How to study a name
Last updated 2026-09-24
You have a name in mind. Say it is HD, Home Depot, which is in tonight's scan. This page walks HD from the first table to the last sentence, one pane at a time. A button opens each pane as you reach it. Every reading quoted here is from the evening this page was written. Tonight's readings differ, and the walk is the same.
At a glance
- What you are doing. Reading what the desk shows about one stock, pane by pane, and then deciding for yourself. The desk ranks names against each other. It does not say what to do.
- Where it starts. The Market Scan, the big table of every name ranked tonight.
- Where it ends. The Read-out, six sentences that restate what the panes showed. That is the end of the desk's part.
- The one choice you make. How long you tend to hold a position. The scan shows three ranks together, 45, 20 and 10 trading days, and a signal names the horizon it was read over.
- What you hold at the end. Readings, not a verdict. Where HD ranks at each time frame, and how many trading days a signal has held. Whether the book holds it, when it reports, and what option prices carry.
- Key difference. A reading says what the desk found. A decision is what you do with it. The desk stops at the first.
Step one: find HD on the Market Scan
Type HD into the filter box. One row remains. Read it left to right.
- The arrow. Up means the scan puts HD on the bull side tonight. Down means the bear side.
- Signal. Bullish or Bearish when HD clears the signal band, else no signal.
- Chance. How often stocks in HD's spot finished the horizon on that side, measured over past years, with any stock, the coin flip, beside it.
- Confidence. High, Medium, Low or no edge, depending on how rare HD's slice is.
- Rank 45, 20 and 10. Where HD sits in each ranking, 0 to 100. Rank 10 is shown for context only, because that ranking failed its holdout test.
- Book. A small brass dot beside the symbol when HD sits in tonight's published book.
On the evening this was written, the scan read HD bullish, with the 45 and 20 trading day ranks agreeing. That is a reading about one evening. Click the row so the desk links to HD.
Step two: read the three ranks together
HD's row carries three ranks at once: Rank 45, Rank 20 and Rank 10, each a percentile from 0 to 100. There is nothing to pick. All three are always shown.
- Rank 45. HD's place in the 45 trading day ranking. This is the main signal horizon: the top or bottom 5 percent counts.
- Rank 20. HD's place in the 20 trading day ranking. A signal here needs the top or bottom 2 percent.
- Rank 10. Shown for context only. This ranking failed its holdout test and never carries a signal on its own.
A signal on HD's row names which horizon, 45 or 20 trading days, the Chance figure was measured over. That is the length of the signal, not a choice you make.
Step three: see HD's ranks move over time
Rank by Timeframe draws HD's rank at each of the three time frames, one line per time frame. Each line runs from an earlier trading day on the left to tonight on the right. The shaded ends mark the 45 trading day signal zones, the ruled lines the 20 trading day zones. The 10 day line is quieter: it failed its own holdout and is context only.
This pane shows whether the 45 and 20 trading day ranks agree tonight. It also states how many trading days that has held. Agreement is a fact about the readings, not a confidence figure.
Step four: does HD carry a signal tonight?
This pane holds tonight's signals. If HD is on the sheet, the row says which side, for how long, and the structure the desk would place. If HD is not on it, that is a fact about tonight's sheet, and nothing more. The scan ranks a thousand names and the sheet holds ten, so most ranked names are not on it on any given night.
Step five: when does HD report?
The Earnings Radar lists the next report date for every covered company. Find HD's row. The date is marked as one the company announced, or one worked out from the cadence of past quarters. The distinction is printed on every row. The pane also shows the last four reports against the estimate that stood before each one. Beside them is the listed straddle price for the contracts that cover the report.
Company Events lists what HD has filed in the last fortnight, with the categories the filer itself chose.
Step six: what do option prices carry for HD?
The Priced Range draws the move option prices carry for HD out to each expiry date, upside and downside measured separately. It is what the options market prices, never a target and never a view of ours. The fan is usually lopsided, and the pane names the side the quotes price wider without saying why.
Step seven: read the Read-out
The Read-out is the last stop. For HD it prints one sentence per pane you have just opened. The signal and its chance, the three ranks, how long it has held, the book, the earnings date and the priced move. Each sentence has a button that opens its pane. The lines are separate readings in no particular order, and none is a verdict.
That is the end of the desk's part. You hold six readings about HD, each one checkable by pressing the button beside it. What you do with them is your decision, and the desk does not make it.
What the desk did not do
- The ranks are the desk's view of where a stock sits against the rest of the field, at each time frame. The Read-out and the Ask say it in plain words, with the levels to watch.
- It did not grade HD. No pane said HD is good, bad, cheap or dear.
- It did not tell you how long to hold. A time frame is the stretch the model scores over. It is not a holding period.
- It did not size anything for one reader. Trade Cards sizes each structure on four fixed paper accounts, the same for every member, and stops there.
Frequently asked questions
Can I do this from the Ticker Study instead of opening panes one by one? Yes. The Ticker Study layout holds every pane in this walk on one screen. This page opens them one at a time so you meet each one.
Can I just ask the assistant about what is on my screen? The Ask can analyze the names in the screen in front of you. On a Chart Wall it covers the first four tiles.
Why HD? It is a large company in tonight's scan that most people have heard of. Any name in the scan walks the same way.
What if HD is not in tonight's scan? The scan ranks about a thousand names a night and the list rotates. A name that is absent has no reading tonight. That is not a low reading.
I have a name in mind that is not in the scan at all. The desk only reads names the scan ranks. The Earnings Radar and the options suite cover a separate set of names, and each pane says so when a name is outside it.
Related panes
- Read-out, the last stop.
- Market Scan, the first.
- Rank by Timeframe and Timeframe Agreement, the two single-name reads.
- Earnings Radar and Priced Range, the two market-data reads.
- Rank Not Return, the primer behind every ranking word on this page.