Contents

  1. Disclaimer
  2. The Routine
    1. Weekly Routine
    2. Daily Routine

Return to Main Page

Disclaimer

This is testimonial, not advice.  As advice is is worth what you are paying for it.  Bear that in mind.

I am not reporting buy and sell signals.  You can find out what trades we are in, and what their strategies are, on other pages in this website.

The Routine

I have been refining my routine for the last couple months with results clear in the Trading page.  As you look over the routine, you will see that it selects for strong growth with established trends...

Weekly Routine

We used to spend several hours every weekend running searches, pouring over the results, filtering out weak stocks, combining the results and deciding which of those to watch.

A friend of mine observed that most of our really good stocks are on the IBD-100.  This is a bullish momentum stock list, and while these are all pretty good stocks, even good stocks do badly in a downtrending market.  We always filter these stocks, but we don't buy them unless the market is flat to up.

We start with the IBD-100 list published each Friday.  We add stocks from last weeks watch list, recent trades, current trades, and then from the Stocks in the News daily updates and the Friday Weekly Review.  We look up the IBD Overall Rating (1-99) on the Stock Checkup.  We then get an independent evaluation using MSN Money Central to get the score and analyst ratings.  The analyst ratings are (Strong Buy, Moderate Buy, Hold, Moderate Sell, and Not Analyzed) - we keep only stocks that are MB or SB.  We only take stocks from those with a Scouter Score of 8 or higher.  From those left we only take stocks with an IBD overall rating of 90 or higher.

We do the same with the IBD Big Cap 20 and the stocks from the previous week that passed the filter from that list.  These lists are applied to stock purchases and option trades for bullish momentum.

We also filter stocks that don't make these lists for price behavior, specifically we are looking for stocks that have been in a roughly $20 trading range for at least the last 18 months.  We want optionable stocks with high volume and enough price volatility to make options profitable, and we apply some of these stocks to a strategy of put calendars and diagonals.

For bearish watch lists we use some of the strategy searches at Investools, but we also use the Slope of Hope watch lists.  The down side is volatile, we have really been trading ETFs for bearish trades.

Daily Routine

Each day we have been watching the market most closely in the first hour and last two.  We also check a little past halfway through the day to decide whether to adjust buy triggers if we have orders.  This satisfies our curiosity and allows us to adjust strategies if needed.

The occasional late day run is something worth catching, and is normally a clear divergence from the rest of the day's action when looking at 15-minute candles.

Around the end of the day we go through the calendar trades and look for the conditions to roll anything in danger of being exercised, but the best time to roll with the most probability of being filled at a price ridiculously in your favor is the first hour.  Late in the day you have to go much further from the midpoint to get filled, but often in the morning you get filled at or even on the more favorable side of the mark.

Past that we look at the watch lists and any stocks we are focusing on, and set up orders for the next day after the market closes.  In more volatile times holding these orders off until after the first hour often prevents fakeouts on outside day reversals.

Watch Lists

Only the Bearish watch list is bearish, the Strategies is mostly neutral stocks, the other 3 are all bullish momentum lists.  If you can't find something interesting there it says something about the state of the market...

Below symbols highlighted in green have Strong Buy analyst ratings.  Bold are on the list in bold from IBD, indicating strong stocks with good charts.

The tables below were last updated based on market close of 2009/01/30

ETF's

Right now it can be hard to find a single stock that keeps running.  Many have run, but are at resistance.  Not many of the really good stocks are showing any real strength yet.

Most of our retirement savings goes into ETF's any, they provide diversification without having to put a lot of thought into it.  But a little thought is good.  We are watching for strength in these baskets of stocks, too.  Our expectation is that what is strong in the last upswing will be strong in the next one...  From 2008/12/23 to 2009/01/06 the following ETF's traded in respectable volume were the strongest - note that most of these were pretty strong in the reversal from 1/6 through 1/20.  Note that most of these are not leveraged, but outperformed the S&P 500...

* Leveraged 'ULTRA' ETF

IBD-100

Rank Symbol IBD Score MSN Score Scouter Rec F/E Score Price Pattern Volatility Score
2 LPHI 99 8 MB 3.00 4.00 4.00
5 DMND 98 10 MB 2.88 2.75 4.00
6 TWGP 98 8 MB 3.13 1.50 4.00
7 INT 94 10 SB 2.88 4.00 4.00
13 NVEC 92 8 SB 3.63 2.00 3.75
18 MTXX 98 9 SB 2.88 2.75 4.00
21 HMSY 99 8 MB 2.88 2.50 4.00
32 TDG 98 8 MB 3.38 1.25 N/A
37 MHS 97 8 MB 3.25 1.75 4.00
38 SGP 98 9 MB 2.25 1.75 4.00
39 MANT 97 8 MB 2.63 3.75 4.00
43 CEPH 98 8 MB 2.75 3.00 4.00
56 VSAT 99 9 MB 2.25 2.50 3.50
61 DLTR 99 9 MB 3.25 4.00 4.00
62 HEI 97 8 MB 3.00 1.25 3.75
65 ENDP 98 10 MB 3.00 1.25 4.00
68 SHPGY 99 8 MB 2.88 1.00 4.00
71 HAE 97 8 MB 2.38 1.75 4.00
81 BLUD 99 8 SB 3.25 1.75 3.75
86 IDCC 98 10 MB 2.75 4.00 4.00
88 MYGN 98 10 MB 3.38 4.00 4.00
90 ITC 96 8 SB 2.88 1.00 3.75
94 GENZ 98 9 MB 2.88 1.00 4.00
95 NEOG 95 8 MB 3.25 1.25 4.00
96 DV 98 8 MB 3.25 1.75 4.00
97 WW 99 9 MB 3.00 1.75 4.00
99 AMGN 97 8 MB 3.13 2.00 4.00

