Audio available at the end of this post.
Kristjan Kullamägi (aka Qullamaggie) learnt from many of the greats that came before him, including Dan Zanger.
And Kristjan didn’t need to expressly tell us so for this to be evident.
The overlaps between what Qullamaggie and Dan Zanger teach us are striking.
Let’s look at five of them, using this video as a jumping-off point:
1. Focus on price and volume — not indicators
Kristjan explains (11:39) that you must study thousands of leading stocks, from different market environments.
This will show you that leading stocks act similarly. You’ll learn how stocks move. From there, you can figure out how to trade them. You’re not constrained to just one style — find one that works for you.
As Kristjan says (12:08):
“If you don’t know how [stocks] are supposed to move in certain scenarios, no indicator is going to help you.
“You need to learn how stocks move, and then you can use indicators as a guide.”
And when he says “indicators”, he basically means moving averages. As Kristjan mentioned during the 9 June 2023 stream:
“When you’re in a […] trending market, and you get these leading stocks, […] the moving averages work like magic. They’re literally magic lines.”
In short, get the fundamentals right first. You won’t succeed — in anything — without a solid foundation.
In trading, that means understanding how stocks move. It means understanding price and volume.
Compare this to what Zanger says:
“I don’t believe in anything but my charts and my price action with stocks.”
And:
“Indicators are lagging in nature, so by the time they issue a buy or sell signal, or tell you that a stock is weakening or strengthening, the stock might have already moved 5 to 20%. This is way too late for me.”
2. Find patterns for consistency
Kristjan says (48:31):
“It’s not about 1–2 trades. It’s about making hundreds or thousands of trades in a year, right? It’s about consistency. We’re not here to get lucky; we’re here to get guaranteed rich. […]
“We’re here to get consistently lucky. We’re here to develop an edge.”
This strongly reminds me of one of the Zanger points from last week. Even though Zanger is technically a discretionary trader, he sees himself as a systematic one:
“I buy the same types of stocks with the same types of price action, out of the same types of bases on a continuous basis.”
However, discretion comes into things, too:
“If stocks start to fail on their breakouts, I’ll pass on buying those stocks at that time.
“The market is sending a clear signal that a correction is upon us and it’s time to go to cash and/or look for shorts.
“Also, if the price action isn’t what I like, I’ll pass on that stock, even if it’s coming out of an attractive pattern.”
Of course, Kristjan also often talks about market environment and market filters.
3. Just focus on leading stocks and setups
As Kristjan points out (35:47):
“The markets are going to be up or down, every single day. […] Down days happen, okay?
“There’s no law that says the market has to go up every day. It’s just a down day — deal with it. […] There’s nothing special about it.”
Kristjan goes on to say things we’ve heard before — tune out the news, focus on stocks, focus on setups.
Pay attention to the leaders — how are they acting?
If the leaders are leading, all’s well in the market.
How the leaders are behaving will tell you far more about market health than any index ever will.
And of course, Zanger is big on following the leaders. He wants to go where the institutions go. He also frequently points out that if you wait for indices to give you a buy signal, the leaders will be long gone.
4. Earnings are the fuel for growth stocks
Kristjan says (17:21):
“Even if you get […] a good setup on a random stock, [it probably isn’t] worth it. […]
“If you have plenty of growth stocks, and then you have some random stocks, focus on the growth stocks, because earnings are fuel, okay? You need fuel. You need a reason for something to go up.
“Stocks don’t go up just because [they have] a certain pattern. […] You find the stocks that have a reason to go up, and then you look for patterns on those stocks.
“Because patterns are just something […] that can increase your odds of success, and then can maximise your risk–reward.
“You want to get all the randomness out of trading. You want an edge. If you want a big edge, […] you don’t have much room for error — you can’t do random things.”
Again, this comes down to finding the leading stocks in the leading themes — which both Kristjan and Zanger hammer on about — and then looking for low-risk entry points in those stocks.
As opposed to thinking ‘setup = edge’, then looking for that setup indiscriminately.
To quote the wonderfully eloquent JUNO:
“A setup in itself isn’t an edge. Something that can be taught over YouTube in an hour can never be an edge.
“The discretion to allocate our limited resources into one breakout setup over [another] based on what we’ve identified as commonalities in today’s best opportunities is an edge.”
5. Spend thousands of hours studying
Let’s finish on a point I touched on earlier — studying tons of charts. But it’s a point that can’t be repeated enough:
You need to put in your OWN hard work.
If you don’t put in the time and effort, you can’t expect to excel — whether it’s trading or something else. But in trading, if you don’t excel, you’re losing money.
Here’s what Kristjan had to say (39:38):
“If you really put in the work and understand the nuances of the setup[:]
When it works;
When it doesn’t work;
When you should be aggressive;
When you should be defensive;
When you shouldn’t be trading at all. […]
“It takes years to get really good at it, but once you get good at it, you’re guaranteed going to make millions — tens of millions.”
Again, you need to develop your own expertise. You need to develop a foundation.
And it’s not just Kristjan (here’s a reminder of the work he did). Zanger sure put in the reps, too:
“Once or twice a day, I manually scan about 1,500 stocks […] and look for interesting behaviour.”
In short: be deliberate in your studies. Do a deep dive.
As Kristjan says (49:27): find liquid stocks that made a big move — that doubled or tripled in a short period. Add those stocks to a separate watchlist, and study their charts.
What patterns can you identify? Which setups occur over and over again?
The only way you can develop conviction — the only way to truly believe — is to study. As Kristjan puts it: “Pretty much all your problems stem from not knowing what the hell you’re doing.”
He also points out that if you study three hours a day for a year, you’ll have the skill for life — you won’t have to work ever again. But you must put in that upfront work.
Do the hard stuff now for an easy life later.
Or take the path of least resistance now for a hard life later.
You choose.
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As usual, too good and helpful.Always waiting for your post here :)
You are the best! Thank for this audio clip.