Today's Brief : 2026-09-18

Start With Leadership

A stock must be priced at $5 or more, average at least $20 million in daily trading value over 20 sessions, and pass the trend checks. Its relative-strength rank must be at least the 80th percentile of the scanned universe. The initial history minimum is 120 sessions, but the relative-strength calculation needs 252 price observations.

Build a Score Out of 100

The seven components below are added together. Other scanners' total scores are not added again, so the same evidence is not counted twice through an aggregate score.

Relative Strength: up to 20 points. How the stock ranks against the scanned universe. The most recent quarter's return gets 40% weight; each of the three preceding quarters gets 20%. The resulting measure is ranked across stocks. Percentiles of 95, 90, 85, and 80 earn 20, 15, 10, and 5 points.

Trend: up to 20 points. Checks price against the 50-, 150-, and 200-day moving averages, their alignment, and whether the 200-day average is rising. Three grouped trend checks earn 3 points each, a rising 200-day average earns 5, and passing the complete trend template earns 6.

Momentum: up to 15 points. Measures the speed and consistency of the price trend over 90 trading days. It multiplies the annualized fitted price trend by how closely prices follow that trend, then ranks stocks. Percentiles of 95, 90, and 80 earn 15, 12, and 8 points. If the entire regression-score set is unavailable, six-month returns provide a fallback.

Setup Quality: up to 15 points. Uses the strongest setup reported by the existing scans. Confirmed, valid, and developing setups earn 15, 10, and 5 points; no qualifying setup earns zero.

Catalyst: up to 15 points. A strong positive event earns 15 points and another qualifying positive event earns 10. Missing or unknown catalysts earn zero. A verified negative event can block an actionable classification.

Distance From the Yearly High: up to 10 points. Stocks within 5%, 10%, and 15% of their 52-week high earn 10, 7, and 4 points. Stocks farther away earn zero.

Reward-to-Risk: up to 5 points. Measured upside of at least 3 times the initial risk earns 5 points; at least 2.5 times earns 3; at least 1.5 times earns 1. No identified overhead resistance earns 3 points without inventing a price target. Unknown upside earns zero.

Read the Grade Separately From the Entry

A+ starts at 90 points; A at 85; B at 75; and C at 65. Below 65 does not meet the grading threshold. A score of 85 is a score, not an 85% probability of a successful trade.

In a mixed market, the ranking score is multiplied by 0.90. For example, an 85 becomes 76.5 for ranking, but retains its A grade. In defensive or unknown conditions, the quality score remains visible but new actionable classifications are blocked.

These are screening rules, not a guarantee of returns. The stop, available upside, and entry conditions still matter for every setup.