Key takeaways · 5
- Modified Double Trouble (MDT) is today’s close divided by the 126-day simple moving average, the mean price over the last six months. Bonde’s bullish threshold is 1.19, so the close sits at least 19% above its recent average.
- It is the same "how far is this stock stretched" idea as Double Trouble, but measured against a moving mean instead of a fixed yearly low. The reference tracks the stock rather than sitting frozen at last year’s bottom.
- The change of denominator changes what each screen can see. MDT needs only 126 sessions, so it registers younger leaders that Double Trouble’s 252-day window cannot. And because its reference moves, MDT cools off faster when a stock stalls, where Double Trouble can stay high on a stale low.
- MDT still reads extension, not motion. It tells you a stock is stretched above its recent mean but not whether it is still moving, so pair it with Trend Intensity 65 for that half of the picture.
- In the terminal,
mdtruns the screen at the 1.19 default and shows the raw ratio in the score column. It composes with the rest of the family through(dt or ti65 or mdt) | overlap.
What the ratio measures
Modified Double Trouble divides today’s close by the 126-day simple moving average of the close. A 126-session window is about six months of trading, so the denominator is the stock’s average price over the recent half-year. A reading of 1.19 (Bonde’s threshold) means the close sits 19% above that six-month mean. The stock is stretched well above where it has typically traded lately.
The word "modified" points at the one change from Double Trouble: the reference. Double Trouble divides by the lowest low of the last 252 sessions, a single fixed number that only updates when a new yearly low prints. MDT divides by a moving average, a number that drifts upward as the stock climbs and downward as it falls. One measures distance from a frozen floor; the other measures distance from a moving center of gravity.
That makes MDT a read on recent extension rather than full-cycle travel. A stock does not need a dramatic 52-week-low-to-high story to clear MDT. It just needs to be trading meaningfully above its own six-month average right now. The two screens are asking related but distinct questions, and a given name can answer one without answering the other.
MDT = today’s close ÷ the 126-day moving average. A reading of 1.19 is a close sitting 19% above its own six-month mean.
What the moving reference changes
Swapping a fixed low for a moving average sounds like a technicality. In practice it decides which stocks each screen can even see, and how each one behaves when a move matures.
Take coverage. Double Trouble needs a full 252 sessions to establish a yearly low, so a strong name in its first year of public trading returns nothing. MDT needs only 126, so it picks up younger leaders half a year sooner. In a market where fresh issues are often the strongest movers, that head start counts: MDT sees a new leader while Double Trouble is still blind to it.
Now behaviour. Because MDT’s denominator rises as the stock climbs, the ratio cools when price stalls: the moving average keeps catching up and pulls the reading back toward 1.0. Double Trouble has no such mechanism. Its low is frozen, so a stock that stalled or even started falling can keep printing a high reading against last year’s bottom. MDT is the more current of the two, and its number falls faster when a move runs out of steam.
A worked example
Take two stocks that both closed today at $30, and see how differently the two screens read them.
Stock A bottomed at $12 last autumn and has climbed steadily; its 126-day average now sits at $25. Double Trouble reads 30 ÷ 12 = 2.50 (extended off the yearly low). MDT reads 30 ÷ 25 = 1.20 (just above the 1.19 line, modestly stretched above the recent mean). Both screens see it, and together they say "far off the low, and still a touch above the recent average."
Stock B is a recent issue that has traded between $18 and $32 over its five months on the tape; its 126-day average is $22, and it has no 252-day low at all. Double Trouble returns nothing: not enough history. MDT reads 30 ÷ 22 = 1.36, comfortably past the threshold, and flags a name Double Trouble cannot even evaluate. This is the coverage gap in miniature: the modified screen sees the young leader that the original one is blind to.
Where MDT misleads
MDT is more current than Double Trouble, but it is still a persistence read, and persistence reads share a weakness: they describe how far a stock has come, not whether it is still going. A high MDT can sit on a name that stretched above its mean weeks ago and has since gone flat. The moving average will eventually catch up and cool the reading, but "eventually" can be several weeks, during which the ratio overstates the current move.
The fix is the same as for Double Trouble: read it alongside an acceleration screen, and the ambiguity clears. A high MDT next to a young, expanding TI65 is stretched and still accelerating; a high MDT next to a flat one is a stretched stock that has stopped moving. The extension number alone cannot separate the two.
And like every trailing screen, MDT needs its window. A name with fewer than 126 sessions of history returns nothing, so the very newest issues are invisible to it too, just for a shorter blind period than Double Trouble’s.
How tickerstance uses it
In the terminal, mdt runs Modified Double Trouble at Bonde’s default: close over the 126-day simple moving average, at or above 1.19, ranked by the ratio, with the raw reading in the score column. Names without six months of history do not appear.
It composes exactly like its siblings. mdt rs>90 keeps only stretched names that are also strong against the universe. (dt or ti65 or mdt) | overlap unions it with the yearly-low and acceleration screens, and because MDT sees younger leaders than Double Trouble, it often contributes names to that overlap the original screen misses. Adding 1d>-1 1d<1 narrows to the names that are stretched but sat still today, waiting to move.
MDT never touches Stance; Stance is the room it trades in. The two are computed apart, on entirely separate data.
Frequently asked questions
What is Modified Double Trouble?
A momentum screen from the Stockbee family that divides a stock’s close by its 126-day simple moving average, the mean price over the last six months. A reading of 1.19 or higher, Bonde’s threshold, means the close sits at least 19% above its recent average. It measures extension above a moving reference rather than distance from a fixed yearly low.
How is MDT different from Double Trouble?
Double Trouble divides the close by the 252-day low (a fixed floor that measures the full move off the yearly bottom). MDT divides the close by the 126-day moving average (a reference that tracks the stock). Because MDT’s denominator moves, it cools faster when a stock stalls, and because it needs only 126 sessions, it sees younger leaders that Double Trouble’s 252-day window cannot.
Why does MDT use the 126-day average?
126 trading sessions is roughly six months. Using a half-year moving average as the reference makes the screen a read on recent extension (how far above its own recent trading the stock has stretched) rather than a read on the full cycle off a yearly low. It also means the screen only needs six months of history to compute, half of what Double Trouble requires.
Does MDT replace Double Trouble?
No. They answer different questions and are meant to be run together. Double Trouble rewards the full move off a 52-week floor; MDT rewards being stretched above the recent mean and sees younger names. Unioning them, often with Trend Intensity 65, surfaces stocks that more than one screen agrees are strong.
Can MDT give a misleading reading?
Yes. Like any extension read, it describes how far a stock has come, not whether it is still moving. A high MDT can sit on a name that stretched above its mean weeks ago and then went flat. The remedy is to check an acceleration screen beside it: Trend Intensity 65 tells you whether the stretch is still being pushed or has quietly stalled.
How do I run MDT on tickerstance?
Type mdt in the terminal. It returns names with a close-to-126-day-average ratio of at least 1.19, ranked by the ratio, with the raw value in the score column. Tighten it with mdt rs>90 for the strong names. Because MDT reaches younger leaders than the 252-day screens, it is the one to run first when a fresh crop of new issues starts to lead.