that you need to consider how the stock moved down to get to that point and so the time it will need to work back up again, especially if the downtrend had steps where it formed a range for periods, and didn't just fall with the odd short covering rally.

GT for example has a strong resistance zone in the 13 to 16 range and so looks likely to pause in that range before it can break out in earnest. So from the current price that's a possible 20% move - which is certainly tradeable, but why I highlighted it as more of a C- pick.

I can't say if either the investor way or the trader way are better as it will take a long time to accumulate that data. I've had good successes with both methods personally, but the stocks making new highs have tended to run for longer than those making early stage 2A breakouts. So it might cause some bias on my part, but I'm trying my best to be objective and not let opinion cloud facts.

Below is the diagrams from the book from pages 60 and 96 that I think show what I'm trying to say in that all Stage 2A breakouts are not created equal. Both are stage 2A breakouts, but the one on the right has less probability of success because of that resistance band above. Weinstein talks about opportunity costs on page 97, which was what I was trying to say in my previous post, but obviously didn't come across correctly.

This discussion is one of the reasons that I wanted to do some more work on the various entry points, as I mentioned a few weeks ago. As I think it will be really useful to look at multiple examples of each major entry point and then how they played out in different stocks - not just in the same time frame - but in different market conditions as well.

 

[isatrader]

Happy Birthday

It's a year today since I started this thread and I just wanted to say a big thank you to all the people that have contributed to it.

I spent a lot of time posting charts and talking to myself to begin with, but slowly people started to join in and it's developed into more than I what I thought it could. As I feel it's now a great free resource for studying Weinstein's method in more depth and we've had some lively discussions as well, which have really helped me personally to understand it better and feel more confident with my own trading and investing.

I plan to continue with the thread and will try to get new samples of the Global Trend Alert to study for more examples for us all; and also try to do some in-depth work on the various entry points and the exit points as well, as I think there's been a big focus on getting into a trade but very little about exit points. So that would be a good area to focus on as well. Also, if there's any other areas from the book that people want to focus on then let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Cheers :cheers:

 

[lplate]

Re: Happy Birthday

It's a year today since I started this thread

Well done on starting and maintaining the thread, isatrader. I can see the large amount of effort involved.

Also you were correct in predicting an unusually positive September for stockmarkets. Well done. (I did not predict the $40 bn moneyprint, certainly.) We have the extra hazard that some breakout stocks may nevertheless be underperforming the SP500!

You said that we too often look at recoveries, which is a problem because the prior stage 4 is too often “within memory” i.e. within, say, two years, so there is usually lots of resistance levels to face. I think it is because a recovery is where the change to an upturn in the 30 week MA is clear to see, whereas in a continuation move the MA is usually already rising, or at least flat-lining, so the change in the MA direction is either non-existent or is less obvious.

Thus the next major thing to look at to confirm a Weinstein continuation set-up is a big increase in volume, but you have said not to worry too much about volume at the time of break-out, but to check that it occurs afterwards. I suspect this produces many breakouts without volume, so I guess we should say hold unless: either there is a big pullback below breakout level OR there is a smaller pullback to above breakout level but on high volume. Is that how in practice you think an new purchase has to be monitored?

The other practical problem is that a stage 3 can be quite wide-ranging and volatile. Weinstein says there is more risk to a continuation set-up than an “investor” stage 1 breakout. The risk I assume he means to be one of a false breakout and a fast return back into a volatile stage 3. To reduce the risk involved , is it a good idea when looking for continuation entries to filter out stocks where the stage 3 is a fairly wide-ranging epic one, and prefer ones which are quite brief (what I call “mini-stage 3s”)?

There were many continuation breakouts last week, and unfortunately some of them ran very fast; it shows that daily and intraday scrutiny and triggers are needed to work Weinstein in the most positive of times. (I don't much like using buy-stops.)