Screened from Previous Lists and Positions

Symbol IBD Score MSN Score Scouter Rec F/E Score Price Pattern Volatility Score
AMED 93 8 MB 3.50 1.25 4.00
AFAM 90 8 SB 3.50 3.75 4.00
ORCL 97 9 MB 3.25 1.00 3.75
PSYS 92 9 MB 3.25 1.00 3.75
ACN 95 10 MB 3.13 1.25 4.00
NLY 94 8 MB 3.13 1.25 4.00
CMTL 93 9 MB 3.00 1.00 3.75
PRA 95 9 MB 2.88 1.00 4.00
SRCL 95 9 MB 2.88 1.00 4.00
ALXN 93 8 MB 2.88 2.00 4.00
VIVO 93 8 MB 2.88 0.50 3.75
NTT 92 10 MB 2.88 1.75 4.00
RMD 99 8 MB 2.75 1.50 4.00
DGX 97 8 MB 2.75 1.75 4.00
FMS 97 9 MB 2.63 1.25 4.00
WMI 94 8 MB 2.63 1.75 4.00
JNJ 90 9 MB 2.63 1.25 4.00

Big Cap 20

Rank Symbol IBD Score MSN Score Scouter Rec F/E Score Price Pattern Volatility Score
1 SGP 98 9 MB 2.25 1.75 4.00
3 GENZ 98 9 MB 2.88 1.00 4.00
5 MHS 97 8 MB 3.25 1.75 4.00
9 AMGN 97 8 MB 3.13 2.00 4.00
14 ORCL 97 9 MB 3.25 1.00 3.75
15 BAX 98 9 MB 3.13 1.50 4.00
19 FPL 97 10 MB 3.00 1.25 4.00

IBM 97 9 MB 3.00 1.00 4.00

YUM 96 9 MB 3.00 1.25 3.75

WMI 94 8 MB 2.63 1.75 4.00

Strategy

Symbol IBD Score MSN Score Scouter Rec F/E Score Price Pattern Volatility Score
SXE 96 5 MB 3.75 2.00 N/A
GXDX 96 9 H 3.63 1.00 N/A
APEI 98 7 MB 3.50 1.25 N/A
SYNA 92 7 MB 3.50 3.50 3.75
GILD 99 5 MB 3.38 2.75 4.00
NFLX 96 6 H 3.38 4.00 3.75
K 97 7 MB 3.25 1.25 4.00
BKC 96 7 MB 3.25 1.25 N/A
JOSB 92 6 H 3.25 2.25 3.50
BDX 90 7 MB 3.25 1.25 4.00
SNDA 97 5 MB 3.13 1.75 4.00
MCD 96 9 H 3.13 2.50 4.00
GIS 95 7 MB 3.13 2.00 4.00
ATHN 99 4 H 3.00 3.00 N/A
TTEK 98 7 H 3.00 2.75 3.50
CL 95 5 MB 3.00 1.25 4.00
PG 93 7 MB 3.00 1.00 4.00
RKT 86 5 MB 3.00 2.75 3.75
OTEX 99 9 H 2.88 3.00 3.50
AVAV 99 8 H 2.88 4.00 N/A
BMY 97 9 H 2.88 1.50 4.00
KO 87 7 H 2.88 0.75 4.00
KR 87 5 MB 2.88 1.25 4.00
WMT 76 7 MB 2.88 1.00 4.00
DCP 98 6 MB 2.75 1.00 N/A
RAH 97 9 H 2.75 2.00 4.00
PNRA 97 7 H 2.75 3.00 4.00
SJI 97 7 H 2.75 2.50 4.00
SY 97 5 H 2.75 1.25 3.75
STN 97 4 MB 2.75 1.25 N/A
OKS 95 9 H 2.75 1.25 4.00
QCOM 95 5 MB 2.75 1.00 3.75
CSH 62 10 MB 2.75 0.00 3.50
NITE 99 10 H 2.63 2.75 4.00
GTIV 98 10 H 2.63 3.50 4.00
ABT 98 7 MB 2.63 1.75 4.00
EOC 97 6 SB 2.63 2.25 4.00
ACM 96 6 H 2.63 3.25 N/A
PEG 96 6 H 2.63 1.00 4.00
AOC 93 7 MB 2.63 1.00 4.00
STE 95 5 H 2.50 1.25 4.00
NRP 85 6 MB 2.50 1.00 3.75
WYE 98 9 H 2.38 3.00 4.00
ADP 93 8 H 2.38 1.25 4.00
CFFN 88 10 MS 2.38 3.00 4.00
EBS 98 10 H 2.25 4.00 N/A
JJSF 98 9 H 2.25 4.00 4.00
KFT 95 9 H 2.25 1.75 4.00
CPSI 93 9 H 2.25 2.50 4.00
ASEI 98 9 H 2.00 4.00 4.00
MFE 96 7 MB 2.00 1.25 3.50
CFL 79 0 MB N/A 1.75 N/A

Bearish

I'm not maintaining any bearish watch lists at the moment, but you can find some good ideas at the Slope of Hope website, we do...

As you may have observed in 2008, the down side can be quite volatile.  Bear markets have the most violent rallies along with the sell offs.  Bearish trades are generally short term, momentum and trends are used for entry and exit decisions, but there are few long-term bear trades.  On the whole the market tends to go up.