How Stock Helper Analyzes: 3 Lenses, Market Context, Prices

Same day, same headline: one investor reads it as good news and jumps in, another reads it as a sign of distribution and bails out. The difference usually isn't who has more information. It's whether you have a consistent way of looking at things: what to check first, what to check next, and when to doubt your first reaction.

Stock Helper runs every analysis through the same process: three lenses (technicals, news, and sentiment) plus market context, ending in one action category, five price levels, and three risk reminders. This article takes that method apart so you know what each section of its analysis is answering, and so you can use it to check your own judgment.

30-Second Overview

Technicals: Start With Where the Price Stands

Technicals answer the question "where is the price right now?" It looks at candlestick patterns; the 5-, 10-, 20-, and 60-day moving averages; support and resistance; whether volume is expanding; and whether key levels have been broken above or below. Then it checks RSI(14), MACD, KD, and Bollinger Bands, and compares the trend on daily, weekly, and monthly charts.

Each indicator looks at one thing: moving averages show trend direction, support and resistance show where buyers and sellers are likely to clash, volume shows whether a breakout or breakdown has followers, and RSI shows whether a short-term move has gone too far. A single indicator can easily fool you. A breakout without volume, for example, often fails to hold. So it reads several signals together instead of quoting only the one that looks good.

RSI(14) Zones: One Number, Five Readings

For every stock, it states the RSI value and the zone it falls in:

RSI is calculated from daily data, so when it quotes RSI it notes which day the value is from. The pre-open morning briefing uses RSI as of the previous session's close and won't describe yesterday's indicator as the current intraday state. This matters most on big down days: an RSI of 45 at yesterday's close doesn't mean it's still 45 while the stock plunges today.

News: Is There a Real Reason Behind the Move?

Technicals tell you the price moved; news tells you why. It checks headlines, financial reports, monthly revenue (month-over-month and year-over-year), earnings calls, ex-dividend dates, material company announcements, the last five days of buying and selling by institutional investors (foreign investors, investment trusts, dealers) along with margin trading and short selling, and relevant industry news. Then it judges whether the item is good news, bad news, or just noise.

The "noise" category matters. Every day brings a flood of headlines loosely connected to your holdings, but only a few actually change a company's earnings or its shareholder flows. Filter out the noise first, and a single headline won't make you throw out your plan.

Every item is tagged with a source and date, such as "(Source: Anue, 7/12)." Anything it can't find is written as "not found," for example "Earnings call: no recent information found," instead of filling the gap with "expected" or "likely." For why this protects your money better, see Every Statement Has a Source. For how industry news moves upstream and downstream companies, see Sector Linkages and Concentration Risk.

Sentiment: How Hot or Scared Is the Market Right Now?

With the same fundamentals, a stock's price can be very different when everyone is rushing to buy versus rushing to sell. The sentiment lens summarizes the bullish or bearish mood among retail investors and the media in four categories: optimistic, neutral, pessimistic, and divided. It pays special attention to two extremes:

• Overheating signals: everyone piling in, wall-to-wall news coverage, "XX concept stocks" everywhere. Here it warns you about the risk, because by the time the story reaches your group chat, the price has often already priced in a big move.
• Panic signals: panic selling, negative news arriving all at once. Here it notes the stock may be oversold, so you don't dump it at the emotional bottom along with everyone else.

Sentiment readings always cite the actual headlines and sources it found, and it checks the date and year first: articles more than a month old are never treated as "current market sentiment." Forum searches often mix in discussions from years ago, and mistaking last year's panic for today's can lead you to the exact opposite conclusion.

Market Context: Why You Can't Look Only at Today

Picture this (illustrative): the day before, Stock A dropped sharply along with the market and closed limit-down, so people who wanted to sell couldn't. Today the market stabilizes and edges up 0.3%, but Stock A opens lower and falls another 6%.

Looking only at today's numbers, it's easy to conclude, "The market is fine and Stock A is unusually weak, so something must have gone wrong at the company." But what often happens is that selling pressure stuck behind yesterday's limit-down lock, unable to execute, only gets released today. That's a continuation of the previous day's move, catch-up selling, not necessarily new company-specific bad news.

So it follows a fixed rule: when a stock moves more than 5% in a day, before it states any "reason," it first checks the market's move that day, plus how both the market and the stock did in the previous session. If the stock fell sharply or hit limit-down the day before, another steep drop today is treated first as continuation or catch-up selling, unless it finds specific bad news about the company. It won't conclude that something is wrong with the company just because "the market fell a little today and the stock fell a lot."

This rule protects your wallet in two directions. First, you won't panic and sell at the low of a catch-up drop because you wrongly think the company is in trouble. Second, if there really is company-specific bad news, it lists the articles and sources, so you won't mistake a genuine problem for the market dragging it down and keep holding.

Turning Analysis Into Conclusions You Can Use

After the three lenses, everything has to land on something you can act on. A full stock analysis always follows this order: conclusion; today's highlights (price, change, volume, trend call); technicals; news; sentiment; action notes (short-term, swing, long-term, stop-loss, take-profit); and risk reminders, with a three-month candlestick chart including RSI, MACD, and Bollinger Bands.

