Earnings Plays in ChartMill
How to Screen for Post-Earnings Momentum Stocks?
Earnings season is one of the most powerful drivers of stock market momentum. Every quarter, stocks gap up, surge higher, and attract attention, but not every earnings move leads to sustained follow-through.
The real edge isn’t spotting the initial spike.
It’s identifying which stocks are likely to continue trending after earnings, and which ones will quickly fade.
In this article, we walk through a practical screening approach using ChartMill to identify post-earnings momentum stocks, stocks that show strength after the earnings reaction and may offer structured trading opportunities.
👉 Watch the full video walkthrough here:
🔍 Step 1: Start with some Basic Quality Filters
Before focusing on earnings or momentum, we first clean up the stock universe with a few basic quality filters:
Price above $5 – to avoid penny stocks and low-quality noise
Average daily volume above 300,000 shares (20-day) – to ensure liquidity
At least small-cap stocks – to remove microcaps that can’t sustain momentum
These filters help ensure that any momentum we identify is tradable in real life, not just on paper.
💥 Step 2: Focus on a Fresh Earnings Catalyst
Next, we narrow the list to stocks that:
Reported earnings within the last two weeks
This matters because institutional positioning rarely happens in a single day.
Stocks that continue to move after earnings often stay in play for several days or even weeks.
Keeping the earnings window tight helps focus on fresh, relevant catalysts.
📈 Step 3: Require Post-Earnings Strength
Not every earnings reaction is meaningful.
To filter out weak or indecisive moves, we require:
At least +8% performance over the last week
This ensures we’re looking at stocks that showed real follow-through, not just a one-day spike.
📊 Step 4: Confirm Trend & Momentum with EMAs
Momentum should not only exist, it should hold.
That’s why we include:
EMA(9) rising
EMA(21) rising
EMA(9) above EMA(21)
This combination confirms that short-term momentum remains intact and the stock hasn’t immediately rolled over after earnings.
EMA pullbacks are often where controlled risk setups emerge.
🏆 Step 5: Add a Relative Strength Filter
Finally, we require:
Relative Strength score ≥ 80
Post-earnings momentum works best in leaders, not laggards.
This filter ensures we’re focusing on stocks outperforming the broader market.
🧠 Why This Screen Works
This approach combines four powerful elements:
A fresh earnings catalyst
Confirmed post-earnings performance
Trend alignment and momentum structure
Market leadership through relative strength
Together, these filters dramatically improve the odds of finding stocks with continued momentum potential.
📉 Real-World Outcomes: Winners and Losers
An important part of trading is accepting that valid setups can still fail.
In the accompanying video, we walk through:
A successful post-earnings continuation example
A “good trade, bad outcome” example where the setup was valid, but price failed to follow through
In the losing case, risk was clearly defined and the loss was small, exactly how a disciplined momentum strategy should work.
Losses are not mistakes.
They’re part of the system.
🔄 How to Use This Screen in Practice
Once you have a list of candidates, the real work begins:
Look for tight consolidations after earnings
Watch for pullbacks into rising EMAs
Define clear invalidation levels
Avoid chasing extended moves
Screen → Analyze → Plan → Execute
That process matters more than any single trade.
🎥 Watch the Full Video Walkthrough
For a full, step-by-step visual breakdown - including real chart examples - watch the video.
⚠️ A Quick but Important Disclaimer
This approach is designed to build a high-quality watchlist, not to generate buy signals.
Every stock that appears in the screen still requires:
Individual chart analysis
Clear risk and invalidation levels
Proper position sizing
An understanding that losses are part of trading
Some setups will work. Others won’t.
The goal is consistency of process, not prediction.
Kristoff - ChartMill