Trading strategies with ZenBot

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Relative Strength trading

Also known as Real Day Trading. Day and swing trades with the market. Liquid mid and large caps with options.

Hari and the Real Day Trading community teach traders to read the market first, then compare a stock with SPY. A stock holding up while SPY falls may be worth a closer look. They look for daily and intraday charts that agree, often in liquid mid and large caps with options.

Scans to try

  • RS is on every grid. RS 1H, RS 2H and RS 2W: strength vs SPY over the last hour, two hours and two weeks. Compare those readings before opening the chart.
  • Ready-made lists: Strongest, Rising Strength, Top Longs, and their mirrors Weakest and Falling Strength for the short side.
  • All Clear checks the same condition on 15m, 1h, 4h and daily at once. The Green All Around starter does the same as a template.
  • Call % / Put % flow columns plus a Has Weekly Options filter: keep any scan to names with a tradeable chain.
  • Market direction and sector strength stay on screen. You know what the tape is doing before you pick a name.

Market-first, stacked strength

Also known as OneOption. Day and swing trades, with a strong market bias. Heavy volume, clean daily charts, and options for income or direction.

Pete Stolcers at OneOption puts the market first. Is it trending or choppy? Then he looks for a stock with a clean daily chart, strong volume, an intraday move and a sector moving with it. Defined-risk options are part of the approach when the stock suits them.

Scans to try

  • Trending Now and Ready to Trend separate names already extended from names still setting up.
  • Sector Leaders and the In a strong sector filter use cap-weighted sector RS: require the group to agree with the name.
  • Daily-chart filters: Strong Daily, MA structure (above/below 50/100/200 SMA, EMA stacking), and anchored VWAPs from earnings, quarter and 52-week.
  • RVOL, RRVol (volume vs the market) and Unusual Volume compare a stock's volume with its usual pace.

Momentum breakouts & episodic pivots

Also known as Qullamaggie. Multi-day swings in momentum leaders with real daily range. Weekend and evening prep.

Qullamaggie teaches momentum breakout, episodic pivot and parabolic short setups. The starting point is a liquid stock that moved strongly over the last 1–6 months and has enough daily range, measured with ADR%. A breakout follows tight consolidation; a pivot needs a catalyst such as earnings. Entries can come off moving average pullbacks, with risk measured against the low of day.

Scans to try

  • Four Qullamaggie-style starters ship in the Scan Playground: Qullamaggie Breakout Episodic Pivot 52-Week AVWAP Leaders VWAP Fail Short. Favorite one and it's yours to edit.
  • 90-Day Leaders is the leader universe these setups start from: the strongest multi-month movers with real daily range.
  • Coiled Spring finds the quiet part: consolidation with a volatility squeeze firing, range about to expand.
  • The method's numbers as filters: daily ADR %, ATR $ and ATR %, distance to year/3-month/month highs, 1M/3M/6M change.
  • Weekend scanning works. The scanner holds Friday's session while the market is closed, so weekend prep shows real data, not an empty screen.

Small-cap momentum & gappers

Also known as Warrior-style. Intraday trading in low-float, low-price stocks with high volatility. Premarket and the first hour matter most.

Warrior Trading focuses on fast small-cap moves, often in the first hour or two: low float, prices from single digits to the low twenties, a news catalyst and extreme relative volume. Opening drives, first pullbacks and halt resumptions are examples. These stocks can reverse fast, so risk matters.

Scans to try

  • Momentum is built for exactly this: big day change, under $20, float under 30M, 5×+ relative volume.
  • In Play looks for a gap, news and volume together.
  • Halted Now and Halt Resumed run off the official Nasdaq halt feed. Resumption plays show up as they happen.
  • The whole gap workflow: Gap & Go, Gap Fade, Gap Fill and Falling Into Gap.
  • Float, float % and shares-outstanding filters plus Up On News: dial in how small and how catalyzed you want it.
  • Alerts can reach you on Discord, Telegram, desktop or in the app when a stock qualifies.

Growth leaders & base breakouts

Also known as CANSLIM / Minervini. Position and swing trades over weeks or months. Fundamentally strong growth stocks near highs, in confirmed uptrends; cash otherwise.

CANSLIM from Investor's Business Daily and Mark Minervini's SEPA both focus on growth leaders breaking out of tight bases during a market uptrend. Traders watch earnings, relative strength making highs before price, quieter pullbacks in a base and a pivot on above-average volume. Minervini also teaches the volatility contraction pattern and tight risk control.

Scans to try

  • 90-Day Leaders screens the multi-month leaders, and New Highs catches names pushing into fresh high ground.
  • Base and trigger scans: Coiled Spring for the contraction, Range Break and Breakout Day for the day it resolves.
  • Volume Building and Unusual Volume flag accumulation before and on the breakout.
  • Earnings flags on every ticker, and Earnings Soon show when a report is coming, even three days before it.
  • Sector strength columns answer "is this a leading group" without leaving the grid.

Anchored VWAP swing trading

Also known as Brian Shannon / AlphaTrends. Swing trades over days or weeks in liquid stocks with a fresh anchor such as earnings, news or a key high. The trend should agree across timeframes.

