TD Sequential 9 Buy (4H)

How the TD Sequential 9 Buy (4H) screen works

In plain words: a DeMark-style count looks for a selloff that has gone on long enough to tire out. The "setup" counts bars in a row that close lower than they did four bars earlier; when it reaches 9 without a break, sellers may be running out of steam. The "countdown" then keeps a slower tally of weak closes (close at or below the low two bars back, not necessarily in a row); a qualified 13 marks a deeper, later exhaustion point. A "perfected" 9 is a stricter 9 where the last bars also undercut the lows of bars 6 and 7. Signals averaged +0.18% one session later and +0.53% five sessions later, versus +0.39% for SPY over the same five sessions. These are timing signals, not trend calls: a 9 or 13 can fail, and the trend can keep going.

This version uses 4-hour bars: two per regular session (09:30-13:30 and 13:30-16:00 ET), built from Yahoo Finance 60-minute data, which only goes back about two years. So the history here starts 2024-01-02, much shorter than our daily screens, and results are measured 10 bars (5 sessions) and 2 bars (1 session) after the signal bar's close. Treat the smaller sample with extra caution. "TD Sequential" is a trademark of Tom DeMark. SetupHits is not affiliated with or endorsed by DeMark; this is our own DeMark-style Sequential count implementation, and other platforms' versions can differ.

The TD Sequential 9 Buy (4H) screen is a DeMark-style setup: a DeMark-style Sequential count: nine straight closes below the close four bars earlier, a sign a selloff may be getting exhausted. 4-hour bars (two per session). A stock qualifies on a given day when all 5 rules are true at the close (the exact thresholds are part of Pro). To keep results tradable, only S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 members above $5 with more than $5M of average daily dollar volume are included.

Across 515 tickers from 2024-01-02 to 2026-10-14 (4-hour bars; intraday history is limited to about two years), the screen fired 8,437 times on 515 different stocks. 54.7% of signals were higher five sessions later, ranking #5 of 30 screens on SetupHits by hit rate. The average 5-day move was +0.53% (median +0.39%), ahead of SPY's +0.39% over the same days, and the equal-weight trade curve's worst drawdown was -22.9%.

Pro members get copy-paste TradingView, ThinkorSwim versions of this screen by email. In TradingView use the string in the Stock Screener filter or a Pine condition; in Finviz append the filter codes to the screener URL; in ThinkorSwim paste the thinkScript into a Stock Hacker custom study filter. Platforms compute indicators slightly differently, so expect small differences in the hit list.

Treat these numbers as context, not a forecast. The backtest uses 4-hour bars (5-day return = 10 bars later, 1-day = 2 bars), ignores commissions and slippage, overlaps signals on the same stock, and tests today's index members back in time, which adds survivorship bias. A mostly rising 2021–2026 market also lifted most long setups.

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