The traders, in a sentence each
| Trader | The method in a sentence | Their scans |
|---|---|---|
| Stan Weinstein | Every stock moves through four stages; buy only in Stage 2. | Stage screens |
| Mark Minervini | Eight rules for a real uptrend, then buy a tight base with a stop. | Trend Template, VCP |
| Qullamaggie | The top 1–2% of movers, bought as they break out of a tight pause. | Breakout scan, episodic pivots |
| Stockbee | Short momentum bursts, found by a daily scan and timed by a breadth table. | Momentum bursts, Market Monitor |
| William O'Neil | CAN SLIM: growing earnings, new highs, leadership, a rising market. | CANSLIM, high tight flags, follow-through day |
| David Ryan | O'Neil's CAN SLIM, applied with unusual discipline. | CANSLIM |
| Gil Morales and Chris Kacher | Buy earlier than the breakout, on a pocket pivot. | Pocket pivots |
| Oliver Kell | Read where a stock is in its cycle of price action, and act to match. | Momentum stocks |
| Dan Zanger | Breakouts from clean chart patterns in leading stocks, on heavy volume. | Breakouts today |
| Nicolas Darvas | New highs out of a box, with the stop under the box. | Darvas box |
| Jesse Livermore | Trade with the market, buy at pivotal points, sit tight with winners. | New 52-week highs |
| Richard Driehaus | Buy high, sell higher: rising stocks with earnings that beat. | Momentum stocks |
| Richard Dennis's Turtles | Buy a 20- or 55-day high, size by the daily range, exit on a 10- or 20-day low. | Turtle breakouts |
| Peter Lynch | Growth at a reasonable price: a P/E no higher than the growth rate. | PEG screen |
| Martin Zweig | A burst of broad buying after a washout signals a new advance. | Breadth thrust |
Their scans, tonight
What they agree on
Read enough of them and the same few ideas keep coming back:
- Buy strength. Almost none of them buy falling stocks because they look cheap. They buy stocks already rising, often at new highs.
- Wait for a precise entry. A breakout from a tight range, a pocket pivot, a gap on news: the entry is a specific moment, not a feeling.
- Decide the exit before the entry. Every method has a stop, and every one of these traders says cutting losses small is what kept them in the game.
- Respect the market. Most stocks follow the market, so they trade hardest when it is rising and step back when it isn't.
Questions people ask
What do these traders have in common?
Almost all of them buy stocks that are already rising rather than ones that look cheap, wait for a precise entry such as a breakout from a tight range, keep losses small with a stop decided in advance, and let their winners run. They differ mainly in how long they hold and how they pick the moment to buy.
Which method should a beginner start with?
Stan Weinstein's stage analysis is the simplest frame: buy only stocks in Stage 2, the advancing stage. Mark Minervini's Trend Template is a precise test for the same thing. Most of the other methods are ways of timing an entry inside Stage 2.
Do these scans tell me what to buy?
No. Each scan applies a trader's published rules to US stocks and lists what passes, so you have a short list of charts to study. Whether to buy, and when to sell, is your decision.