Brian Shannon at AlphaTrends teaches anchored VWAP: average price since a meaningful event, such as earnings, a breakout or a 52-week high. Traders look for a rising anchor in a liquid stock, daily and intraday charts pointing the same way, and a pullback that holds the anchor before volume returns.

Scans to try

  • AVWAP is a scan filter here. Anchors at earnings, quarter open, year open and the 52-week high. "Above a rising AVWAP from earnings" is a condition, not chart work you redo per symbol.
  • All Clear does the multi-timeframe check; Trending Now / Strong Daily supply the trend structure.
  • Up On News helps find stocks with recent news to check as possible anchors.
  • Every chart carries a session VWAP, and the RS columns tell you if the name is leading or just riding the tape.

Stocks in play: playbook trading

Also known as SMB Capital. Mostly intraday, with occasional swings, in either direction. Any size stock can qualify if it has a real catalyst and outsized volume.

SMB Capital teaches traders to focus on stocks in play and keep a written playbook. That can mean earnings, guidance or news, with volume and range well above normal and enough liquidity to trade. Premarket highs and lows, the prior day and VWAP give them levels to watch.

Scans to try

  • In Play is this exact filter: elevated relative volume plus real range, updated through the session.
  • Up On News supplies the catalyst, and earnings flags separate report moves from drift.
  • RVOL and day-volume columns put a number on "in play", with Unusual Volume and Momentum as the wider net.
  • Prior Day Movers carries yesterday's names into the day-two playbook.
  • Alerts to Discord, Telegram, desktop and in-app when a name enters play mid-session.

Mean reversion & gap trading

Also known as Gap fades & reversion. Intraday to a few days, against the current move. Liquid stocks stretched far from normal, especially gaps without news.

Gap fades and mean reversion look for a liquid stock stretched far from VWAP or its moving averages, often after a gap with no clear news or earnings. Traders watch for a push losing volume or rejecting a level, or price moving toward an old unfilled gap. A catalyst can keep a move going, so this is a risky counter-trend approach.

Scans to try

  • Gap Fade lists today's gappers already losing the gap; Gap Fill tracks names being bought back toward the open gap.
  • Falling Into Gap and Old Gap Fill cover the magnets: price sliding into an old gap below, or working back up into one above.
  • The has-news flag is the most important fade filter: it splits catalyst gaps from air gaps. Earnings flags keep report gaps, the ones that run, out of the fade list.
  • Check the RS columns before treating a strong stock as a fade candidate.
  • Gap size, RVOL and distance-from-average columns put numbers on "stretched".

Where to start

The quick version of the tabs above.

If you trade…Start with these scansThen tune with
Relative strengthDay & swing Strongest Rising Strength Top Longs All Clear RS vs SPY thresholds, multi-timeframe legs, Has Weekly Options
Market-firstDay & swing Trending Now Ready to Trend Sector Leaders Strong Daily Sector strength, SMA structure, RVOL and RRVol
Momentum swings1–3 weeks 90-Day Leaders Coiled Spring Qullamaggie Breakout Episodic Pivot 52-Week AVWAP Leaders VWAP Fail Short Daily ADR %, 1M/3M change, consolidation and squeeze filters
Small-cap momentumIntraday Momentum In Play Gap & Go Halted Now Halt Resumed Float size, max price, RVOL floor, has-news
Growth breakoutsWeeks–months 90-Day Leaders New Highs Coiled Spring Range Break Daily ADR %, volume surge, base tightness, earnings window
Anchored VWAPDays–weeks All Clear Trending Now Strong Daily Up On News AVWAP anchors (earnings / quarter / year / 52-week), RS legs, RVOL
Stocks in playIntraday In Play Up On News Unusual Volume Prior Day Movers RVOL floor, has-news, earnings window, liquidity
Gap fades / reversionIntraday–days Gap Fade Gap Fill Falling Into Gap Old Gap Fill Gap size, has-news off, distance from averages, RVOL

Change the scan to suit you

You can clone a built-in scan, change its filters or build one from scratch.

  • Change a scan. Favorite one, then add filters. For example, In Play under $20 with weekly options.
  • Build one. There are 288 filters for fundamentals, levels, patterns, moving averages, volatility and multiple timeframes.
  • Check the results. Scan Results Breakdown shows how many stocks pass each filter. Switch one off to see what it removed.
  • Combine scans. Include or exclude stocks based on another scan.
  • Set an alert. Get it in the app, on desktop, Telegram or Discord.
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About these descriptions. Real Day Trading, OneOption, Qullamaggie, Warrior Trading, Investor's Business Daily, Mark Minervini, Brian Shannon and SMB Capital are independent traders, educators and publishers. ZenBot is not affiliated with, endorsed by or partnered with any of them. I've summarized their publicly documented approaches here. Their own teaching goes much deeper.

Not financial advice. These scans find stocks to look at. They don't tell you what to trade. Every style here can lose money, especially small-cap momentum. Learn the method and manage your risk before putting money into it.