Stock picker · Dan Zanger
Zanger Breakout Strategy
Fast-growing companies clearing a tight base on heavy volume, checked against each of Zanger's rules, with the market trend read first.
Prices to · fundamentals for 0 of 1,761 stocks · ASIC shorts T+4 · Not financial advice
Market regime · S&P/ASX 200 (XJO)
Downtrendas of
- Close
- 8,665.0
- vs 50-day
- −3.4%
- vs 200-day
- −1.8%
- Off 52w high
- −6.8%
Stand aside: XJO is below its 200-day average. Breakouts fail more often in a falling market, so no stock can trigger until the trend turns.
Ranked picks
PassFailUnknown (data missing)
Dots follow the rule order: 1 Explosive growth · 2 A recognisable base · 3 Breakout on heavy volume · 4 Read the market first · 5 Relative strength · 6 Liquid enough to trade. Hover a dot for the evidence.
Showing 20 of 1,525 ranked stocks. Triggered and setup first; watch names fill the list to 20.
| Rank | Stock | Status | Rules | Close | Pivot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SOLWashington H. Soul Pattinson And Company | Watch |
| $46.47 | $47.16 |
| 2 | CCLCuscal | Watch |
| $6.02 | $6.04 |
| 3 | A1MAic Mines | Watch |
| $0.90 | $0.88 |
| 4 | SXESouthern Cross Electrical Engineering | Watch |
| $4.77 | $4.94 |
| 5 | RCTReef Casino Trust | Watch |
| $4.64 | $3.86 |
| 6 | BDGBLACK DRAGON GOLD CORP. | Watch |
| $0.13 | $0.09 |
| 7 | CLVClover | Watch |
| $1.08 | $1.00 |
| 8 | VKAViking Mines | Watch |
| $0.01 | $0.01 |
| 9 | AR1Austral Resources Australia | Watch |
| $0.08 | $0.08 |
| 10 | VBTCVaneck Bitcoin Etf Etf Units | Watch |
| $21.32 | $19.30 |
| 11 | APLAssociate Global Partners | Watch |
| $0.30 | $0.28 |
| 12 | IBITIshares Bitcoin Etf Units | Watch |
| $18.51 | $18.10 |
| 13 | HPRHigh Peak Royalties | Watch |
| $0.10 | $0.09 |
| 14 | L1MLightning Minerals | Watch |
| $0.01 | $0.01 |
| 15 | ST1SPIRIT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS LTD | Watch |
| $0.56 | $0.59 |
| 16 | BGBLBeta Gbl Shares Etf Etf Units | Watch |
| $85.57 | $86.99 |
| 17 | ELTElementos | Watch |
| $0.45 | $0.39 |
| 18 | DURDuratec | Watch |
| $2.37 | $2.36 |
| 19 | LMSLitchfield Minerals | Watch |
| $0.23 | $0.23 |
| 20 | MGHMaas Group Holdings | Watch |
| $6.89 | $6.53 |
Pivot is the top of the base: the breakout level, and the exit if the price closes back below it. Growth compares the latest reported period with the same period a year earlier. "n/a" means we do not hold the figure, never that it is zero.
The method
Zanger Breakout · Dan Zanger
Dan Zanger is a former swimming-pool contractor who reportedly turned about US$11,000 into more than US$18 million during the 1998 to 2000 technology boom, trading US growth stocks from his own account. Fortune examined his trading records for a December 2000 profile, and his 29,233% gain over a single twelve-month stretch is widely reported as a world record for a personal portfolio.
His method is simple to state and hard to follow. He looks for companies whose earnings and sales are growing explosively, waits for the share price to build a recognisable base (a cup-and-handle, flat base, flag, pennant or ascending triangle), and buys as the price breaks out of that base on a surge in volume. If the breakout fails and the price slips back into the base, he sells quickly.
He concentrates on a handful of leaders instead of spreading money thinly, and he reads the broad market before any single chart, because breakouts in a falling market fail far more often than breakouts in a rising one. Winners are held while they keep acting well; losers are cut fast.
Our version tests each of those ideas against ASX data we hold: reported revenue and EPS growth, a daily base-and-breakout detector on price and volume, the S&P/ASX 200 trend, and relative strength against the index. It ranks the result hard and leads with a short list, because concentration is part of the method.
Metadata
- Style
- momentum-breakout
- Holding period
- Weeks to months
- Risk posture
- Sell quickly if the breakout fails and the price closes back inside the base, below the pivot.
