The short version
Kristjan Kullamägi, who trades as Qullamaggie, is a momentum swing trader. Every day he scans for the stocks that have moved the most over the past one, three and six months, then waits for one of three setups: a breakout from a tight range, an episodic pivot on news, or, on the short side, a parabolic move that starts to fail.
His entries are precise and his stops are tight. Most trades lose a little; a few gain many times what the losers cost. That shape, small losses and large wins, is the whole method.
Who he is
Kullamägi is a Swedish trader who taught himself, largely from the work of earlier momentum traders. He became widely known around 2019 and 2020 for growing a small account into a very large one, and for being unusually open about how: he streamed his trading and his chart reviews live for hours at a time, and wrote up his setups on his blog, qullamaggie.com.
He credits much of his approach to others. The episodic pivot is Pradeep Bonde's, the focus on leaders and earnings echoes William O'Neil, and the tight, low-risk entry is close to what Mark Minervini teaches. What he added is a simple, repeatable daily routine around them.
The scan: the biggest movers first
Qullamaggie does not start from a theme or a valuation. He starts from price. His scan sorts the whole market by its one-month, three-month and six-month performance and keeps the top few percent of each list. Those are the stocks institutions are buying, and the next big move usually comes from a stock that has already made one.
Two filters follow. He wants enough average daily range, the size of a typical day's move as a percentage, so that a trade can pay quickly; he has said he prefers stocks that move 5% or more a day. And he wants enough liquidity to get in and out without moving the price.
Then he reads the charts by hand, looking for the setups below. The scan is fast. The judgement is the slow part.
Setup 1: the breakout
The breakout is his main setup. The stock has made a large move, often 30% to 100% or more in one to three months. Then it rests. Over two weeks to two months it moves sideways or drifts slightly lower, the range narrows, the lows rise, and the price rides its 10-day and 20-day moving averages.
He enters when the price breaks out of that range. The tighter and more orderly the consolidation, the better: a tight range means sellers are scarce, and it puts the stop close to the entry.
Setup 2: the episodic pivot
An episodic pivot is a stock that reprices on news. It gaps up at the open, typically 10% or more, on volume many times its normal, after an earnings surprise, a large contract or a change in its business. The best ones come from stocks that had done little for months, because the market has not yet priced the change.
He enters near the high of the opening range on the day of the gap, with the stop at the low of the day. The idea comes from Pradeep Bonde, and our Stockbee page covers it in more depth.
Setup 3: the parabolic short
The third setup is the mirror image. A stock goes nearly vertical, up several times over in days or weeks, often in a speculative theme. When the run starts to break, with the first lower high or a failed open, he shorts it and covers into the fall. This is the riskiest of the three and the one he sizes smallest.
In India, for most traders, short selling in the cash market is intraday only, so holding a short overnight means futures, which exist only for the stocks in NSE's F&O list.
Entries, stops and exits
The setups differ; the trade management is nearly the same for all three.
- Entry. As the price clears the high of the opening range, the first few minutes of the session, so that he is in on the day the move starts.
- Stop. At the low of the day. If the breakout is real, the price should not return there.
- First sale. After three to five days, a third to a half of the position, with the stop on the rest moved to break-even.
- The rest. Held until the price closes below the 10-day or 20-day moving average, whichever suits how fast the stock is moving.
Position size is set by the stop: the closer the stop, the larger the position for the same risk. He also cuts his size sharply when the market is weak, since breakouts fail more often then.
On the NSE
The method transfers well, because the NSE produces the same kind of fast, strong movers. A few differences matter.
Price bands. Many NSE stocks have daily limits of 2%, 5%, 10% or 20%. A breakout can stop at the band and resume the next day, which changes where the entry and the stop sit.
Liquidity. The NSE has far more small, thinly traded stocks than the US markets he trades. Many of the top gainers by percentage are among them. Our version of his scan therefore asks for at least ₹5 crore of daily turnover on average.
Intraday entries. The opening-range entry needs a live price during market hours. Our lists are built after the close, so they tell you what to watch the next morning, not when to act.
Try it on Stage2StocksRun his scan on the NSEThe top 3% of NSE stocks by one-, three- or six-month return, with enough daily range, above their short-term averages and close to their highs, updated after every close.
Questions people ask
Who is Qullamaggie?
Kristjan Kullamägi, a Swedish swing trader who posts as Qullamaggie. He became widely known around 2019 and 2020 for growing a small account into a very large one trading momentum stocks, and for explaining his trades in long live streams and on his blog, qullamaggie.com.
What are Qullamaggie's three setups?
Breakouts from a tight range after a big move; episodic pivots, gaps up on news and heavy volume, an idea he credits to Pradeep Bonde; and parabolic shorts, where a stock that has gone nearly vertical is shorted as it starts to crack.
How does Qullamaggie enter and exit a trade?
He enters as the price clears the high of the first minutes of the session, the opening range, and places his stop at the low of that day. After three to five days he sells a third to a half of the position and moves the stop to break-even, then holds the rest until the price closes below the 10- or 20-day moving average.
What is ADR in Qullamaggie's scan?
Average daily range: the average distance between each day's high and low, as a percentage, over about 20 sessions. He keeps to stocks with a high ADR because they move enough for a breakout to pay quickly, and because his stop at the day's low only makes sense when the day's range is wide.
Can you trade Qullamaggie's setups in India?
Yes, with a few changes in mind. Many NSE stocks have daily price bands, so a breakout can stop at a limit. Liquidity is thinner outside the larger names, which is why our version of his scan asks for steady daily turnover. And for most traders in India, short selling in the cash market is intraday only, so an overnight short has to go through futures.