Profiting Big in 2026 Trading
We have been talking to customers about how 2025 was the year of anti-seasonality. After another terrific January for us, the market took a spill in early Spring.
Then a normally good March dip buy opportunity was met with a market crash in late March and early April on tough tariff negotiations.
Then “Sell in May and go away” was thrown away in 2025 as the market rallied later in May and June after we went bullish again in the service in mid April.
Then the worst month of the year for the market historically, September, was one of our best months of the year trading with stocks like APP and MU soaring higher after being featured in the service. One of the best high tight flag breakouts of the year was in September where we saw multiple ideal htf breakouts hit the parabolic exit strategy for those using our courses to find and trade these.
And to cap it all off, Santa fell off his sleigh and it looks like another failed Santa rally making it 3 years in a row where the last 5 trading days of December and first 2 trading days of January will be down for the market.
Yep. It was the year of anti-seasonality.
And so here we are starting 2026 getting ready for another profitable year trading. This year could be very interesting and very profitable. Here’s why.
What’s Working Now?
This is the number 1 thing to ask ourselves when trading. This is because we want to harness the best momentum wherever it exists in the market. 3 years from now? Who knows where the market, economy and a stock will be.
Success in trading is all about managing risk tightly and putting the most important factors on your side before buying a stock when going long.
These significant factors include the current long-term trend, the quality of the consolidation, how long has the stock been trading, what is the industry relative strength at the time along with the relative strength of the stock, direction and magnitude of earnings estimates, growth metrics, valuation and if there has been a recent big catalyst.
These are most of the basic ingredients we are looking for. From there we can put the stock on our watch list after checking the fundamentals along with other technical factors and wait for a good technical entry point to be reached (if ever) with a recent good catalyst. Then we can consider a trade.
Another Great Trading Boot Camp in November
In the most recent boot camp we talked about how to be profitable during a week when the Nasdaq fell a few percent. (The next boot camp is coming up later this month).
Just by following a careful set of rules and going through your checklist, we avoided a lot of losing trades that week and caught a big high tight flag breakout. We did a similar thing in the prior 2 boot camps where we showed what it takes to do well trading in real time during market pullbacks.
So buying average bull flag breakouts, generic gap and go patterns, “liquidity pool” dips (Wychoff chains), fibonacci retracements, latest shiny object strategy, etc… just does not cut it in this market. No matter how much you tighten your stop.
Right now you want to raise the bar in your trade selection criteria. For instance, starting with a higher bar for all the important trade selection criteria listed above. Take your strategy and add a stronger bullish signal near the entry point, a stronger long-term trend or a bigger catalyst you can objectively measure to your check list.
Trading just the A+ opportunities has been the way to go.
This is a great way to trade in general. Trade just higher quality stocks and trading patterns to begin with.
Dangers to Look Out for in 2026
The worst thing we can do is to get out of the market completely because of valuation concerns. Early last year we talked about how a higher market valuation can be good for trading but can be a negative for holding stocks for the years ahead.
One of the best environments for trading over the past few decades was in the late 1990s when valuations were high. The late 90s is when many traders made a fortune.
Last year we talked about how the average P/E ratio tends to make higher lows and higher highs during a bull market over time. So the market naturally becomes more expensive during a bull market. Its just a fact of life historically anyways.
But 2025 was another double digit year for the market. The 3 Stocks to Wealth strategy more than doubled the Russell 2000 small cap index and nearly doubled the S&P 500 return in a “too expensive” market according to some.
What is exciting right now is that the S&P 500 forward P/E ratio is actually lower than what it was early in 2025. And the median P/E ratio continues to be pretty reasonable. Companies and analysts expect strong profit growth in 2026 which is the mothers milk of stock prices in the end.
The other bullish factor is that small caps are still below the mid-point of their valuation range over the past few decades. What is even more bullish is that the small cap indices are now holding above the prior 2021 high after a long 4 year consolidation.
Last week we saw stocks like FTAI and AXSM reach good technical entry points on news and hold a very tight stop below the entry point we use while the stock soared. Early signs of a great January to come? Our strategies often work great after a market pullback in a bull market.
Other Risks in 2026
Another danger is that the jobs reports could come in well below expectations in the months ahead. However, this is immigration-related which is pushing down job gains.
But headline jobs reports could be negative which will be splashed all over the media during an election year. Tweet storms should erupt soon after.
However, the overall unemployment rate is still low and initial unemployment claims continue to be very low unlike what we saw in 2006 and 2007. A huge difference between the 2 eras.
The supreme court decision on tariffs is looming but will likely only make minor changes to tariffs over the long-term. The market already knows this and the other legal avenues the administration has available to implement tariffs.
A supreme court decision pullback and weak jobs numbers could present good buying opportunities and great swing trading setups in 2026.
The tariff rulings, temporary higher inflation numbers and lower jobs numbers may just be a 5% to 7% pullback followed by a sharp rebound rather than a correction. Another risk we need to watch is a potential currency or debt crisis erupting in other countries around the world. But the real danger could be in missing the rebound.
Also, we should see some selling in early January as many take profits on their winners in January to avoid paying taxes for another year. Probably a buying opportunity as well.
Using our strategies, however, it does not really matter. As long as volatility and the market trend are OK, we are trading the A+ opportunities using our strategies. More volatility and a market pullback just means we stick to only the very best swing trading opportunities.
When in doubt, raise the bar on what constitutes an ideal swing trading opportunity is a philosophy we live be. An ideal opportunity can easily be objectively measured using our strategies taught in our video courses.
IPO Market About to Finally Re-open?
We could finally see a lot of great IPOs in 2026. We could see Stripe, SpaceX, Databricks, Anthropic and even OpenAI come public in 2026. These stocks and others could form the most bullish continuation pattern early on. We like to trade these and exit the trade ahead of the lockup expiration when they tend to start trending lower.
We like to trade only the best IPOs in those first few months. After the first earnings report they tend to start to trend lower ahead of lockup expiration. Years later, they may be good swing trading vehicles if they are near or above the highs made shortly after the IPO.
So be sure to check the IPO calendar regularly in 2026 and get ready. This could be a great source of profitability as well. We have another blog post that covers how we trade IPOs.
A New Years Resolution to Become More Efficient
One great way to make 2026 a great year trading is to have others do a lot of the work for you. Having a steady diet of great swing trading setups to fill your watch list saves you a LOT of time each week so you actually have the time to swing trade and make money. Plus you get expert insight and analysis.
So its a great time to take advantage of our regular annual sale. This once a year sale is the best value we make all year. Its just in time for one of the best months of the year for us historically. January. Last January was another terrific first month of the year for us.
So check your inbox for our annual sale for the Daily Alert service in the days ahead. The best value offer we make all year. The service delivers a steady stream of well curated swing trading opportunities on great stocks throughout the year.
You want your service to be delivered by someone who has traded multiple bear markets over the past 20 years. Not someone who is fixated on just one area of the market such as tech or metals. We want to be all over the best areas of the market at the time no matter what industry is offering the best opportunities at the time.
Get 2026 Started Right
The best way to start is with a very affordable boot camp and time tested strategies that will survive the next few weeks, months and many years. Not the latest shiny object.
With the annual sale we will also offer a big discount on the next boot camp coming later in January. Earnings season is just a couple weeks away. Earnings season is where retail traders can make the lions share of their profits. January into early February is a period we do not want to miss.
2025 Was Another Great Year for This Strategy
