The questions readers actually ask.

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 50-day moving average sits above its 200-day moving average and is still rising. It is a read on trend structure, which is why a stock can sell off sharply for a fortnight and still classify as Stage 2. As of 11 Sep 2026, 824 of 2,527 NSE stocks pass the test — 32.8% of the universe.

Question

What is the 30-week moving average rule?

Answer

That is Weinstein's rule, not ours: only buy stocks above a rising 30-week moving average; only short stocks below a declining one. He traded weekly charts on US equities. Thirty weeks is roughly 150 daily sessions, so the obvious move would be to compute a 150-day average and call it the same line — but this site does not, and no 150-day average is computed anywhere on it. It uses a different test: the 50-day MA measured against the 200-day, plus the direction of the 50-day. Weinstein asks where price sits against one average; this asks how two averages sit against each other, which does not flip on a single bad week.

Question

How is the setup score calculated?

Answer

The setup score is our in-house quant model for structural quality, graded 0 to 10. It weighs a lot of factors together: the stock's moving averages and their direction, its recent performance against its longer-term performance, how much strength is behind the move, how far price sits from its 52-week high, and how mature the Stage 2 run is. Which factors count and by how much is the part that took years of testing to settle, and that we keep to ourselves. It works, and it has kept working. As of 11 Sep 2026, 119 NSE stocks score 8 or higher — the slice most retail readers should restrict their watchlist to. See the setups page for how the score behaves in practice.

▸What the setup score is for

Today's full distribution: 119 prime (8+), 306 strong (6-7.99), 238 mid (4-5.99). It is computed daily during the post-close pipeline, and only for stocks that are in Stage 2 and trading above ₹30.

It compresses all of that into one number for “how clean is this setup”, on a scale comparable across the whole universe on any given day — so an 8.4 in pharma and an 8.4 in metals mean the same thing.

It has held up. The bands separate cleanly on forward returns, and they hold that separation across market regimes — which is the harder test, and the one most scores fail.

Question

What is relative strength (RS)?

Answer

A 1-99 percentile rank of a stock's price performance versus the Nifty 50 over a proprietary trailing 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 11 Sep 2026 the regime label is TRANSITION and has held for 9 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 824 names that pass the test today — is the simplest discipline that eliminates that error. The structural edge isn't theory: across 4,11,534 sample-stocks since 2024, the prime band's T+30 hit rate sits at 51.1%. 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: 25 stocks. (as of 11 Sep 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 well on penny stocks, freshly listed names without history, illiquid scrips with gappy prints, or names on ASM/T2T — the moving-average mathematics depend on continuous, two-sided trading. Note that only the history requirement is actually enforced: a stock needs enough bars for a 200-day average. Surveillance tags and turnover are not filtered, so screening those out is your job.

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 9 weeks, the 75th percentile is 15 weeks. For intraday or scalp trading these moving averages are 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 two conditions simultaneously: the 50-DMA above the 200-DMA, and the 50-DMA rising. % above 200-DMA asks something different — whether today's price is above one line — so the two measure different things rather than one being a stricter version of the other. As of 11 Sep 2026, Stage 2 share is 32.8% while % above 200-DMA is 41.0%. 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 50-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: the 50-DMA stops rising while still above the 200-DMA, price stalls near highs, distribution volume rises. Past 5 sessions on NSE: 56 stocks crossed 2→3 (as of 11 Sep 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 50-DMA on volume. Neither signal is a target — both are deteriorations of the conditions that made the entry rational. A trailing stop at the 50-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 50-DMA stop avoids most expiry-week false exits.

Question

Does Stage2Stocks give buy/sell recommendations?

Answer

No. Stage2Stocks is an educational platform that surfaces stocks meeting structural criteria. It does not recommend specific trades, does not predict price targets, and is not a SEBI-registered Research Analyst or Investment Adviser. See the disclaimer.

Question

What is the difference between Prop Scan and the Screener?

Answer

Prop Scan is a curated daily list of the highest-quality Stage 2 setups. Ranked by setup score, and grouped by sector so you can see where the strength is. By default the table is grouped by sector, strongest sector first, so you see which sectors are being bought and the best setups inside them; switch to “Setup score” to get one flat ranking. The screener is the full filterable NSE universe — you specify your own filters. Prop Scan answers “what is the best today” — 309 names today vs a 30-day average of 300. The screener answers “let me cut the universe myself.” A worklist materially below the 30-day average is the framework's politest way of saying “tomorrow.”

Question

How is your data different from Chartink / Trendlyne / Screener.in?

Answer

Three differences. First, the unit of analysis: Chartink and Trendlyne sell scans (point-in- time filters); we sell a classification that persists across days, with weeks-in-stage and transition history. Second, scope: Screener.in is fundamentals-first; we are price-action-first with no P/E, ROE, or earnings overlay. Third, methodology: every number on the site is reproducible from the same daily pipeline, with the regime and breadth context attached. Today's Stage 2 share is 32.8% — you can verify it by summing Stage 2 stocks on the stage screener and dividing by 2,527.

Question

Why does the day's classification sometimes differ from yesterday's?

