Why You Can’t Find VCPs Right Now (And Why That’s Not a Problem)
Received a great question today about VCPs that I think a lot of traders are struggling with right now.
They mentioned how hard it has been to actually find clean VCP setups, even after studying charts and screening for them.
This is a great question, and honestly what you’re experiencing is completely normal.
The first thing to understand is that most VCPs are not going to look like the textbook examples. The clean, perfectly staged contractions that many show are the exception, not the rule.
Minervini is not teaching you to find a perfect pattern. He is teaching you to recognize behavior.
What you are really looking for is:
volatility contraction over time
tighter price action
controlled pullbacks instead of sharp selloffs
volume drying up into the pivot
price tightening up the right side of the chart
Those things can show up in many different ways, and often they are subtle.
The second part of this is the environment.
Right now, it is harder to find clean setups. That is not a coincidence.
The best looking VCPs tend to show up earlier in a bull cycle when institutions are aggressively building positions and leadership is expanding. As the market matures, stocks become more extended, price action gets looser, and breakouts become less reliable.
So when you are scanning and thinking “these don’t look like the examples,” that is actually information.
It is telling you that either:
the setup is not truly there
or the environment is not ideal for it
A good way to think about it is this:
You are not trying to find a perfect VCP. You are trying to identify when supply is being absorbed before a potential expansion move.
Sometimes that will look very clean like NVDA earlier in 2024 or slightly less perfect like SMCI. Other times it will look much messier, like SNDK in 2025, and require more experience to recognize.
If you are struggling to find them right now, that might not be a skill issue. It is very likely a reflection of the current market conditions.
Over time, you will get better at spotting these. It comes from screen time and reviewing charts over and over. What looks unclear now will start to stand out much more with experience.
Also, you do not need to master every setup to be successful. Some traders naturally see certain patterns better than others.
For example, you might find that:
cup with handle setups stand out more to you
or flat base breakouts are easier to recognize
That is completely fine.
The goal is not to trade every setup. The goal is to find the ones you can consistently recognize and execute well, and focus on those.