Leaving aside the gold stocks, the breakouts on volume that caught my eye were the
European plastics firm LYB - 2 year weekly 30w sma - StockCharts.com LyondellBasells at 50 on a product launch, and the cloud-computing firm Netsuite N - 3 year weekly 30w sma - StockCharts.com at 59 on nothing particular

 

[isatrader]

Re: Happy Birthday

Well done on starting and maintaining the thread, isatrader. I can see the large amount of effort involved.

Also you were correct in predicting an unusually positive September for stockmarkets. Well done. (I did not predict the $40 bn moneyprint, certainly.) We have the extra hazard that some breakout stocks may nevertheless be underperforming the SP500!

You said that we too often look at recoveries, which is a problem because the prior stage 4 is too often “within memory” i.e. within, say, two years, so there is usually lots of resistance levels to face. I think it is because a recovery is where the change to an upturn in the 30 week MA is clear to see, whereas in a continuation move the MA is usually already rising, or at least flat-lining, so the change in the MA direction is either non-existent or is less obvious.

One of the biggest mistakes I made during the last major breakout in January was to avoid the recovery sectors/stocks in favour of just the continuation moves making new highs. It was still profitable, however, I underperformed the S&P 500 and missed out on a large portion of the gains by being too defensive. It really highlighted the sector rotation for me and that there are times to be aggressive with your entries and play recoveries and times to be more defensive. As you mentioned above, I said that new traders to the method are drawn to recovery stocks. It might be a physiological thing in that they see the big fall and where the stock has been and so find it easier to imagine that the stock can get back up to the level it was before the fall again. Whereas, with breakouts to new highs they have more fear as they have no reference point and so can more easily imagine it falling back to where it has traded in the past at lower levels. So as I said before, it's not wrong to look for recoveries, but there are better times to do it than others, of which, I believe now is one of those times as the recovery stocks move first and strongest in a new market breakout. So the financials, energy, basic materials, and industrials have all made strong moves this week and should be good places for trader picks imo for the next few weeks at least.

Thus the next major thing to look at to confirm a Weinstein continuation set-up is a big increase in volume, but you have said not to worry too much about volume at the time of break-out, but to check that it occurs afterwards. I suspect this produces many breakouts without volume, so I guess we should say hold unless: either there is a big pullback below breakout level OR there is a smaller pullback to above breakout level but on high volume. Is that how in practice you think an new purchase has to be monitored?

Volume is one of the trickiest areas of the method I have found and why I have the added cumulative volume on my charts and use the volume on P&F charts as well, as it can be one of the hardest things to read. In studying the breakouts to new highs so far I've found that a large amount pull back to well below the breakout level and sometimes churn for many weeks or months before breaking out in earnest. A lot of the time this appears to be because the stock has run too far to fast and needs time for the 30 week MA to catch up so that it can push forward. There's also broad market factors to consider such as market timing as it's obviously easier for stocks to breakout to new highs when the market is, as they get pulled along with the momentum. I monitor the amount of new highs and new lows in my other market breadth thread and yesterday's 958 was the highest amount of daily new highs that Stockcharts have on record, and the chart goes back to 1990. So almost a third of the NYSE made a new 52 week high.

I think a vast majority of breakouts aren't on high volume, but my thinking is that the most important thing to watch is the volume on the pullback, as this has to be less than the first run up after the breakout or it's in trouble of failing and moving lower again

The other practical problem is that a stage 3 can be quite wide-ranging and volatile. Weinstein says there is more risk to a continuation set-up than an “investor” stage 1 breakout. The risk I assume he means to be one of a false breakout and a fast return back into a volatile stage 3. To reduce the risk involved , is it a good idea when looking for continuation entries to filter out stocks where the stage 3 is a fairly wide-ranging epic one, and prefer ones which are quite brief (what I call “mini-stage 3s”)?

