Stock Picking

Discussion in 'Stocks' started by BarOpen, Jan 14, 2010.

  1. BarOpen

    BarOpen

    Hi all…

    I’m trying to scale down my universe of stocks.
    I think I am making the typical Newb mistake of trying to be a “Jack of all trades and master of none” by watching/scanning too many stocks.

    How many stocks should a new guy focus on during the day?
    How many charts should I be looking at in the evening for the next days prep?

    Should I just find half dozen stocks and stick with them and quit scanning and churning my universe of stocks.

    What criteria should I be using to find these stocks?
    Volume/Average true range/Price range/etc

    And any comparisons as how your universe of stocks evolved with your experience would be helpful. (i.e. did it get bigger or smaller?)

    Thanks,
    BO
     
  2. BarOpen

    BarOpen

    Also,
    If you have a strategy that is say 50/50 on 1000 stocks.
    but 90% winners on 20 of 1000...would that be curve fitting or is there unseen risk to just play those 20?
    What does that say about the Strategy.
     
  3. A filter you might find helpful.

    1. Price $10.00 - $50.00
    2. Volume: Greater than 400,000 shares traded daily
    3. Float: 5 million to 60 million shares (daily)
    4. Positive Earnings
    5. Insider Owned Shares > 5%
    6. Institutional Owned Shares > 5%

    You could narrow the list further by choosing to focus on equities which show a cycle of 20% (or more) Price improvement over a period of 6 to 8 days a minimum of five times in the previous six months.

    - Spydertrader
     
  4. BarOpen

    BarOpen

    Thank you Spy, very insightful

    The screeners I have can't scan for items 3,4,5,6 can you recomend a screener or point me in the correct direction.

    The 20% movement sounds like that would be related to volitility or ATR or am I missing the point?

    How big is your universe of stocks?
     
  5. Spydertrader, thanks for adding to this post ...

    Where can data for "5" and "6" be located?
     
  6. schizo

    schizo

    This is the reason why I bailed out of stocks to trade futures. No more nightly screeners. No more idiotic analysts' upgrades/downgrades. No more earnings or conference calls. No more tasty morsels of insider trading. Simply put, no more bullshit.
     
  7. OK, found it!

    Yahoo Finance gives the info ...
     
  8. many thanks!
     
  9. JRL

    JRL