Questions people ask
Short answers about the method, the site and the data. For the full picture, the eight-lesson course takes about an hour.
The method
Stage analysis, in plain answers.
What is stage analysis?
A simple way of reading charts, popularized by Stan Weinstein in 1988. Every stock is always in one of four stages (basing, advancing, topping or declining), and you only buy in the advancing one, Stage 2. It doesn't predict prices; it tells you which way the trend is working today.
What is a Stage 2 stock?
A stock in a rising trend: higher highs, higher lows, and a price above a rising long-term average. It usually begins with a breakout from a quiet base on heavy volume. It is the only stage stage analysis buys in.
What is the 30-week moving average rule?
Weinstein's rule: read a weekly chart against its 30-week moving average. Price above a rising line is healthy; price below a falling line is not. Look at the slope first and the side second. On a daily chart, the 150-day average is roughly the same line.
How does Stage2Stocks decide a stock's stage?
We follow Weinstein's four stages, but the classification itself comes from our own model, run on daily data for every US stock we cover after each close and tested on years of US market history. On most charts it agrees with what you would read from the 30-week line by eye; where a stock sits right on the edge between two stages, the model may call it a little earlier or later. Every stock page shows the chart the stage came from, so you can always check it.
Why only buy in Stage 2?
Because it is the only stage where the trend is working for you. Stage 1 has no direction yet, Stage 3 is stalling, and Stage 4 is falling. Most painful losses come from buying Stage 4 stocks because they look cheap.
Why check the market before individual stocks?
Most stocks move with the market. The same good-looking chart fails more often in a weak market than in a strong one, so the market decides how aggressive to be. And the S&P 500 alone can mislead: it can rise on a few giants while most stocks fall.
Does stage analysis tell me when to sell?
Yes. Set a stop when you buy and raise it as the stock rises. Watch for Stage 3: a flattening 30-week line, wider swings, heavy volume without progress. When the price closes below a line that has flattened or turned down, Stage 2 is over. Never hold on through Stage 4.
How much should I put in each stock?
The method tells you what to buy, not how much. A common rule of thumb is to size each position so that hitting your stop costs no more than about 1% of your total capital, and to hold a handful of positions rather than dozens. Remember trading costs and gaps: an overnight fall can open below your stop.
Is this for trading or investing?
It fits positions held for weeks to months, the life of a Stage 2 trend. It is too slow for intraday trading. Long-term investors can still use it to avoid buying into Stage 4 and to notice when a holding has stopped trending.
Does it work on small caps and penny stocks?
The stages describe any freely traded stock, but they are least reliable where trading is thin. Very small, illiquid stocks can jump on a few orders, so a breakout there means less. That is why our lists and market numbers leave out stocks that close under $5 or trade less than $1 million a day. Search still finds them, and their pages say so.
Using Stage2Stocks
What the site does, and what it doesn't.
Does Stage2Stocks give buy or sell recommendations?
No. It is an educational tool that shows where every US stock we cover stands in the stage cycle and what the market is doing. It does not recommend trades or set price targets, and Stage2Stocks is not a registered investment adviser or broker-dealer. Your entries, exits and position sizes are your own decisions.
What is the setup score?
Our score for the quality of a Stage 2 stock's trend, from 0 to 10, built from categories like moving-average structure, recent strength, distance from highs and how mature the trend is. We don't publish the exact weights. They are the part that took years of testing to settle. A high score means a strong trend, not an early one, so for buying look for stocks that are also still early in Stage 2.
What does the RS rating mean?
It ranks every US stock we cover from 1 to 99 by how it has performed against the rest of the market. A rating of 90 means the stock has done better than about 90% of them. It is relative: in a falling market a high-RS stock can still be falling, just less.
What is the market read?
Our one-line summary of the market's condition after each close, built from breadth, trend and momentum across the whole US market. It tells you whether the market is helping or hurting new buys. It is a summary of the evidence, not a forecast.
What is the difference between Prop Scan and the screener?
Prop Scan is a short list, picked each evening, of Stage 2 stocks at a breakout or pullback entry, grouped by sector. The screener is every US stock we cover, with every filter in your hands. Use Prop Scan to see tonight's best candidates; use the screener to ask your own questions.
Why did a stock's stage change overnight?
A stock sitting right on the boundary between two stages can switch on one day's move. That tells you the trend was marginal. For a steadier view, look at how many weeks the stock has spent in its stage and at the weekly chart.
Do I need an account?
Your first few pages are open to anyone. After that we ask you to create an account with just your email, and no password. It keeps your watchlist and saved scans, and sends the evening market read.
Where is my watchlist stored?
In your account, not your browser. Sign in on any device and it is there.
How is Stage2Stocks different from other screeners?
Most screeners run a filter once. Stage2Stocks keeps a classification for every US stock we cover that carries over from day to day (its stage, how long it has been there, when it changed), alongside the market and sector context that decides whether a setup is worth acting on. It is about price trends, not company fundamentals.
The data
Where the numbers come from, and when they update.
When is the data updated?
Every US trading day, after the close. The run starts around 5:30 pm ET, with automatic re-runs later in the evening if anything arrives late. Every page on the site refreshes when it finishes.
Why is an old price on your chart lower than I remember?
Our price history is adjusted for splits and dividends so that long-term charts and averages stay continuous. The shape of the chart and every percentage move are right; an old dollar price can read lower than the price that actually traded on that day, and a stock that has split shows its old prices divided to match.
How far back does the data go?
Prices go back to January 2018. Stages, and the market-wide breadth built from them, start in October 2018: through the late-2018 selloff, the 2020 Covid crash, the 2022 bear market, the 2025 tariff selloff and everything since.
Which stocks are covered?
About 5,300 US common stocks and ADRs on the NYSE, Nasdaq and NYSE American. Our lists and market numbers count the roughly 3,200 that close at $5 or more and trade at least $1 million a day; search finds them all. A stock that listed recently gets a stage once it has enough history.
How are sectors and industries grouped?
Stocks are grouped into 11 broad sectors and more than a hundred industries. Industries often matter more than sectors: chipmakers and software companies sit in the same sector but frequently move in opposite directions.
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Still have a question?
Look it up in the glossary, take the tour of the site, or ask the AI desk about today's market.
See it in today's market
The methods on this page, run across the US market after every close.