Seven Action Categories

The action notes fall into one of the categories below. This is analysis for reference, not an investment instruction, but it forces the analysis to take a position instead of writing a "cautiously optimistic" that works either way. The right column shows how you can interpret each category when you see it:

Five Price Levels

Every analysis gives five price levels: a watch-to-buy price, a support zone, a resistance zone, a stop-loss, and a take-profit watch level. How to use them is straightforward:

• Watch-to-buy price and support zone: if you haven't bought yet, put these in your watchlist's reason for watching, such as "wait for a pullback to 290," and the morning briefing will bring it back for you every day.
• Resistance zone and take-profit watch level: if you're already in profit, decide ahead of time whether to take some off in stages as the price nears these levels.
• Stop-loss: if you agree with the level, just tell it in Telegram, "Stop-loss for Stock A at 180." It will remember, and if the price falls there during the session, it will alert you.

For the full approach to turning feelings into prices, see Don't Chase: RSI Zones and Support/Resistance Turn Feelings Into Prices. For stop-loss alert details, see Stop-Loss Discipline: How Intraday Alerts Warn You Before Losses Grow.

Three Things in Every Risk Reminder

Risk reminders have to be specific, not just "investing involves risk." Each one answers three questions (the example sentences below are illustrative):

1. The biggest risk: for example, "The earnings call is next week; if revenue guidance is cut, the stock could gap down in the short term."
2. When this call would be wrong: for example, "If it closes below support at 285 and institutional investors turn to consecutive net selling, the bullish call no longer holds."
3. Uncertainties: for example, "U.S. inflation data comes out this week and could move tech stocks across the board."

The second point is the one most worth writing down. It amounts to writing, in advance, "when to admit I was wrong," and it's the best basis for setting your stop-loss. Throughout the process there are also a few things it never does: it doesn't guarantee profits, doesn't promise returns, doesn't encourage going all-in or using heavy leverage, and doesn't force an analysis when the data isn't there.

When the Three Lenses Disagree

When all three lenses point the same way, the call is easy. The real test is when they conflict. Both scenarios below are illustrative.

Scenario 1: Technicals weaken, but institutions keep buying

An AI server stock breaks below its 20-day moving average and RSI slides from 62 to 46, so the technicals are clearly weakening. But the news lens shows institutional investors have been net buyers for five straight days.

Both are facts, and the analysis sources each one separately. One way to read it: the weakening price is the current state, while institutional buying is a clue that someone is absorbing shares at lower levels. A clue is not the same as a bottom. The safer approach is to wait until the price holds in the support zone before acting; if you do enter, test with a small position first and set a stop-loss below support. If the price then breaks support and institutions turn to selling, the "someone is buying" rationale is gone.

Scenario 2: Sentiment is overheated, but monthly revenue is up year over year

A stock's latest monthly revenue is up year over year (a fact, with a MOPS source), while the news is wall-to-wall, "XX concept stocks" are everywhere, and RSI shoots to 82.

The strong fundamentals are real, but a good company isn't the same as a good price. RSI above 80 is extremely overheated and the sentiment lens is flashing an overheating signal, so the more reasonable reading of this combination is "don't chase." If you like the stock, put it on your watchlist with the reason "wait for a pullback to support," and let the morning briefing watch it for you every day instead of buying on the hottest day.

A general rule

When the three lenses disagree, first separate what's fact from what's inference, then look at the risk reminder's "when this call would be wrong." The conflict itself is information: it's telling you this isn't the time to bet big. It's a time for small positions and a stop-loss set in advance, or simply waiting for the signals to clear up. It records every analysis's conclusion and explains the reason whenever a later conclusion changes, so you can go back and see which lens turned first. See It Remembers What It Said for details.

FAQ

Q: Does RSI below 30 mean it's time to buy?

Not necessarily. Below 30 means oversold, which is "possibly" a good entry point. But if the news lens turns up genuinely bad news, the price can stay in oversold territory for a long time. That's why it reads RSI together with news and market context, and gives you a stop-loss so you know where to get out if the call is wrong.

Q: Is the RSI in the morning briefing today's value?

No. RSI is calculated from daily data, so the pre-open morning briefing uses the value as of the previous session's close and notes the base date. The RSI in intraday alerts also states which day's daily value it is.

Q: Where does its data come from?

It prioritizes the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE), the Taipei Exchange (TPEx), the Market Observation Post System (MOPS), Yahoo Finance Taiwan, Goodinfo, Anue, MoneyDJ, Economic Daily News, and Commercial Times. Every fact is tagged with its source on the spot, so you can go back and verify it yourself.

Q: This conclusion differs from last time. Which one should I believe?

Before analyzing the same stock, it reads the last seven days of investment notes. When its conclusion changes, it says so plainly: "On [date] I suggested X; this time I'm changing to Y because of Z." What you should look at is that reason: did the price break a key level, or did new news come out? A new conclusion is only worth considering if the reason is specific and sourced.

Further Reading

• Stock Helper Overview: Discipline Pays, and It Keeps Watch
• Don't Chase: RSI Zones and Support/Resistance Turn Feelings Into Prices
• Every Statement Has a Source: Why "Not Found" Protects Your Money Better Than a Made-Up Number
• Sector Linkages and Concentration Risk: How One Headline Moves Your Whole Portfolio
• Stop-Loss Discipline: How Intraday Alerts Warn You Before Losses Grow

Stock Helper is not an investment advisory service. AI analysis is for reference only and does not constitute investment advice. Investing involves risk; make your own decisions.