I not sure you can put the large Stage 3 ranges that form over a year or more in the same category as a continuation move, as you can have the full four stages occur within that range. Personally, I think they create excellent bases for a decent move if you get a good break above them, but I treat the entry like an investor position with only half at the breakout and then the following half on the pullback. Or even just a lower risk entry at the pullback and reverse as I did with Rolls Royce last November - which turned out to be one of my best trades. But as you said there's increased risk of it falling back into the range, so it's an entry that requires more caution in general.

There were many continuation breakouts last week, and unfortunately some of them ran very fast; it shows that daily and intraday scrutiny and triggers are needed to work Weinstein in the most positive of times. (I don't much like using buy-stops.)

Continuation moves are much faster, especially the smaller ones and so daily scrutiny is needed. I believe in the book Weinstein said that you should use a full position size when entering a continuation move, but only half a position size on the initial investor entry point, and then complete your position with a second half position size at the lower risk investor pullback entry point. So that emphasizes the differences in speed in those entry points as well as risk.

This is also an area where the trader and the investor method differ as for trader moves you probably only need the confirmation of a daily close above the breakout, although it doesn't say much about this in the book, but like you said buy stops aren't my favourites either, so you might be better setting alerts in your software that let you know when a level is reached and then buy just before the close if it's holding above the breakout level into the close of trading.

 

[isatrader]

US Industry Sectors

It was a big week for the markets which has caused some changes to the US Industry Sectors Mansfield Relative Strength rankings. Financials (XLF) moved into the top spot with a continuation move above it's Stage 3 range that's it been working up through since May. Volume was more than double what it has been for the last 5 weeks and it's also not too far extended above it's 30 week WMA at 9.3% above it, so it's looks like it's possible that it could move up to challenge it's February 2011 high in the coming weeks or months.

Energy (XLE) was another mover of note and has made it back above the weekly Mansfield RS zero line for the first time since October 2011. It's made a similar move to the financials of late just breaking out of it's Stage 3 range for a potential new Stage 2 continuation move. Another laggard Basic Materials (XLB) is close to crossing the zero line and also broke above it's stage 3 range for the start of a potential Stage 2 continuation move. So the risk sectors are back in play and showing strength. If you look at the daily charts you'll see that all three continued higher on Friday, whereas some of the other sectors that moved strongly on Thursday pulled back.

The weakest sectors unsurprisingly this week were the defensive's with Utilities (XLU), Consumer Staples (XLP) and Health Care (XLV) moving down the rankings.

Below the rankings tables in order of Mansfield relative strength and attached are the weekly and daily thumbnail charts.

 

[isatrader]

US Treasuries Stage Analysis

Attached are the marked up charts of the US 30 year Treasuries (US) futures and US 10 year Treasuries (TY) futures, and although both are very similar I find it useful to look at both to provide confirmation for each other.

US 10 year Treasuries (TY)



The weekly chart moved into Stage 3 five weeks ago and found support at the top of the previous range around the 131 level. It rallied back to below the two year trend line but rolled over again and this week moved back towards the swing low and could possibly break down into Stage 4A if support doesn't hold for a second time.

The Mansfield RS is negative and has moved below the March low signalling weakness, and the straight Relative performance versus the S&P 500 has broken below the two year trend line, indicating a longer term shift in favour of equities.

The weekly cumulative volume gave a sell signal five weeks ago.

The daily chart shows the second break below the 200 day MA, and so if it closes below 131, then it will move into Stage 4A. However, it could also make a double bottom and continue into a larger Stage 3, but the technicals suggest weakness, so we need to wait for confirmation.

Daily cumulative volume has also given a sell signal, but it hasn’t broken below the August levels yet although all the money that went in during the June/July part of the continuation move has come out again.

If it does break down into Stage 4A then the swing target would be around 127.

US 30 year Treasuries (US)



The weekly chart has moved into Stage 3 with the close below the two year trend line and first horizontal support. However, there is significant support below from last years range so a move down to 135 is possible.

