Profiting Big During the Best Periods for Swing Trading Each Year
In the last blog post, we talked about how important it is to prepare for the next market uptrend during a correction. The big money is really made during down periods for the market by doing the research and building a great watch list.
We featured stocks like AMD, ANAB, FIX, LQDA, STRL and GLW during the correction ahead of the market turn. Many of these stocks exploded 40% to 100% higher in just a few weeks after being featured to customers. Those who were prepared and on top of their daily swing trading process were well rewarded over the past several weeks.
When You Can Make the Big Money
As we have been saying in the daily alert service and recent boot camps, the big money is often made during 2 to maybe 3 windows of time in a given year. These periods may last for a few weeks to a few months or longer.
But we need to always be prepared for those stretches of time just before a bullish market signal and the weeks and months afterwards. Despite the FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) du jour.
Last year we had a great stretch from the time we went bullish in mid April through July as trade deals were poised to be made one after another and as the big beautiful bill was taking shape.
This time its a better valuation for big tech and very strong tech earnings growth this quarter that is helping to fuel a nice rally into new highs. Tech earnings growth is coming in about double the expectation. Pretty impressive relative to expectations and a big reason why the market has surged over the past several weeks.
What is Working Now Swing Trading in 2026
One thing we never do is go by the bullish or bearish narrative being driven by the media or online. We want to have a bullish thesis but we want to have the price action to back it up.
Wars tend to be bullish for the market once shots are fired.
A couple months ago, a bullish thesis was that many technology stocks were under valued or fairly valued and could rally into earnings. The bearish thesis was that the Iran conflict would lead to a global slowdown or recession due to skyrocketing oil prices.
If the market trend is lower, we take mostly small trades on the long side until the market confirms a bullish trend. One thing we were noticing was that oil was not going beyond $120 per barrel and the oil futures curve was forecasting an end to the conflict in the near future.
The market averages confirmed a new bullish trend in early April while the market rose on days when we had higher oil prices. A sort of bullish divergence to take note of. We also let customers know that higher oil prices could actually mean lower natural gas prices in the US.
More oil drilling leads to more natural gas production as a byproduct which is often sold for a low price just to move it. Right now oil is more than making up for the lower natural gas prices for producers so its drill baby drill in the US as the old saying goes.
Lower natural gas prices means more economic activity in the US to some extent as the US has relatively lower energy prices for manufacturing and other economic activities.
Another factor we noticed was that many of our recent swing trading setups were doing pretty well or at least holding up well despite the Nasdaq going into a correction. Great stocks starting to act well or form strong bases is a good sign during a market pullback.
We featured AMD in late March as it had the potential to make a big move if the market turned in the weeks ahead. The stock has a great track record, had a low valuation and a bullish chart pattern developing with a lot of bullish catalysts.
AMD reached our entry trigger price soon after and then about doubled in price from there within a few weeks. Other stocks soared as well from our entry trigger price listed in the daily alert. Good price action on top stocks is a bullish sign to keep track of.
AMD is actually in another very bullish pattern and we will be trading it again if it meets the rules in the rapid account growth course on the day of the breakout if it occurs.
Where Does the Market Go Next
The past year or so has been mired with a lot of substantial events with uncertainty that needed to be priced into markets. Uncertainties pertaining to trade, a new Fed chair and FOMC composition, and the Iran conflict all needed to be priced in. What a new Fed actually does once in office is also a bit uncertain.
As things unfold, the uncertainties fade and the market begins to recover and move higher. It can be a good time to swing trade albeit with some more volatility. But the market always climbs a wall of worry to some extent.
Once everything looks great and problems are resolved, the market is often ready to pull back. But it really depends on what is coming next on the horizon.
In either case, we can look at the current market trend and conditions and determine if its good enough for our strategies. Right now it is. The trend is strong enough and the VIX is low enough. A trending market like this is one we want to take advantage of. Especially after a pullback in the major averages.
In bull markets, our top strategies often work best after a mild market pullback of a few days or even just 1 day. The next day is often very good for ideal high tight flag breakouts, earnings breakouts and other bullish patterns.
When to Get Cautious
With mid double digit growth for tech earnings this quarter, we do not want to get too cautious here. But we also do not want to front run technical entry points with large size in an extended market either.
Its important right now to truly separate the ideal swing trading opportunities from the “monkey see, monkey do” trades. For example, a large gap forming on a stock in a long-term downtrend after news that is not all that great from a stock with little growth. Or no earnings. Stocks in weak industries in terms or relative strength are good to avoid also.
One area we are steering clear of is stocks under $25 that reach a good technical entry point early in the trading day. These continue to be a mine field.
For those using the rapid account growth strategies we teach, you can be selective and just choose the very best opportunities.
There are a lot of great technical patterns to choose from. Those with a strong fresh catalyst are better than the ones with a weaker catalyst.
A market stretched from moving averages can try to suck you into stocks that are just not strong leaders. A lot of stocks are breaking out on earnings each day but many of these are turning over quickly because they just do not have the growth metrics, valuation or even profitability to send shares higher after a brief breakout.
With a lot of large gaps, breakouts and other bullish patterns each day, we want to isolate the very best opportunities.
So patiently wait for those while consistently managing your watch list and checking it pre-market each day.
What About Valuation?
Valuation is one of the worst timing tools. However, the forward P/E ratio for the S&P 500 has been falling recently as earnings growth for the S&P 500 are much stronger overall than expected this quarter. So the S&P 500 valuation based on forward P/E is about the average over the past couple years with earnings growth stronger now.
One or two rate hikes will seem to be much worse than their actual impact on corporate earnings. Even if we do get rate hikes.
Growth acceleration starting is a better timing tool in our experience on individual stocks. Along with bullish technical formations. This is why traders focus more on technical analysis than fundamental analysis.
But you want to do a little of both. Things we look for include cash flow, growth in sales and earnings, changes in the future estimates from management and the size of a beat and raise quarter among other things.
Focusing on stocks with the largest beat and raise quarters with growth above a rising 200 day moving average is a good place to start to build a watch list. Its easy to lose track of great follow on entry points on stocks with game changing earnings reports with so many earnings reports coming out each day.
So build a separate watch list of just those stocks with truly very impressive quarterly results versus expectations. From there, we can look for a strong bullish candlestick pattern off of a key moving average or just the classic earnings flag breakout.
In the last blog post, we were saying this is a perfect time to learn our top swing trading strategies for rapid account growth. Congratulations to those who took action.
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