Bulkowski's Trading Setups

Written by and copyright © 2005-2019 by Thomas N. Bulkowski. All rights reserved. Disclaimer: You alone are responsible for your investment decisions. See Privacy/Disclaimer for more information. Some pattern names are the registered trademarks of their respective owners.

This page shows trading setups for stock and options traders. Look them over and make whatever changes you feel are necessary to get the setup to work for your trading style.

WARNING: It's been years since I posted these setups. They may not longer work or their performance has deteriorated enough to make them obsolete. Use them at your own risk. My hope is that they will give you some ideas that might work better than these.

Good luck.

-- Thomas Bulkowski

Latest Releases

• September 19, 2017: No-nines. Here's a way for traders to increase profit and reduce failures.
• August 29, 2017: Monthly trends. Here's a reliable sell signal for investors.
• June 5, 2015: Bottom fishing. This setup uses ugly double bottoms
• January 2, 2014: Golden triangle: Here's a trading setup based on a scallop pattern.
• April 2, 2012: Retrace setup. This page will be updated each Friday with candidates for the retrace setup.

Option Setups

When trading options the focus should be on puts, not calls. Why? Because price drops faster than it rises. For example, on page 756 of my book, Encyclopedia of Chart Patterns, Second Edition (the green book pictured on the bottom left), Table 49.2 for symmetrical triangles says that it took price 124 days to climb an average of 31% after the breakout, but it took price 45 days to drop 17%, both in a bull market. The drop is over twice as fast as the rise. And this is not an isolated example.

1. Busted pattern. After the breakout reverses, trade the new direction.
2. Covered calls. Boost your returns with covered calls.
3. Double top. Method helps predict the time to exit.

 

Stock/ETF Setups

4. Adam White setup. This setup is good for trading ETFs, and it has a unique dual exit strategy.
5. Ascending triangle trading setup. 23 tests show how difficult it can be to make money trading these.
6. Bottom fishing. This setup uses ugly double bottoms
7. The Bierovic setup for ascending triangles. If you don't want to make money, this is the setup.
8. Busted pattern. So nice I show it twice. After the breakout reverses, trade the new direction.
9. Cloudbank. For buy-and-hold investors, a cloudbank chart pattern is an easy way to make large profits.
10. Common stock offerings. For buy-and-hold investors: make 25% in 4 months but watch the drawdown!
11. Cup and caps trading setup. This shows promise for position traders but few trades occur.
12. Darvas Box setup. This setup is works best using ETFs on the weekly scale: 10.5% in 10 months.
13. DCB setup. Here is a trading setup that rarely occurs, but can be quite profitable...or not.
14. Dogs of the Dow. This used to be a winning setup but not anymore.
15. Double bottom trading setup. Trades double bottoms and has won 80% of the time over 20 years.
16. Dohmen setup (position trading). Several common sense rules combine to create swing or position trades.
17. Double bottom. Use shallow throwbacks as an entry condition.
18. Double 7s. This setup is for trading ETFs and it has a high win/loss ratio but little profits.
19. Flat base (buy-and-hold). Here are the rules for trading a flat base pattern.
20. Golden triangle: Here's a trading setup based on a scallop pattern.
21. Kacher-Morales setup. Maybe you can get this gap setup to work...
22. Monthly trends. Here's a reliable sell signal for investors.
23. Monthly symmetrical triangles. The monthly charts can yield some profitable setups.
24. No-nines. Here's a way for traders to increase profit and reduce failures.
25. Rectangle bottom trading setup. Make an average of 2.5% in less than a week.
26. Rectangle top trading setup. The best performing uses a 21-day simple moving average and 3 day exit.
27. Retrace setup. This page will be updated each Friday with candidates for the retrace setup.
28. RSI Trading System This system scales out of trades.
29. Swing traders. Use tall candles to help determine trend changes.
30. Swing traders. Any retracement will do for a swing trade. Here are some tips.

 

Intraday Setups

31. Breakout (long). Find a congestion area and trade the upward breakout.
32. Breakout (short). Find a congestion area and trade the downward breakout.
33. Fibonacci retrace. After a strong down move, trade the bounce.
34. Gap open (long). Buy after price gaps down.
35. Gap open (short). If price gaps up, short the stock.
36. Retrace trade (long). On 5-min scale, find a strong down trend and trade the bounce.
37. Retrace trade (short). On 5-min scale, after a strong up trend, short the stock.
38. RSI. Use the Wilder relative strength index to trade.

Written by and copyright © 2005-2019 by Thomas N. Bulkowski. All rights reserved. Disclaimer: You alone are responsible for your investment decisions. See Privacy/Disclaimer for more information. Some pattern names are the registered trademarks of their respective owners. Sharp as a marble.