The 30 week weighted moving average has turned negative.

The weekly Mansfield RS is negative and has moved below the March low signalling weakness and the straight relative performance versus the S&P 500 has broken below it's two year trend line indicating a longer term shift to equities as in the 10 year chart.

The cumulative volume has given a new sell signal this week. Although it’s only a weak one currently, as it would need to break the March low to show that money is flowing out of 30 year treasuries.

The daily chart shows the breakdown into Stage 3A with the lower high and break below the previous swing low. The price closed right on the 200 day MA, which could provide support. However, once a swing low has formed below the 200 day MA, then that will be the level to watch for a breakdown into Stage 4A. But it could also pivot here as the 10 year did five weeks ago around the 200 day MA and horizontal support, but the technicals are weakening still suggesting a move lower is more probable.

If it does break down into Stage 4A then the swing target would be around 139.

So both of the Treasuries charts are now in Stage 3 after making head and shoulder patterns during their summer Stage 2 continuation moves. The technical picture is weakening for both, although the 10 year is more advanced in Stage 3 and close to breaking down. So these are key charts to watch, as if they do breakdown into Stage 4 then it will give further confirmation to the equity rally and send stocks higher. But if the support levels hold and they instead continue in Stage 3 then it will be harder for equities to advance.

Finally, attached is the relative performance chart between the ETFs of the S&P 500 (SPY) and 30 Year Treasuries (TLT) which shows the recent breakout of the two year trend line in favour of equities, but also that there's some immediate resistance to work through to consider.

 

[isatrader]

Attached are the major charts for analysis. It was another big week for the markets with strong bullish moves. However, if you look through the major charts you'll notice that we either approaching, or at some key resistance/support levels in the Commodities, Treasuries and Dollar index. And so we might get some churn for a bit around those levels before the markets decide whether they are going to continue on their current paths or not.

Below is the Mansfield Relative Strength rankings for the major charts. The German Dax continues to hold the top spot, followed by the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 100. The Russell 2000 also went positive above it's zero line last week and is now outperforming the S&P 500 as well.

Bottom of the table is 30 year Treasuries, followed by 10 year Treasuries and the Dollar Index.

 

[theblackmamba]

bought half a position in these today..will buy other half once breakout confirmed..

 

[isatrader]

AIG Stage Analysis

I noted last week when I did the sector breakdowns that AIG was still one of my favourite picks http://www.trade2win.com/boards/technical-analysis/134944-stan-weinsteins-stage-analysis-66.html#post1965062. It's in the current strongest sector - which is the XLF, and is 9th in the Mansfield RS rankings table for the group. I've done a stage analysis of it tonight, and last weeks price and volume action were very positive with some large institutional money stepping in on the 11th when it pulled back to it's 50 day MA. It managed to make a new high on Friday, but couldn't get a daily close above the early May high of 35.05

AIG has made an excellent recovery from the Stage 4 downtrend that dominated 2011 and continues to show an very good Stage 2 technical pattern.

The initial Swing target from the base pattern was 35.14, which the May 2012 high of 35.05 got within touching distance of. If AIG now makes a continuation move above 35.05, then my new Swing target would be 42.92

The cumulative volume is tracking the price moves well and is close to breaking out to new 52 week highs as well.

Short term on the daily chart you can see the uptrend channel that's it's been trading in for the last four months, which shows that it's not over extended and has a good risk reward ratio. Personally I'd put a trader stop loss below the recent low and 50 day MA at roughly 32.38, and so as AIG has an ATR(200) of 1.253 that would give you a 3 x ATR acceptable stop distance up to 36.14 - and obviously relatively lower if you gave the stop more room.

For a longer term investment, the Point and figure chart shows on the Price by Volume bars on the left, that the 28 level is key support. So somewhere below that would be a sensible spot for a stop loss. The P&F chart also shows very clearly the recent volume build since June on the final column of Xs, and that it's been more than double that of the May sell off.

