Method
How the Weekly Stage Scan works
Every weekend, code measures each chart and reads the latest SEC insider filings. Claude turns those facts into a plain-English read, and Matt reviews it before it publishes.
Built on Stan Weinstein's stage analysis
The scan follows the four-stage framework Stan Weinstein laid out in Secrets for Profiting in Bull and Bear Markets. On a weekly chart, a stock or ETF moves through the same cycle again and again.
Price moves sideways after a decline while the 50-week SMA flattens.
Price holds above rising moving averages.
The advance stalls and the 50-week SMA flattens.
Price sits below falling moving averages.
The chart does not fit one stage cleanly yet. Each report explains why.
What SMI does differently
Weinstein used a 30-week moving average. SMI uses four moving averages in its place: the 8-week EMA, the 21-week EMA, the 50-week SMA and the 200-week SMA. The 21-week EMA turns a little faster than the 30-week and the 50-week SMA a little slower, so together they tell the same story with more detail. The 8-week EMA is the trend line SMI watches most closely, and the 200-week SMA adds long-term context.
A simple moving average (SMA) weighs every week equally, while an exponential moving average (EMA) gives the most recent weeks more weight, so it turns sooner.
- 8-week EMA (red)
- 21-week EMA (blue)
- 50-week SMA (green)
- 200-week SMA (orange)
SMI also adds smart money data as a filter on top of the chart. In this scan, that means open-market insider buying reported to the SEC.
A new stage only counts after two weekly closes in a row agree, so one unusual week does not flip the label. Each report also notes signals from SMI's evidence pool: a reclaim of the 8-week EMA, a first higher low, a MACD bullish divergence, a volume pickup, and the 8-week EMA crossing above the 50-week SMA.
What a Form 4 open-market purchase is
Company officers, directors, and owners of more than 10% of a company's stock must report their trades in that stock to the SEC on Form 4, usually within two business days. An open-market purchase is a Form 4 transaction coded P, meaning the insider bought shares at the market price with their own money; grants, option exercises, and sales are left out of this scan.
How each report is written and reviewed
- Code computes every number from weekly prices and SEC filings: the moving averages, the stage, the signals, relative strength against the S&P 500, and the insider totals.
- Claude, Anthropic's AI, writes the read using only those computed facts. It is told never to recommend buying or selling and never to predict prices.
- Automated checks confirm that every number in the text appears in the computed data and that the text stays educational.
- Matt reviews every report, edits it when needed, and approves it before it appears here.
The full rules are written down and the same for every ticker. Matt adjusts the thresholds from time to time as part of reviewing the process.
What these reports are
- Reports are written with Claude, Anthropic's AI, from data computed by code: weekly prices and public SEC filings.
- Matt reviews every report before it publishes.
- The content is educational and impersonal. Every reader sees the same report, and nothing here is individualized investment advice or a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security.
- Past patterns do not guarantee future results. Investing involves risk, including the loss of money.
- Insider filings are public SEC data and may be reported with a delay.
Invest with Matt LLC is an educational publisher. We are not a registered investment adviser, broker-dealer, or financial planner. Consult qualified, licensed professionals before making any financial decision. See the Terms and Conditions and the Earnings Claims Disclosure.