Swing Trading Cheatsheet

For 1-week to 3-month holds · built alongside the gnocchi.website screener

1 · The basics — words you'll see everywhere

50DMA / 200DMA (Moving Averages): The average closing price over the last 50 (or 200) trading days. They smooth out daily noise so you can see the underlying trend. Price crossing above/below these lines is one of the oldest trend signals in trading.
Uptrend: Price is generally rising over time. The strongest confirmation: price > 50DMA > 200DMA, all three stacked in that order (sometimes called a "golden cross" setup).
Support: A price level that buyers tend to defend — the stock has bounced off it before. In an uptrend, the 50DMA often acts as dynamic support.
Resistance: A price level that sellers tend to defend — the stock has struggled to break above it before. The 52-week high is a classic resistance level.
Pullback: A short-term dip within a longer uptrend. Buying a pullback (rather than a fresh breakout) usually means a tighter stop and better risk/reward.
Volume Surge: A day where trading volume is well above its recent average. Combined with an up day, it suggests institutions ("smart money") are buying — called accumulation. Combined with a down day, it suggests they're selling — called distribution.
Stop-loss ("stop"): The price at which you sell to cut your losses if the trade goes wrong. Decide this before you enter — never after.
Target: The price at which you plan to take profit. Usually set at the next resistance level, or a fixed percentage gain.
Risk/Reward (R/R): Your potential upside divided by your potential downside. A 2:1 R/R means you stand to make twice what you'd lose if the stop gets hit. Professional traders generally want at least 1.5–2:1 before taking a trade — even a mediocre win rate can be profitable at a good R/R.
Position sizing: How many shares to buy so that if your stop gets hit, you only lose a small, predictable slice of your account (commonly 1–2% per trade) — not how many shares you can technically afford.

Rule of thumb: decide your stop and target before you buy, not after. If you can't state both in one sentence, you're not ready to enter.

2 · The T / V / P system (this screener's language)

Every ticker gets scored on three entry signals. Green = met, grey = not met, yellow = was met recently but changed, red = active warning (V only).

TrendPrice is above the 50DMA, and the 50DMA is above the 200DMA. Confirms an established uptrend — not just a bounce inside a longer downtrend.

Vol SurgeToday's volume is above its 20-day average and price closed up — institutions are stepping in to buy. A number like "2.35x" shows how many times the average volume today's volume was; the badge glows brighter the higher that number gets.

PullbackPrice is sitting 0–5% above the 50DMA — the ideal buy zone. Close enough to the 50DMA for a tight stop, but confirmed still in an uptrend.

Badge	Meaning
✓	Signal is currently met.
!	Was green within the last 24h, but changed on the most recent scan — rescan to confirm before acting.
✗	V only: active distribution warning — heavy volume on a down day. Institutions may be selling.
·	Signal not met.

Why 3/3 isn't automatically a "buy"

All three green tells you the setup is technically sound. It doesn't tell you if the price is still a good one to pay. A stock that's already run up near its 52-week high can have perfect T/V/P and still be a poor trade — there's nowhere left to go and a wide stop below. That's what the trade-card ladder (section 4) is for.

3 · Where a ticker lives — Ready / Watching / Demoted

Watching — you've flagged a ticker (click its flag icon in the Screener table) but it hasn't yet met the bar to trade.
Ready — score ≥ 22/30 and at least one of T/V/P is green (or was green within the last 24h). Splits into two tiers:
- ★ Premium — 3/3 green, or 2/3 with a strong score (≥26). The highest-conviction setups.
- Standard — 1–2 green with score 22–25. Still tradeable, but less confirmed.
Demoted — all three signals have been off for a full 24 hours. Auto-clears after 24h if nothing changes; comes back to Watching if it requalifies.

A stock only auto-promotes once it's flagged — the screener never adds tickers to your watchlist on its own, even if they score well. You have to click the flag first.

4 · Reading the trade card (click any Ready ticker)

Clicking a ticker opens a price ladder next to its scan history. Top to bottom, it's a map of where the price sits relative to key levels:

52w HighOverhead resistance — price often struggles here on the first try.

TargetWhere you'd take profit — the lesser of the 52w high or +8% from today's price.

NowToday's price (the blue dot). Where this sits relative to the shaded zone tells you if you're getting a good entry or chasing.

50DMADynamic support. The shaded band (0–5% above) is the ideal buy zone.

StopSuggested sell-to-cut-losses price — 1.5× the stock's own 14-day ATR below today's price, so a volatile name gets more room than a quiet one.

200DMAThe long-term trend floor.

The bottom row does the R/R math for you and color-codes the verdict:

R/R	Verdict	What it means
≥ 2.0 : 1	GOOD	Upside is at least double the downside. Worth considering.
1.5 – 2.0 : 1	OK	Acceptable, but not a slam dunk — check the chart for extra confirmation.
< 1.5 : 1	WEAK	Even a decent setup isn't worth the risk here — usually means price has run too far already.

5 · Putting it together — a simple workflow

Rescan the Screener table (or let it run automatically) to refresh scores.
Sort by score / TVP count and scan for strong setups — score 22+ with 2 or more factors green is a good starting filter.
Flag anything interesting — it lands in Watching.
Check back after future rescans; qualifying tickers auto-promote to Ready (Premium if 3/3 or strong 2/3).
Click a Ready ticker to open its trade card. Check the R/R verdict before anything else — WEAK means skip it even if the badges look perfect.
If R/R is GOOD or OK, note the stop and target from the ladder before placing the trade.
Use Backtest (top of the watchlist panel) periodically to see how past 3/3 signals actually performed — hit rate and average return, based on real recorded scans.

Remember: the screener finds setups and does the math. It doesn't know your account size, your other positions, or your risk tolerance — position sizing and the final buy/sell decision are always yours.