🏆 Champions PlaybookScan the masters'
Scan the masters'
techniques by one rule
Famous techniques, one champion per card. Skim the one-line core rule, then compare setup, trigger, risk, invalidation and limits on the same yardstick. Not a promise of profit — the structure of each method, broken down for education.
What you see here is the structure of each person's publicly documented method, broken down for education. It is not buy/sell instruction, and being a past, market- and individual-specific case, it is not a general outcome. Investment decisions and any resulting gains or losses are your own responsibility.
Technique cards
14 champions · scan by core ruleCycle of Price Action — six-phase stage identification plus low-extension entry on an EMA cross-backAnchor
Oliver Kell
Split the trend into six phases and classify where it stands now first, enter only at low-extension spots where price reclaims the EMA, and write the invalidation coordinate down before you enter.
SEPA framework + VCP (Volatility Contraction Pattern) pivot breakout
Mark Minervini
Keep only Stage 2 uptrends as candidates, and treat as an entry frame only the moment the pivot of a VCP — where volatility has contracted and volume has dried up — is broken on expanding volume, while fixing the stop coordinate before entry.
Darvas Box Breakout
Nicolas Darvas
Get on board only when price closes above the ceiling of a "box" formed after a new high, and exit without exception when it closes below the box floor.
CAN SLIM Growth-Stock Breakout (cup-and-handle pivot + -7% to -8% stop)
William O'Neil
Observe an entry only when the pivot of a proper base is broken together with a volume surge, and cut losses mechanically at -7% to -8% regardless of reason.
Pyramiding with the trend after confirming a pivot-point breakout
Jesse Livermore
Enter only in small size after confirming a pivot "through the breakout and its normal reaction," add only to winning positions, and cut immediately when wrong
Classic Charting Pattern Breakout (Risk-First, 1%-of-Capital Rule)
Peter Brandt
Enter only when a horizontal-boundary consolidation pattern breaks out on a daily close — and only after setting the stop first and back-calculating position size to within 1% of capital.
A mechanical trend-following "complete system" built on Donchian channel breakouts plus ATR(N) unit sizing
Turtle Traders (Richard Dennis · William Eckhardt)
Abandon prediction and enter after the fact on 20- and 55-day channel breakouts, then use volatility N to fix every position's loss risk at roughly 1% of the account, and cut without discretion once price reaches 2N.
Systematic Trend Following + Cut-Your-Losses Risk Management
Ed Seykota
React only to pre-defined system signals in the direction of the trend, and when you're wrong, cut the loss first — less than 1% risk per trade.
Asymmetric Reward/Risk, Defense-First Framework (5:1 reward/risk · exit on the 200-day close · no averaging down on losers)
Paul Tudor Jones
Risk 1 to aim for 5 — design how not to lose first, and only participate when the stop is defined as a number.
Accumulation/Distribution schematics · Spring/UTAD (reading Composite Man supply and demand)
Richard Wyckoff
Assume the market is a campaign run by a behind-the-scenes "Composite Man," first identify whether the phase is accumulation or distribution from the prior trend, and only turn observation into action once you have nailed down the invalidation level.
Turtle Soup & Holy Grail (3/10 Oscillator regime classification · reactive stop orders)
Linda Raschke (Linda Bradford Raschke) Linda Raschke
Don't chase breakouts; react with stop orders only when a breakout fails and reverses back (Turtle Soup) or when a strong trend pulls back to its EMA (Holy Grail).
Liquidity Macro + Conviction Concentration + Asymmetric Risk/Reward (a discretionary macro framework)
Stanley Druckenmiller
Direction from liquidity macro, timing from the technicals, size from conviction — and when the thesis breaks, cut or reverse without emotion.
Hypothesis-and-Test Macro Positioning Grounded in Reflexivity
George Soros
Judge not by "whether you're right" but by "how small the loss is when you're wrong" — if the hypothesis breaks, close the position without exception.
Reflexivity-based contrarian narrative positioning
GCR (Gigantic Rebirth)
When the crowd's conviction hits an extreme, first map out "who has an incentive to sell at this price" — the other side is built on incentives, not emotion.