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While the market's in a holding pattern with the Iran situation and tonight's 8 PM deadline on the Strait of Hormuz, there are still things moving out there. We've been building a backend tool called the LaunchPad. Wanted to walk you through what it does and why it matters, because we're going to start sharing this more regularly. The LaunchPad screens for quality and value names based on the relationship between the 8-day and 20-day moving averages. The 8-day tells you what's happening right now....

Published Apr 07, 2026Updated Apr 07, 20269 min read
While the market's in a holding pattern with the Iran situation and tonight's 8 PM deadline on the Strait of Hormuz, there are still things moving out there. We've been building a backend tool called the LaunchPad. Wanted to walk you through what it does and why it matters, because we're going to start sharing this more regularly. The LaunchPad screens for quality and value names based on the relationship between the 8-day and 20-day moving averages. The 8-day tells you what's happening right now. The 20-day is the bigger trend, about a month of trading. When the 8-day starts curling up into the 20-day with rising volume, that's our setup. It's telling you that recent buying pressure is starting to overpower the broader trend, and the algorithms are recognizing the pattern and piling in. Once the 8 crosses up through the 20, that's the launch. The name tends to move fast. If the 8-day curls back down before it crosses, that's a failed launch. Drop it and move on. What we like to see is a nice curve to the setup. A big bend with momentum behind it. Not something tight and flat. You want a name with topside to get back to. We'd love the moving averages acting as support underneath, but in a market like this a lot of these are recovery setups, so the 100-day and 200-day are going to be above as resistance. That's fine. You just need enough built-up momentum to power through. Keep in mind those levels are natural places to take profit if you ride these short-term. Most of these are swing trades. Sometimes they turn into something bigger, but for the most part you want to get in and out. A few things you'll see in the data: Gap is the distance between the 8-day and 20-day. The closer they get, the closer you are to crossover. All three of our top names are within 0.16% of crossing. Slope measures how steep the 8-day is rising. Anything above 1.0 is an extreme launch, aggressive buying pressure. You want to avoid names where the slope is low and tight with no real bend to it. That tells you there's not much conviction behind the move. RVOL is relative volume. Compares current volume to the average. Above 1 means more shares are changing hands than usual. Price moves on low volume don't mean much. Price moves on high relative volume mean the institutions are involved. OBV is on-balance volume. Tracks cumulative buying and selling pressure over time. If OBV is rising, money is quietly accumulating even if the price hasn't moved yet. All of our top names are showing rising OBV right now. That's often the early signal before the move happens. Right now, three names scoring 92 out of 100: Urban Outfitters (URBN) — $64.51. F-Score of 9, slope at 0.621, gap closing 2.47% per week. Solid curve to the setup. AMC Networks (AMCX) — $7.62. Slope at 1.137, which is extreme. Gap closing 4.66% per week. This one's moving the fastest of the three. BJ's Restaurants (BJRI) — $36.99. Slope at 0.331, steadier build. Gap closing 1.57% per week. All three have the 100-day above them as resistance. They need to find the juice to push through. If they can, the setup is there. If they stall, you move on. Deeper in the list, there are about 15 names in the fueling stage right now. Mosaic (MOS) is on there at 87, fertilizer name, relevant with everything going on in energy. Cbiz, Equity Residential, GATX, DoubleVerify, Willis Lease, Block, and others all setting up. Some interesting stuff in there if you click through the charts. On the performance side, we've been building a database to track results. Photronics hit the number-one spot about a week and a half ago and traded close to 20%. Smithfield triggered and popped to new highs. Harley hit the list and is trying to get going. These moves are fast. Take profits because they roll back over just as quick. We'd be careful making any moves ahead of tonight's deadline. But if you like to stay active, keep tight stops. If they roll over, cut them. More to come.