The All Three Signal

The Problem With Single-Signal Screeners

Every Indian market momentum trader eventually discovers screeners. Stage 2 returns 153 stocks on a typical trading day. Near 52-week High returns 59. High Volume returns 62. Each of these outputs is individually valid — each signal captures something real about the stock's behaviour. But individually, none of them tells you which five stocks you should actually be researching before the opening bell.

A stock near its 52-week high could be in a confirmed institutional uptrend — or it could be a beaten-down mid-cap that has bounced 15% off a one-year low in a single session, with overhead supply from trapped sellers at every prior price level above. A volume spike could indicate institutional accumulation — or it could be retail panic following a news event in a stock that has been in a Stage 4 decline for six months. Each individual signal is valid in isolation; but individually they do not confirm each other.

The result is the noise-to-signal problem. Given 153 Stage 2 stocks, which five do you actually research today? You cannot chart all 153. You cannot read the fundamentals on all 153. If you open the Stage 2 tab on Monday and try to work through the list, you will be working through it on Thursday. The single-signal screener gives you a valid universe, not a workable shortlist.

False positives compound this problem. A stock near its 52-week high in a Stage 4 downtrend is a false positive for the Near High screener. A volume spike in a declining stock is a false positive for the High Volume screener. Running any single screener in isolation generates false positives at a rate that makes the output difficult to use without substantial additional filtering. The intersection approach eliminates most of these false positives automatically — not through more filters, but through requiring independent confirmation.

The All Three tab is the answer to the noise-to-signal problem. It does not add more criteria to a single screener. It requires that three entirely separate screeners — each built around a different analytical dimension — all agree on the same stock simultaneously. The result is a list small enough to research completely in a single morning session.

The Three Signals — What Each One Confirms

Understanding what each signal actually measures — and crucially, what it cannot measure alone — is the foundation of understanding why the intersection carries so much more conviction than any individual signal. Each screener is built around a distinct analytical question about the stock's behaviour.

Stage 2 is a long-duration signal. It tells you that the stock has been systematically accumulated by institutions over weeks or months — the 50-day SMA is above the 150-day SMA, which is above the 200-day SMA, and all three are rising. This is the Stan Weinstein definition of an institutional advancement phase. But Stage 2 alone says nothing about whether there is overhead resistance from sellers who bought at higher prices, or whether institutions are actually active in the stock on this specific trading session.

Near 52-week High is a supply signal. When a stock closes within 2% of its one-year high, it means that every investor who has held the stock for the past year is currently in profit. There are no trapped sellers at any price between the current price and the 52-week high — no one is sitting on a loss waiting to break even and sell. Price is in discovery territory. But Near 52W High alone says nothing about whether the trend structure is intact or whether buying volume confirms that institutions are active.

High Volume is a same-day activity signal. When volume surges above the 20-day average alongside a price rise of more than 1% — specifically in non-F&O cash market stocks — it confirms that large buyers are active today. The F&O exclusion is deliberate: derivative-driven stocks can show volume surges that reflect options hedging or futures rollovers rather than clean accumulation in the underlying stock. High Volume alone says nothing about whether the trend is intact or whether the stock has already passed its overhead supply.

The power of the intersection is precisely that each signal fills the blind spots of the other two. Stage 2 tells you the trend is real. Near High tells you there is no supply above. High Volume tells you buying is active today. Together, they answer three questions that no single signal can answer alone.

The Three Scanner Rules: Decoded in Plain English

Each of the three screeners in the All Three signal runs a specific set of conditions against real-time market data. Understanding exactly what the screener is checking — in plain language — turns the output from a black box into a transparent analytical tool you can reason about. Here is every condition, explained without unnecessary jargon.

Rule 1 — Near 52-Week High (3 Conditions)

This rule answers the question: "Is this stock trading in new-high territory with no meaningful overhead resistance?" It checks three things.

