In no particular order, not thoroughly thought out, but something of what I'm thinking about. Shoot it full of holes, stomp on it, kick it around, bite chunks tear it all apart just please, add the Why.
Stock Checklist (Rough Version)
Picking a stock (company): Portfolio allocation/sector/where do we want to go today?
Diversify! Maintain a watched stable, become intimate with their performance patterns, be ready to take advantage of sudden moves. (I did that, one of my small successes: DRIV)
Maintain an indicator watch list; i.e. dollar ETFs, commodities, transports, energy, plastic packagers, etc.
Sector: Where is it? Going up? Down? Sideways? Market forces? Future direction? My current exposure/experience.
Develop stock screener chops, work with different screens, play, have fun.
Company: Market trend/is this company leading, following or stumbling about? Check competitors-always. Check institutional buying. Check industry relative strength (How?).
Technicals: Trend/patterns/support/resistance. Use my favorite indicators; BB, RSI, STO, MACD.
BUY THE F****** DIPS/SELL THE F****** PEAKS!!!!
Or buy and hold; whatever the strategy DuJour is.
Use intelligent trailing stops. Lots of noise within the trend set loose stops; a quiet trend then set them close. Let the stops work, upside targets can be exceeded with no loss of karma.
Fundamentals: Lots of stuff here; Revenue, profits, backwards, forwards, whatever. Then P/E, EPS, Dividends, Yields and Book Value. Visit Edgar, learn how to read (and stay awake while doing so) SEC filings.
Markets slow, no available cash heading towards your brokerage account? Paper trade, not as much fun but can be a learning experience.
Assess past perfomance (Of course, you maintain that Sold watch list, right?) and be prepared to relight an old flame.
Identify past mistakes (mine were too little of too many stocks, held for too short a time frame, and trying to trade whilst still deep in the grip of total ignorance.