Eight of these thirteen questions have one right answer that hasn't changed since Weinstein wrote the book in 1988. Five have shifted because the NSE universe has grown — sector composition, transition rates, the 79-stock prime cohort are things the original framework couldn't have known. Live numbers as of 17 Jul 2026.
Question
What is stage analysis?
Answer
Stage analysis classifies a stock by its phase in a long-term price cycle — basing, advancing, topping, declining. Each phase rewards a different posture. Stan Weinstein published the framework in 1988. See the
stage analysis page for the full treatment with a worked RELIANCE 2020-21 example.
Question
What is a Stage 2 stock?
Answer
A
Stage 2 stock is one whose price is above a rising 150-day moving average with the 200-day moving average also sloping upward. As of 17 Jul 2026,
771 of
2,254 NSE stocks pass the test — 34.5% of the universe.
Question
What is the 30-week moving average rule?
Answer
Only buy stocks above a rising
30-week moving average; only short stocks below a declining one. Stan Weinstein traded weekly charts on US equities. On daily NSE data the conversion is exact: 30 weeks of trading × 5 sessions/week = 150 sessions. Calendar days would give 210, but NSE doesn't trade weekends — and the ~17 trading holidays per year wash out across a 30-week window. We use the
150-day MA because it's the same horizon Weinstein used, sampled at the granularity NSE actually publishes.
Question
How is the setup score calculated?
Answer
The
setup score is a 0-10 measure blending four sub-scores: pullback depth, sector strength, uptrend maturity, and price stability. As of 17 Jul 2026,
79 NSE stocks score 8 or higher — the slice most retail readers should restrict their watchlist to. See
the setups page for the per-sub-score weighting and the backtest evidence behind it.
▸How we compute setup score
Today's full distribution: 79 prime (8+), 324 strong (6-7.99), 256 mid (4-5.99). The four sub-scores are computed daily during the post-close pipeline.
Pullback depth measures how far a Stage 2 stock is below its trailing high relative to its average true range — shallow pullbacks score higher. Sector strength uses the parent sector's 20-day Stage 2 share delta. Uptrend maturity is the ratio of weeks-in-stage to the cohort median — 5-25 weeks is the sweet spot. Price stability penalises wide-range whippy candles in the last 10 sessions. The four sub-scores are blended equally (25% each); the final score is rounded to one decimal. Sub-2 scores are dropped from the prop scan entirely.
Question
What is relative strength (RS)?
Answer
A 1-99 percentile rank of a stock's price performance versus the Nifty 50 over a blended window. A stock with
RS 90 has outperformed 89% of NSE stocks. RS is comparative, not absolute: in a market down 20%, an RS-90 stock might be down 5% — leading, not winning. See
RS leaders.
Question
What does the regime classification mean?
Answer
The
regime is the NSE's overall breadth posture — Bull, Topping, Bear, Recovery — derived from Stage 2 share, the share above 200-DMA, and transition rates. The regime determines whether systematic Stage 2 longs have positive expectancy. As of 17 Jul 2026 the regime label is
WEAK_RECOVERING and has held for 33 sessions. See
today's snapshot for the live read and
market rotation for the sector cut.
Question
Why focus on Stage 2 only?
Answer
Stage 2 is the only phase with a structural long-side edge. Stage 1 has no directional bias; Stage 3 is weakening; Stage 4 has a negative drift. Most retail losses come from buying Stage 4 stocks that look cheap — PAYTM through 2022-23, ZEEL after the Sony deal collapse. Filtering to Stage 2 only — the 771 names that pass the test today — is the simplest discipline that eliminates that error. The structural edge isn't theory: across 3,80,687 sample-stocks since 2024, the prime band's T+30 hit rate sits at 50.9%. See the backtest evidence on
setups.
Question
What does '1→2 transition' mean?
Answer
A stock crossing from
Stage 1 basing into
Stage 2 advancing — the
canonical breakout. The
1→2 transition rate (how many stocks moved 1→2 over the last 5 or 20 days) is the most useful leading indicator of regime expansion. Past 5 sessions on NSE: 45 stocks. (as of 17 Jul 2026)
Question
Does this work on F&O / small caps / penny stocks?
Answer
Stage analysis works on any underlying with at least 250 trading sessions of clean data and meaningful turnover — that includes most F&O names and the upper end of small-caps. It does NOT work on penny stocks, freshly listed names without history, illiquid scrips with gappy prints, or names on
ASM/
T2T. These are excluded from the universe by design — the moving-average mathematics depend on continuous, two-sided trading.
Question
Can I use this for swing trading vs positional vs investing?
Answer
Stage analysis is built for positional and swing horizons — typically 5 to 25 weeks held. Today's median Stage 2 cohort has been in Stage 2 for 6 weeks, the 75th percentile is 10 weeks. For intraday or scalp trading the 150-day MA is too slow to matter. For multi-decade buy-and-hold the framework is overkill — a stock can survive a Stage 4 and emerge stronger, but you'll wear an 60% drawdown to find out.
Question
Why does Stage 2 share differ from % above 200-DMA?
Answer
Stage 2 share requires four conditions simultaneously: price above 150-DMA, price above 200-DMA, 150-DMA sloping up, 200-DMA sloping up. % above 200-DMA requires only one — price above 200-DMA. The latter is always larger. As of 17 Jul 2026, Stage 2 share is 34.5% while % above 200-DMA is 42.8%. The gap measures how much of the universe is above the line but does not yet have a rising MA — that is, late-Stage-1 or early-Stage-3.
Question
How should I size positions with this framework?
Answer
The framework tells you what to trade, not how much. Position sizing is a separate discipline that depends on your account size, drawdown tolerance, and stop distance. A common starting point used by Weinstein and Minervini: risk no more than 1% of account equity per trade, where risk = (entry − stop) × position size. With a Stage 2 entry near the 150-DMA and a stop 5-8% below, a 1% risk budget translates to a position size of roughly 12-20% of equity. Concentration matters too — no more than 3-5 Stage 2 positions concurrently for most retail accounts. Two NSE-specific caveats: STT on both legs means a 5% stop hit costs roughly 5.2% net; and Zerodha/Groww GTT stops don't fire during pre-open, so a Monday gap-down through your stop fills at the day's open, not your stop level. Size assuming both.
Question
Does the framework tell me when to sell?
Answer
Yes, but at two altitudes. The first sell signal is a
2→3 transition: price stalls near highs, the 150-DMA flattens, distribution volume rises. Past 5 sessions on NSE: 53 stocks crossed 2→3 (as of 17 Jul 2026). When that count runs hot for two weeks running, it's the regime telling you to tighten stops. The second is a stop violation — a Stage 2 stock that breaks below its rising 150-DMA on volume. Neither signal is a target — both are deteriorations of the conditions that made the entry rational. A trailing stop at the 150-DMA with a 5-8% buffer is the simplest implementation. On NSE, F&O expiry-week candles often spike through stop levels mid-session then close back inside — using the daily close, not the intraday low, against your 150-DMA stop avoids most expiry-week false exits.