Rule 2 — Stage 2 Trend Template (10 Conditions)

This rule answers the question: "Is this stock in a confirmed, multi-month institutional advancing phase — the Stan Weinstein Stage 2?" It is the most comprehensive of the three rules, checking ten conditions across moving average alignment, price position relative to moving averages, momentum off the annual low, and minimum liquidity.

Rule 3 — High Volume (6 Conditions)

This rule answers the question: "Is institutional buying actively occurring in this stock TODAY — on this specific trading session?" It uses today's volume and price data, not historical moving averages. It is the most time-sensitive of the three rules.

Why Intersection Multiplies Conviction

The three signals in the All Three tab measure what statisticians call orthogonal dimensions — they are conceptually independent from each other. Trend (Stage 2) is a function of moving average alignment over months. Price position (Near High) is a function of current price relative to the one-year range. Current activity (High Volume) is a function of today's trading session volume versus recent averages. A stock can be in Stage 2 without being near its high. A stock can be near its high without being in Stage 2. A stock can have high volume without either. The three signals are not different ways of measuring the same thing.

This independence is what makes the intersection so powerful. When independent signals agree, the agreement is informative precisely because it was not guaranteed. If all three signals measured the same underlying phenomenon, seeing all three fire together would tell you nothing you did not already know from the first signal. Because they measure different things, three simultaneous agreements represent convergence from three separate analytical frameworks — a much stronger statement than any single framework alone.

The mathematics of intersection reinforce this. Stage 2 passes roughly 153 of 2,000+ NSE stocks on a typical day — about 7.5%. Near 52W High passes roughly 59 — about 3%. High Volume passes roughly 62 — about 3%. If these signals were statistically independent and randomly distributed across the stock universe, the intersection would contain roughly 0.075 × 0.03 × 0.03 × 2000 = approximately 0.135 stocks. The fact that roughly 4–8 stocks pass all three reflects that the signals are positively correlated — stocks in strong trends tend to also be near their highs and sometimes attract institutional volume — but far from perfectly correlated. The intersection is rare, and its rarity is what makes it valuable.

None of this means every All Three stock will continue higher. No screener guarantees future price behaviour. What it means is that these stocks carry a simultaneous combination of characteristics that is statistically uncommon and analytically meaningful. They warrant chart examination. They deserve to be on the research list for the morning. Whether to trade them — and at what entry, with what position size, and with what exit plan — remains the trader's judgment call after chart analysis.

What the Daily All Three Count Tells You About the Market

The All Three tab is not just a stock picker. The number of stocks it returns each day is itself one of the most useful real-time market health indicators available to a momentum trader. The count tells you whether the market is in a phase where momentum strategies have edge — or whether the conditions that create high-conviction setups are absent.

The zero count is the most misunderstood output the extension produces. New users often see zero results and conclude the tool is broken, the data did not load, or the screeners are too strict. The opposite is true. A zero count means all three independent screeners scanned the full NSE universe of 2,000+ stocks and found no stock simultaneously satisfying all three conditions. This is not a null result — it is a definitive negative result with high informational content. The market is telling you, through three separate independent lenses, that momentum conditions are not present today.

The Score Column — Reading Signals Across All Tabs

Every row in every tab of the Finmagine Trader dashboard displays a Score pill — a number from 1 to 4. The Score represents the total number of scan signals the stock currently passes simultaneously. A stock with Score 4 passes all four screeners: Stage 2, Near 52W High, High Volume, and VCP. A stock with Score 3 passes three of the four. Score 2 passes two. Score 1 passes only the screener whose tab you are currently viewing.

The Score column is valuable precisely because it lets you surface All Three candidates from any tab. If you are browsing the Stage 2 tab and see a stock with Score 3, that stock is also in the Near 52W High and High Volume screeners — it is an All Three stock, visible from the Stage 2 tab because Stage 2 is one of its three signals. If you are in the Near 52W High tab and see a stock with Score 1, that stock passes Near High only — it is the weakest conviction setup on the page.

Score 4 is displayed in gold to make it visually distinctive. Score 3 is displayed in green. These color cues allow rapid visual scanning of any tab — your eye goes immediately to the gold and green pills without needing to read every row. In a full Stage 2 tab with 153 stocks, sorting by Score descending and scanning the gold and green rows gives you the All Three and near-All-Three candidates in seconds.

