Trading strategies with ZenBot

Growth Leaders — CANSLIM / Minervini scans.

Growth leaders in a proper base: scans for stocks near highs with rising relative strength and contracting volatility, in the CANSLIM and Minervini mould. See all eight approaches →

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Relative Strength trading

Known as
Real Day Trading
Horizon
Day and swing trades
Market stance
Trades with the market
Universe
Liquid mid and large caps; options-friendly

A stock holding green while SPY sells off is institutional money showing its hand. Read the market first, then only trade names moving better than the market in that direction. Confirmation over prediction.

What it looks for

  • Real relative strength: holding up while SPY sells off, not just up on a green tape
  • Daily and intraday charts agreeing before entry
  • Liquid mid and large caps with clean structure, usually traded via options
  • Fewer, better trades

How ZenBot supports it

  • RS is on every grid. RS 1H, RS 2H and RS 2W: strength vs SPY over the last hour, two hours and two weeks. Noise or a real trend, at a glance.
  • 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

Known as
OneOption
Horizon
Day and swing trades
Market stance
Heavy market bias; stand aside often
Universe
Heavy volume, clean dailies; options income and directional

Same family as relative strength, with more weight on the market itself. First: what is the market doing? Then: does today deserve size at all? Only then find stocks where the daily chart and the intraday action agree. Some days the right position is none.

What it looks for

  • Market first: trend day or chop, press or stand aside
  • Heavy volume and a clean daily chart behind the intraday move
  • The sector moving with it, not a lone runner
  • Defined-risk options where the stock suits them

How ZenBot supports it

  • 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: heavy means heavy for that stock.

Momentum breakouts & episodic pivots

Known as
Qullamaggie
Horizon
Multi-day swings
Prep
Weekends and evenings
Universe
Momentum leaders with real daily range

Three repeatable setups. The breakout: a big mover goes quiet, coils, then continues. The episodic pivot: a gap on real news like earnings. The parabolic short: a vertical move running out of gas. Entries off MA pullbacks, risk against low of day.

What it looks for

  • Prior momentum: up big over the last 1–6 months
  • Real daily range: ADR% is part of the screen
  • Tight consolidation after the move, not a slow bleed
  • Liquidity, and a catalyst for the pivots

How ZenBot supports it

  • 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

Known as
Warrior-style
Horizon
Intraday only
Prep
Premarket, into the first hour
Universe
Low float, low price, high volatility

The fast lane. Small low-float stocks gapping on news with extreme relative volume, mostly in the first hour or two. Opening drives, first pullbacks, halt resumptions. Size small and respect stops: these moves are violent both ways.

What it looks for

  • Low float, low price: single digits to the low twenties
  • Extreme relative volume, not just elevated
  • A real news catalyst
  • Halts and resumptions as trades of their own

How ZenBot supports it

  • Momentum is built for exactly this: big day change, under $20, float under 30M, 5×+ relative volume.
  • In Play wants the gap plus news plus volume: the names everyone is trading today.
  • 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 to Discord, Telegram, desktop and in-app. No staring at the screen waiting for a name to qualify.

Growth leaders & base breakouts

Known as
CANSLIM / Minervini
Horizon
Position and swing trades, weeks to months
Market stance
Long only in confirmed uptrends; cash otherwise
Universe
Fundamentally strong growth leaders near highs

The classic growth playbook: buy the strongest stocks breaking out of sound bases on volume, only while the market itself is in an uptrend. Cut losses small and mechanical, let the real leaders run for months. Minervini's SEPA tightens the risk side and adds the volatility contraction pattern.

What it looks for

  • RS making new highs before price does: leaders, not laggards
  • Tight bases: pullbacks getting shallower and quieter as the base matures (VCP)
  • The pivot breaking on clearly above-average volume
  • A market uptrend behind the trade, earnings power behind the chart

How ZenBot supports it

  • 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 so you don't buy a base three days before a report.
  • Sector strength columns answer "is this a leading group" without leaving the grid.

Anchored VWAP swing trading

Known as
Brian Shannon / AlphaTrends
Horizon
Swing trades, days to weeks
Market stance
With the trend, confirmed on multiple timeframes
Universe
Liquid names with a fresh anchor: earnings, news, key highs

An anchored VWAP is the average price everyone has paid since an event that matters: an earnings report, a breakout day, a 52-week high. Price above a rising anchor means the buyers since that event are in control. Trade with that control: pullbacks toward the anchor, timeframes aligned.

What it looks for

  • Price above a rising anchored VWAP from a real event
  • Daily and intraday structure pointing the same way
  • Pullbacks to the anchor holding as support, then resuming on volume
  • A fresh catalyst supplying the anchor

How ZenBot supports it

  • 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 surfaces the fresh anchors worth trading.
  • 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

Known as
SMB Capital
Horizon
Intraday, with occasional swings
Market stance
Stock-first: trade what's in play, both directions
Universe
Any cap with a real catalyst and outsized volume

The prop-desk playbook from One Good Trade and The PlayBook: only trade the few stocks in play each day. Real catalyst, volume way above normal, cleaner technicals because institutions are actually in the name. Run written setups on those. Stock selection is half the job.

What it looks for

  • A fresh catalyst: earnings, guidance, news. A reason today is different
  • Relative volume at a multiple of normal
  • Range expansion and enough liquidity to actually fill
  • The levels that matter: premarket high/low, prior day, VWAP

How ZenBot supports it

  • 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

Known as
Gap fades & reversion
Horizon
Intraday to a few days
Market stance
Counter-trend by design; fades extremes
Universe
Liquid names stretched far from normal, especially gaps without news

The other direction. When price stretches too far too fast: a big gap with no news behind it, an extension way above the averages, trade the snap back. Selection is everything, because catalyst gaps run and air gaps fill. And every entry fights momentum, so stops are not optional.

What it looks for

  • Gaps without a catalyst: no news, no earnings, just air
  • Extreme extension from VWAP and the moving averages
  • The push failing: volume fading at the high, a level rejecting
  • Old unfilled gaps acting as magnets

How ZenBot supports it

  • 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.
  • RS columns keep you from fading a true leader that's strong for a reason.
  • Gap size, RVOL and distance-from-average columns put numbers on "stretched".

Where to start

If you already know your style, start here and adjust from there.

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

Then make it yours

Every built-in scan can be cloned, filtered and rebuilt.

  • Clone and tweak. Favorite any scan, then layer your own filters on top: "In Play, but under $20 with weekly options".
  • Build from scratch. 280+ filters across fundamentals, levels, patterns, moving averages, volatility and multi-timeframe conditions.
  • See why a stock qualified. Scan Results Breakdown walks your filters one at a time and shows how many names survive each step. Find the filter killing your results and toggle it off to test.
  • Combine scans. Require a ticker to also be on another scan, or exclude the ones that are.
  • Alerts on any scan. Discord, Telegram, desktop or in-app.
Scan Playground

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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. These are our summaries of publicly documented approaches, not their teaching material, and none of this is a complete method.

Not financial advice. Scanners find candidates, not trades. Every approach here carries real risk of loss, small-cap momentum especially, and none of them work without risk management, position sizing and practice.