- Universe
- ASX equities with at least 60 sessions of price history; only those with at least A$250,000 average daily turnover can trigger
- Refresh cadence
- Daily, after the evening price sweep
- Rules
- 6
The rules
Every rule resolves to pass, fail or unknown for every stock. Unknown means the data is missing: it never counts as a pass, and a stock cannot trigger while a core rule is unknown. Rules marked scoring only order the list without gating it.
Rule 1: Explosive growth
CoreData source: Company fundamentals- The rule
- Buy companies with explosive earnings and sales growth. The biggest winners usually show both, and the growth is often accelerating.
- How we test it
- Pass when the latest annual revenue is up at least 25% on the prior year, or EPS is up at least 25% on the same series a year earlier (trailing twelve months where available, otherwise annual), or the company has swung from a net loss to a net profit. When a half-year result from the company's own filing is fresher than those figures, revenue and EPS are measured on that half against the same half a year earlier instead. Unknown when neither growth figure is available. A latest half-year that improved on the same half a year earlier is shown as supporting evidence but does not change the result.
Rule 2: A recognisable base
CoreData source: Daily prices- The rule
- Wait for the stock to build a proper base, such as a cup-and-handle, flat base, flag, pennant or ascending triangle, before buying.
- How we test it
- Pass when the stock has consolidated for at least 20 sessions since first setting its high over the prior 40 sessions (the pivot), the base is no more than 25% deep from that high to its low, and the close is at or above the base low. After a breakout the base is measured as at the breakout session, so the pivot and length describe the base the stock actually cleared. We detect that a tight consolidation exists and report its depth and length; we do not classify its shape. Unknown when the base cannot be measured from price history.
Rule 3: Breakout on heavy volume
CoreData source: Daily prices- The rule
- Buy as the price breaks out above the top of the base on heavy volume, well above its recent average.
- How we test it
- Pass when any of the last 5 sessions closed above the highest high of the 40 sessions before it, on volume at least 1.5 times the 50-day average. That prior 40-session high is the pivot, and we report it as the level a failed breakout falls back through. Unknown when the breakout cannot be measured from price history.
Rule 4: Read the market first
CoreData source: S&P/ASX 200 index- The rule
- Check the general market before buying anything. Most stocks follow the market, and breakouts fail in a falling one.
- How we test it
- Read from the S&P/ASX 200 (XJO): uptrend when the index closes above its 50-day average and the 50-day is above the 200-day; neutral when it closes above the 200-day but that stack is not in place; downtrend when it closes below the 200-day. Pass on uptrend or neutral, fail on downtrend, unknown when there is not enough recent index data (fewer than 200 sessions) to read the trend. A downtrend does not hide picks; it blocks triggers and turns the strategy verdict to stand aside.
Rule 5: Relative strength
Scoring onlyData source: Daily prices- The rule
- Let winners run. The leaders of a move outperform the market on the way up.
- How we test it
- Pass when the stock's 3-month return beats the S&P/ASX 200's 3-month return, that is, relative strength above zero. Unknown without 3 months of price history.
Rule 6: Liquid enough to trade
CoreData source: Daily prices- The rule
- Trade liquid leaders that can be bought at the breakout and sold quickly if it fails.
- How we test it
- Pass when the average daily turnover (close times volume) over the last 20 sessions is at least A$250,000. The same floor excludes sub-cent stocks, whose prices are stored to 2 decimal places and are too coarse to measure. Unknown without 20 sessions of price and volume.
What this cannot see
- Reported fundamentals cover 0 of the 1761 stocks evaluated. Where growth data is missing the growth rules read unknown, never pass, so those stocks cannot trigger.
- We detect a tight base; we do not classify cup-and-handle, flag, pennant or triangle shapes, so a base that passes may not be one Zanger himself would trade.
- ASX companies report half-yearly and there are no quarterly totals, so growth is measured annual on annual for revenue and on trailing-twelve-month EPS where available, switching to the latest half-year against the same half a year earlier, taken from the company's own filing, when that half is fresher. Figures can be months old, and small caps often arrive weeks after they file.
- Everything is measured on end-of-day prices after the evening sweep. We do not see intraday breakouts, the time of day a move happened, or news released after the close.
- Where to set a stop, how much to buy and when to sell a winner are the trader's decisions. We report the pivot, not a stop or a target.
- Prices are stored to 2 decimal places, so sub-cent stocks cannot be measured reliably; the A$250,000 turnover floor excludes them.
- This is a screen, not a recommendation. Nothing here is financial advice.