Understanding what Score means also clarifies what the All Three tab is: it is simply a pre-filtered view of the full dashboard showing only stocks where Score is 3 or higher across the Stage 2, Near High, and High Volume signals. You could replicate the All Three tab from any other tab by sorting by Score descending and filtering for stocks where all three of those specific signals are active. The All Three tab exists as a dedicated view because it is the most frequently referenced starting point for daily momentum research.

All Three vs Stage 2 + Near High — Choosing Your Starting Point

The two most similar tabs in the Finmagine Trader dashboard are All Three and Stage 2 + Near High. Both require Stage 2 and Near 52W High simultaneously. The difference is the third signal: All Three also requires High Volume — today's institutional activity confirmation. Stage 2 + Near High does not. This single difference determines when you should use each tab.

Stage 2 + Near High returns approximately 36 stocks on a typical day. These are stocks in a confirmed institutional uptrend with no overhead supply — strong candidates for watchlist building and swing trade research. But among those 36 stocks, some are sitting in a clean base with no particular catalyst today. Some are extended after a multi-week run. Some have not had a meaningful volume day in two weeks. They are all good setups in principle; they are not all actionable today.

All Three returns approximately 6 stocks. These 6 are a subset of the 36 where something is happening in today's session — institutions are buying the stock actively right now, not just historically. The High Volume confirmation is a same-day filter that identifies which of the 36 Stage 2 + Near High stocks are experiencing current institutional engagement.

The practical workflow is to use both in sequence. Check All Three first every morning — these are the immediate action items. Then browse Stage 2 + Near High to identify stocks that are not in today's All Three but are building toward a potential All Three appearance in coming sessions. Star the most interesting Stage 2 + Near High candidates in the watchlist, set price or volume alerts, and wait for them to trigger. When they trigger and the stock appears in All Three, the setup has matured to the point where full chart analysis is warranted.

Buy High, Sell Higher: Why This Strategy Works

The most common instinct among retail investors is to buy stocks that have come down. "It was ₹500 last month and it's ₹350 now — it's on sale." This feels rational. It mirrors how we shop for everything else. A television that costs ₹40,000 last week and ₹32,000 this week is genuinely a better deal. We are evolutionarily wired to seek discounts.

The stock market punishes this instinct systematically. A stock is not a television. A falling price does not mean better value — it means the market's collective judgment, expressed through every participant's capital, has shifted lower. And every step down the price ladder creates something that televisions do not have: overhead resistance.

The Bargain Hunter's Trap

When a stock falls from ₹100 to ₹70, consider who is holding it. Every investor who bought anywhere between ₹71 and ₹100 is now sitting on a loss. They did not plan to hold a losing position — they planned to sell when the stock recovered. As the stock attempts to rally from ₹70 back toward ₹80, then ₹90, then ₹100, each price level encounters a wall of sellers: investors who bought at that level, are finally breaking even, and are desperate to exit. This is overhead resistance — invisible to most retail traders, but as real as a physical ceiling.

Overhead Resistance Explained

Every price point between the current price and a previous high represents trapped buyers. They are not selling because they believe in the company. They are selling because they have been waiting, sometimes for months or years, to get their money back. A stock that fell from ₹200 to ₹80 and is now rallying must fight through ₹90 sellers, ₹100 sellers, ₹110 sellers, and so on — at every step. This is why fallen stocks so often stage spectacular rallies that fade just when they seem to be working: they run into the brick wall of trapped sellers at each prior level.

Blue Sky Territory

Now consider a stock that breaks to an all-time high. Every single person who owns the stock is in profit. There are no trapped sellers anywhere above the current price. No one needs to sell at break-even. The only sellers are profit-takers, who by definition have discretion over when they sell — they are not forced. The path of least resistance is upward. There is no historical resistance anywhere above. This is "blue sky" territory — open sky as far as price is concerned, with no prior supply to fight through.

