The Coil Report — Letter — Weekly
The week's regime read, what finished, and what we're watching — in plain English.
📊 Today's regime read
4 distribution days is enough to keep the bar high, and breadth is only fair (59% of the universe above its 50-day). Treat tonight's list as a watchlist to build from, not a queue to act on all at once — let the levels do the confirming.
🧾 Receipts
Every signal that finished this week, in the order it finished. Winners and losers, no exceptions — this is the whole list, not a selection from it.
- GKOS — in 2026-08-20 at $190.44, out 2026-08-26 at $180.57 (stopped before breakeven armed, 4 sessions). Result: -1.00R.
- DLTR — in 2026-08-19 at $133.53, out 2026-08-27 at $127.00 (stopped before breakeven armed, 6 sessions). Result: -1.69R.
- MRK — in 2026-07-27 at $132.00, out 2026-08-28 at $148.31 (stopped after the trail had moved up, 24 sessions). Result: +1.83R.
- WST — in 2026-08-20 at $359.39, out 2026-08-28 at $337.40 (stopped before breakeven armed, 6 sessions). Result: -1.00R.
17 still open and not counted here.
Trades that go wrong end quickly — the stop is hit and the position is closed. Trades that go right stay open, because the trailing stop only closes them once the price falls back from its high. So a list of FINISHED trades leans toward the losses by construction, and the ones still open are where anything that is working currently sits — each lands here when it finishes, whichever way it goes. A young record reads worse than it is for exactly that reason, which is worth saying plainly rather than waiting for the winners to close.
👁 On the watchlist
The names the daily report is tracking right now, with the grade each one earned. The ones closest to a level appear below with their pivot; the exit price, the profit targets and the trail are in Signals.
- CSX (CSX) — Grade C
- APD — Grade D
- JPM — Grade C
- VRTX — Grade D
- EOG — Grade C
- ABBV — Grade C
- GKOS — Grade C
Nothing confirmed this week — a genuinely quiet stretch. That's the market's read, not a gap in ours.
Today's setups
2 top watches — in plain English.
🚦 Market check: yellow light
The market's still up but showing cracks. Translation: be patient. Watch the list below, but this isn't a week to chase anything.
SPY $769.38 (50-day $753.96, 200-day $709.85), 4 distribution days.
👀 What we're looking for (60 seconds)
Picture someone slowly compressing a spring. That's what every name on this list is doing: its price swings keep getting smaller and trading keeps getting quieter. That combination usually means the sellers are running out. When sellers run dry, even a little buying can send the stock jumping — the spring releases. We can spot a loaded spring; nobody can call the exact day it pops. So we mark the levels that matter and let the stock tell us:
🟢 WATCH ABOVE — the ceiling. The price the stock has bumped its head on over and over. If it finally pushes above this with a rush of buying volume behind it, the spring is releasing. That's the event this whole letter exists to catch.
🔴 KNOW YOUR EXIT — every setup needs a level where you admit it failed. For a coil that's the floor of the base: if price falls back through the recent low, the spring was never really loaded. Cross it off and move on. No guessing, no hoping.
These are levels to watch — not instructions to buy or sell anything.
🔎 Where these names come from
Every session, the scan covers 200 liquid large- and mid-cap stocks: the S&P 100, the Nasdaq 100, and a hand-picked list of high-momentum growth names, combined and de-duplicated. That's a deliberate choice, not a shortcut — thin, illiquid stocks produce noisy, unreliable contraction patterns, so we trade breadth for quality. It's not the whole market; it's the names worth watching.
🔥 Top watches
These are within 2% of their watch-above level. If they move, they move soon.
- CSX (CSX) — Watch above (pivot) $51.59 · Current price $51.28 (distance to trigger 0.6%). A move above $51.59 would confirm the setup is playing out; a drop back through the base's recent low would mean the setup is no longer valid.
- APD — Watch above (pivot) $311.51 · Current price $307.99 (distance to trigger 1.1%). A move above $311.51 would confirm the setup is playing out; a drop back through the base's recent low would mean the setup is no longer valid.
🧠 One thing to remember
A coil doesn't expire. A stock that holds its base through a rough week is often building an even stronger spring. The levels above do the watching for you — check back next issue.
The Coil Report is a financial publication, not an investment adviser. This is impersonal, general-circulation educational commentary — not personalized investment advice, and not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Trading involves substantial risk; patterns fail regularly. Levels are reference points for your own research. Consult a licensed financial professional before acting. Not affiliated with Mark Minervini, William J. O'Neil, or Investor's Business Daily.