For now, I only day-trade equities and each night I go through a couple of hundred stock charts and compile a list of stocks to watch tomorrow, but since trading is done in real-time based on market conditions at that point in time, I rarely trade any of the stock picks from the night before. Just wanted to know if other people were following a similar practice, and their thoughts on this topic. Thanks in advance. -FastTrader
Thought I'd add one more comment. Even though I have not traded any of the stock picks I compile in the evening, looking at hundreds of charts has helped me better identify candle-stick patterns.
I don't think there is a better exercise in this business that you can do when the market is closed than looking at charts. Curiously, do you end up daytrading the same set of stocks usually, despite the watchlist? Also, do you go back and review your thoughts about the previous night's list and compare them to what happened? I am not saying you should, just curious.
I used to do the same thing, and, like you, rarely traded the stocks on the list. I found I preferred to daytrade stocks I was familiar with. I think it is a useful exercise though. For one thing, if you are scanning for strong/weak stocks, it keeps you on top of stocks that you might want to move into the list of stocks you trade daily. Also, depending on the scans you are using, it can be a good source of swing trading candidates.
Tommorrow could be an interesting trend day, so it may be worth your time to look for opportunities. As always, doing your homework every night and making trading decisions when you are most objective is very important.
We strongly advise our people to pick one or two stocks to trade.....and become surrogate specialists in those stocks. It's kind of like inviting people to play in your own poker game, with people you know well....as opposed to finding a new poker game in a new city every day (I hope that made some sense). The "breakouts" and "breakdowns" worked for a while during the bubble, and during the IPO phase.....but we're back to normal markets now, and the charts and tealeaves just don't seem to cut it (for trading....investing is another whole thing). FWIW.... Don
inandlong, I actually used to day-trade the same set of stocks, primarily the semi-conductors (KLAC,QLGC,MXIM,XLNX,SMH) but I stopped doing that in April because I was missing out on some very nice moves. Now, I trade different stocks everyday. Strategy still needs some fine-tuning since it's a bit different than trading the same basket everyday, but I think eventually, the return will be far greater. Every night, when I create this watch list, I also jot down a prediction on how I think the stock will move the following day and reasons why. This exercise has helped me identify some after-noon trades as well, and down the line, I can even see myself buying near the close and holding positions over-night. And yes, I do go back and review these notes after market close. So far, I'm at around 75-80% accuracy as far as my predictions go. -FastTrader
Don, what criteria do you use when selecting the 2-3 stocks to trade everyday? Any advice along those line would be appreciated. Thanks.
Here is a free tip... Get software like S/R Anaylst : http://www.sr-analyst.com/ Scan you favourite 100 stocks for nice trendline setups and trade off price action to the trendline.... Either swing or daytrade.... Bang ...that easy...