This is the foundational logic behind buying near 52-week highs and all-time highs. It is not buying because it "looks strong." It is buying because the structural supply overhang that creates friction in every other price region simply does not exist above the prior high.

The Mathematical Proof

It is literally impossible for a stock to deliver a 300%, 500%, or 1,000% return without continuously making new all-time highs. Every major multi-bagger in Indian market history — every stock that went from ₹50 to ₹500, or ₹100 to ₹2,000 — passed through price levels that "felt too expensive" on the way to the top. An investor who refused to buy any stock at an all-time high would have missed every one of those returns. Excluding all-time highs is, mathematically, excluding every multi-bagger.

Volume: The Market's Truth Detector

Price is visible. Volume is honest. A stock's price can be moved by a single large order in thin-market conditions — one institutional seller or buyer temporarily pushing price up or down by creating an imbalance. But volume cannot be faked at scale. Every share that changes hands required real capital — a buyer transferred money to a seller. You cannot manufacture 10 million shares of genuine two-sided trading without spending 10 million × price in actual money.

This is why volume is called the market's truth detector. When price moves on high volume, the move has genuine capital backing it. When price moves on low volume, the move may be ephemeral — a temporary imbalance with few real participants. The High Volume rule in the All Three signal uses this principle to distinguish genuine institutional buying from noise.

The Four Price-Volume Cycles

There are four possible combinations of price direction and volume direction. Each tells a different story about market health:

The Accumulation Base

Large institutions — mutual funds, insurance companies, foreign portfolio investors managing thousands of crores — cannot buy a stock the way retail investors do. If a large fund wants to acquire a ₹500 Crore position in a stock, it cannot simply send one large order: the order itself would spike the price and the institution would end up buying its later shares at higher prices than its first shares, averaging up its cost to a terrible level.

Instead, institutions accumulate quietly. They buy during boring sideways phases when retail traders have given up watching the stock. They spread their buying over days, weeks, sometimes months — absorbing shares when sellers appear without driving the price up visibly. The stock "goes nowhere" for weeks while a major institutional position is quietly being built. Then, when the institution has accumulated enough and triggers the final buy, the stock breaks out on massive volume. This is the accumulation base and the volume-confirmation breakout — the exact pattern the High Volume screener is designed to detect.

Delivery Quantity vs Delivery Percentage

Many traders make a critical error when interpreting volume data: they focus on delivery percentage rather than delivery quantity. "This stock had 80% delivery — strong conviction buying." But 80% of what?

80% delivery on 10,000 shares traded means only 8,000 shares changed hands permanently — a trivial amount in absolute terms for any institutional player. However, a stock that trades 1,00,00,000 shares (one crore shares) with only 18% delivery has delivered 18,00,000 shares permanently to new holders. That is an enormous absolute quantity of stock changing hands, regardless of the low delivery percentage.

The Three-Step Entry Pattern and the 200 EMA Exit Rule

Understanding which stocks to research is only the first half of the process. The second half is knowing when to enter, how much to buy, and when to exit. The momentum framework that works with the All Three signal has a specific entry pattern and a non-negotiable exit rule.

The Three-Step Breakout Pattern

The highest-quality All Three setups often follow a recognisable three-step chart pattern. Learning to identify this pattern on a chart turns a screener output into a high-probability entry candidate.

IPO Breakout Variant

For recently listed stocks, an equivalent setup exists without requiring an all-time high in the traditional sense. After a stock lists on the exchange, it often consolidates for days or weeks as early investors take profits and the market finds its equilibrium. The listing day's high becomes the equivalent of the "all-time high" for the stock's short history.

The IPO breakout strategy: wait for the newly listed stock to consolidate after listing, then buy when it breaks above its initial listing-day high for the first time. This setup offers zero overhead resistance (no history above the listing high), no lottery luck required (buy as much as you want in the open market at the trigger price), and a clean, definitive entry trigger. Many of the strongest multi-year momentum runs begin with an IPO consolidation and then a breakout above the listing-day high.