Answer

Because a stock is classified by its current position relative to a rising MA — and both price and the MA move every session. A stock sitting on the 50-DMA, with the slope near flat, can flip from Stage 2 to Stage 3 (or vice versa) on a single 2% candle. Day-to-day flips are signal, not bug — they tell you the structural condition was marginal. When stability matters more than freshness, look at weeks-in-stage: a stock with 12 weeks in Stage 2 is in a different state from one with 1.

Question

Do I need to sign up? What's free vs paid?

Answer

You do not need to sign up to use the framework. Every educational page, the market and breadth dashboards, every glossary entry, the regime read, and the daily prop scan list are free without an account. The one exception is the /live intraday desk, which requires signing in. A free account lets you save a personal watchlist across sessions and persist screener settings. There is no paid tier today. If that changes the change will be announced in the changelog before pricing exists.

Question

What happens to my watchlist if I'm logged out?

Answer

The watchlist persists in your account, not in your browser. Log back in from any device and the same list is there. If you have never signed in, no watchlist exists yet — the “Add to watchlist” buttons on stock pages prompt sign-in before saving. Watchlist data is stored against your email; deleting your account deletes the watchlist with it.

Question

Why is my favourite stock not in your universe?

Answer

Almost always one of three: (1) it is not on the NSE EQ series — the universe is built from the exchange's EQUITY_L list filtered to that series; (2) our price vendor returns no usable series for the symbol, so it never gets validated in; or (3) it has too little history for a 200-day average, which is the case for recent IPOs. The universe contains 2,527 names as of 11 Sep 2026 — effectively the whole EQ-series list rather than a curated subset. We do not exclude on surveillance tags or turnover.

Question

How often is data updated?

Answer

Every NSE trading day, after market close. The pipeline pulls end-of-day prices, recomputes stage classification, setup score, sector aggregates, and regime, then refreshes every page on the site. Latest data: 11 Sep 2026.

Question

Why does a sector's 1-year return sometimes look negative even when Stage 2 share is high?

Answer

Sector Stage 2 share is a snapshot of today — what proportion of constituents are structurally advancing. The 1-year weighted return is backward-looking — what the sector actually paid over the last year. A sector can have high Stage 2 share today (its constituents recently transitioned to Stage 2) while still showing a negative 1-year return. That signature usually marks a defensive rotation — capital moving into sectors that look weak on trailing returns but are structurally rebuilding. See market rotation.

Question

When in the day is the data updated?

Answer

The pipeline starts at 16:00 IST, half an hour after the NSE close, and normally finishes within the hour. It then self-heals: if the first pass came up short, it re-runs at 16:30, 17:00 and 17:30, and every step is an idempotent upsert so a re-run is safe. Sectoral aggregates and the regime label are recomputed after individual-stock classification finishes. If a page still shows yesterday's date after about 18:00 IST, the run hit a vendor data delay — the snapshot will recompute on the next successful run.

Question

How do you handle stock splits, bonuses, demergers?

Answer

The OHLC series is fully adjusted for splits, bonuses, and rights, so moving averages and relative-strength calculations stay continuous across corporate actions. Demergers are handled by treating the resulting entities as new listings until they accumulate 250 sessions of post-demerger history — at which point they re-enter the universe. The adjustment is applied by our price vendor (Yahoo Finance) rather than sourced from NSE corporate-action notices directly — we do not ingest those separately, so an unusual action the vendor handles badly will show up as a discontinuity.

Question

What about ASM / T2T stocks — are they classified?

Answer

Yes, they are classified — we do not filter them out. This is a real gap and worth being blunt about: we do not ingest the exchange's ASM (Additional Surveillance Measure) or T2T (Trade-to-Trade) lists at all, so a name under surveillance is scored exactly like any other. That matters, because ASM/T2T mechanics — higher margins, no intraday netting, lot-size constraints — change the path of price in ways the stage classifier was not built for. Check the tag on the exchange site before acting on any scan output; a high setup score on a surveillance-tagged name is not a reason to skip that check.

Question

How far back does the historical data go?

Answer

It depends which series. The market-wide breadth history — Stage 2 share, % above the 200-DMA, the regime label — goes back to 17 September 2007, about 4,650 sessions, which is why the December 2008 read (Stage 2 share at 0.47%) and the March 2020 crash are both on the learn page.

Per-stock data is shorter. The daily OHLC archive and the per-stock stage classifications start on 1 January 2018 — so individual stock histories cover the 2018-19 NBFC squeeze, March 2020 and the 2022 correction, but not 2008 or 2013. The setup backtest is shorter still: it is built from entries since January 2024.

Question

Why do PSU Banks show different stage from Private Banks in the Financials sector?

Answer

Because PSU banks and private banks are different industries inside the same sector — and they rotate against each other on rate-cycle direction. The NSE Sectoral classification puts both under Financials, but the underlying drivers diverge: PSU banks re-rate on policy and credit-cycle signals (the 2022-26 BANKBARODA Stage 2 is textbook); private banks track NIM and asset-quality cycles. Industry-level cuts beat sector-level cuts on NSE for exactly this reason. See the industry breakdown on market rotation.