Attached below is my marked up charts of AIG.

 

[lplate]

Re: QCOR another short to add to PCLN

Now at $43, this is a slightly different short in that it is off of a break of an uptrend line on big volume, then a big price retrace to that trendline on a Bank of America upgrade but on low volume.
QCOR - weekly 18 month period - StockCharts.com
This share appears well liked because of its apparently strong fundamentals, and comes up well in fundamental scans, but such a price rebound would be exactly what you would expect as the outcome of a typical PR effort.
Questcor Pharmaceuticals Breaking $40 And Looking Poised To Begin A New Rally - Seeking Alpha
As a negative, I admit it re-breaks over the 30 wk moving average.

I thought $43 would be enough for this share, but it rose fast and well above $50.
It now looks more like a classic full stage 3 breakdown well down from the top of its volatile stage 3, so, although the current $34 looks fearfully a long way down from $55+ , it is nevertheless a short (or a final close for longs) on a retest of the breakdown line in the $34 area. (There were (too many!) positive articles for this share even right up to yesterday.)

 

[kleros]

Re: Happy Birthday

isatrader, thanks for starting this thread. I have been reading the posts for the last few weeks and I enjoy reading how Stan Weinstein's approach is being implemented today. I am a traditional fundamental investor who is very intrigued with implementing technical analysis in trading. I have made my way through 2/3 of Stan's book and find it still very relevant today. I have a question regarding stock screening. What website or software package do you find most useful for identifying ideal stage analysis candidates? I know you use ProTA for charting. Is this helpful in screening as well? I have tried chartmill.com and it seems to be one of the only websites that provides the ability to screen on Mansfield RS and 30-week moving average breakouts. I would like more flexibility on adding additional indicators and don't mind paying for it. Ayy thoughts are appreciated.

kleros

 

[isatrader]

Re: Happy Birthday

...I have a question regarding stock screening. What website or software package do you find most useful for identifying ideal stage analysis candidates? I know you use ProTA for charting. Is this helpful in screening as well? I have tried chartmill.com and it seems to be one of the only websites that provides the ability to screen on Mansfield RS and 30-week moving average breakouts. I would like more flexibility on adding additional indicators and don't mind paying for it. Any thoughts are appreciated.

Hi kleros, with regards to stock screening there are a number of sites you could use:

1. Chartmill you've already tried.
2. FINVIZ.com - Stock Screener is another one that's similar.
3. S2O Pro Stock Screener claims to be able to screen for Weinstein candidates and is a subscription service.
4. StockCharts.com - Technical Rankings gives you relative performance tables for the all the major US stocks and ETFs. Plus they have predefined scans which you can use here for free: Stock Scan: Predefined Scans - Charting Tools - StockCharts.com and you can create your own with their code if you're a member of the site. I particularly find the P&F Patterns scans useful for Weinstein picks as you can click on the various types of breakouts and then go through the charts visually to to find the most suitable candidates.
5. Morpheus Trading Stock Screener - US, Canadian, German, Indian markets has also just launched as stock screener that focuses on relative strength for ETFs.
6. Prudent Trader also claims to be able to pick Weinstein candidates.

Also, not a screener, but Sharehunter is a picks service that uses a combination of Weinstein's trader method and their own techniques to find potential candidates.

For the trading software I like ProTA as it's really easy to create custom indicators and scans, but it's mac only. I've just in the last few days been talking over email with another trader and helped him to copy my setup on here and created the custom indicators like the cumulative force index with Metastock, which seems to be quite a good option as well as has screeners, custom code etc.

I also post the major charts and US sectors on here most weeks, so you can use those to help you focus on stocks within the sectors that are outperforming. Which is a good starting point for Weinstein picks, as that helps narrow down the list, and is very useful if you are like me and like to look through the charts manually for candidates.

I hope that helps as a starting point.