The 200 EMA Exit Rule

This is non-negotiable. If any momentum position closes BELOW the 200-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA), sell the entire position on that day's close or the next morning's open. No exceptions. No "let's wait one more day to see if it recovers." No holding through "just a brief dip."

Why the 200-day EMA specifically? Because the 200-day EMA is the long-term institutional trend line. A close below it means the institutional uptrend that made the stock an All Three candidate has ended. The same institutions whose buying created the Stage 2 uptrend are no longer supporting the price above this level. The analytical basis for holding the position — the trend — is broken.

The 200-day EMA at the time of entry is typically 10–20% below the entry price. This defines your maximum loss on any trade: if you enter at ₹200 and the 200-day EMA is at ₹170, your maximum loss is ₹30 per share (15%). You will not lose more than this unless you override the exit rule.

The Asymmetric Risk-Reward

The 200 EMA exit rule creates an asymmetric risk-reward profile that is the foundation of momentum strategy profitability. Your downside on any single trade is bounded: 10–20%, depending on how far the 200 EMA is below your entry. Your upside is unbounded: if the Stage 2 uptrend continues — and the best ones continue for 1–3 years — returns of 100%, 200%, 500% are mathematically possible on that position.

This means you can be wrong on 5 out of 6 trades and still come out ahead in absolute rupee terms, as long as the one winner runs 10× while your five losers each lose 15%. The strategy does not require a high win rate. It requires correctly executing the exit rule on losers (cutting quickly) and the staying rule on winners (holding patiently as long as the 200 EMA holds).

Position Sizing Formula

Before entering any momentum trade, calculate the position size using this formula:

7–10 Concurrent Positions

The momentum framework is designed to be run as a portfolio of simultaneous positions, not as concentrated single-stock bets. Hold 7–10 different momentum trades simultaneously. The logic is diversification across uncorrelated outcomes: if one position hits the 200-day EMA and you take a 15% loss on that trade, the other 6–9 positions are still running. No single trade can blow up the portfolio. And when one of those 7–10 positions turns into a 3-year 500% winner, the portfolio returns reflect that winner's full compounding — not a situation where you sold it after a 30% gain because "it felt like enough."

What All Three Is Not — Common Mistakes

The All Three tab is designed to surface the day's highest-conviction momentum candidates. Understanding what it is not — and the mistakes that arise from misunderstanding it — is as important as understanding what it does.

• All Three is not a buy signal. It identifies stocks meeting three simultaneous technical criteria. It does not tell you to buy any of them. Whether to buy a stock on the All Three list depends on chart structure, entry trigger price, available position size, and your specific risk management rules. A stock can appear in All Three and be extended 25% above its base — technically valid but not a good entry point.
• All Three does not guarantee results daily. On zero-count days, there are no high-conviction momentum candidates by the intersection definition. That is a valid and informative output, not a failure. Expect zero-count days regularly during corrections, sideways markets, and periods of narrow sector participation.
• All Three does not rank the stocks within the list. The 6 stocks in the All Three tab are not ordered from best to worst opportunity. They all pass the same three filters. Determining which of the 6 has the cleanest chart setup, best reward-to-risk ratio, and most sensible entry point requires chart analysis — the screener cannot do that for you.
• All Three is not sufficient alone. Even for a stock on the All Three list, you still need: chart structure assessment (is it at a clean base or extended?), a specific entry trigger (the price at which you would initiate a position), position sizing (how much to risk based on your stop-loss distance), and an exit plan. The screener is the first filter. Chart analysis and risk management complete the process.
• All Three is not a replacement for understanding the underlying criteria. Knowing that a stock is in All Three is most useful when you understand what Stage 2, Near High, and High Volume each mean individually. If you do not understand what each signal confirms — and what each cannot confirm alone — the All Three output becomes a black-box list rather than a meaningful analytical output.

The All Three Morning Workflow

The practical value of the All Three tab is maximised when it is embedded in a consistent daily process. Here is a repeatable three-step morning workflow that uses the All Three tab as its primary decision filter.