How Do You Determine What's "In Play" for the Day ?

[Susana 10]

When you do your morning research, how do you determine what stocks are "In Play" for that particular morning/day ?

 

Do you search for unusual volume and high advancement in relation to futures ?

 

Do you search for the biggest movers as far as advancers or decliners?

 

How does it work ?

 

I could use some ideas and if you could please post the tools/websites you use to determine this I would appreciate it.

 

Susana

[ephi144 10]

my suggestion is to not make your analysis too time consuming and too complicated. you are trying to be a good trader so you do not have to spend too much time on it. Also humans have tendency to make things complicated. We try and make things fit the scenario as we see it. For example, you add 2 indicators and trade based on them for a while. if even just once that indicator misses to give you a signal where you missed a good profit. you will try to find another indicator that will catch that particular trend.

 

So keep it simple, even with your analysis. For stocks i use:

12 Ema, 20 SMA, BB, 7 Day RSI (80,20). i do not care for anything else.

 

 

.on the weekend i figure out 6-10 good breakout stocks.

.the breakout stocks are picked from 120 stocks list i have. (i do not trade them all or never have)

 

.the list is made from the stocks that i have followed for past 3-4 years and know their movement based on news, volume, etc. (i have a good feeling about their support/resistance etc)

 

.stocks are picked based on 30minute, 60minute and dialy charts...i decide my entry and exists.

 

.if they hit my buy targets i get in...when they hit sell target i get out..

..rinse and repeat.

 

i pick the group based on what i have been hearing from analysts.

i keep an eye on the news and analysts...and do opposite of what they are saying

 

for example, two weeks every one were dogging the oil. Even more so than before (the same analyst who said oil will go to 200 when oil was at 130 said it will go to 20)

so i bought USO at 28 sold at 35, bought oil plays like RIG at 43, HES at 49, CLF at 23. etc..

 

I also pay a lot of attention to GOLD and its open positions (net long vs. net short) and depending on where gold is trading i keep an eye on commodities.

while analysts were talking crap about gold a month ago i bought gold (GLD , FCX) (also note that if gold is higher the rest of the commodities will follow gold within a week or two lag)

 

the above makes me an contrarian investor in stocks. In this bear market i try to hold stocks for a very short period of time. i am take my losses quickly and get out...i most of the time take my profit and run as well.

 

 

 

 

 

however for futrues and forex i am a trend follower

 

i am a day trader and trade forex and futures...

i follow my signals. my indicators give me buy or sell signals ...the indicators are based EMA, MA, etc. My trading plan does not allow me trading 15 minutes before or after a news event.

 

My trading my plan is simple:

trade ES and EURUSD

use HMA 9,18, and EMA 89. Also use BB Squeeze. nothing else

no trading 30 minutes before market close

no trading 15 before or after news

etc..

[Dacamic 10]

To paraphrase ephi144, you should fish in rivers you know well. You might choose a small river (a few securities) or several large ones (multiple sectors or markets); regardless, there is a lot of benefit from focusing your attention on arenas you understand.

 

In my case, all stocks in the Russell 2000 and the S&P 500 index are "in play" (trades made from those are based upon criteria that has been wrung through my system development wringer). Happenstance mostly explains why I chose to consider the S&P 500, while a desire to explore a large, diverse group of stocks was the basis for my foray into the Russell 2000.

[et_phonehome_2 10]

If someone does not use these proprietary software which can scan securities that meets a specific criteria, is there any site that would provide such scanning for free?

[lote_tree 10]

If someone does not use these proprietary software which can scan securities that meets a specific criteria, is there any site that would provide such scanning for free?

 

Try this:

 

http://finviz.com/

 

Best free stock screener I've ever seen..

 

Cheers

Lote

[fpinero 10]

Hi,

 

Another great site to scan securities is this http://www.trade-ideas.com/StockInfo/_ScreenerConfig.html

 

Regards.

fpinero.

[et_phonehome_2 10]

All,

 

Thanks for some nice sites, never realized there are freebies out there....

[cnbcaddict 10]

I really like the finviz.com screener. I will use it since one of my best techniques to find stock have to do with option plays around earning announcements and also upgrades and downgrades.

 

Thanks for the share!

[Spydertrader 10]

When you do your morning research, how do you determine what stocks are "In Play" for that particular morning/day ?

 

The work required for determining which stocks to trade, on any particular trading day, begins the night before.

 

First, a trader needs to cull the entire Universe of equities down to a manageable number of 'high quality' companies. The filter I have used with success includes the following criteria:

 

Price: $10.00 to $50.00

Average Daily Volume: >200,000 shares

Float: 5 million to 60 million shares

Positive Earnings

Positive Earnings per share

Insider Owned Percentage: >5%

Institutional Holdings > 5%

 

 

One can then sort the list of 'high quality companies' by Unusual Volume (current volume / 65 day average volume), and watch those comapnies "in play" bubble right to the top.

 

One can further cull the list by focusing on companies which have 'rank' (stocks which cycle 20% [or more] a minimum of five times over a period of 6 to 8 days in the last 6 months) or stocks which find themselves 'in dry up' (period of super-low volume)

 

Attached, please find a list for tomrrow.

 

- Spydertrader

 

Edited April 28, 2009 by Soultrader