Stock Selection Question

[cpatte7372]

Hello,

OK, I'm already for a new week of trading. I have a selection of stocks that fit my Triple Screen setup. I will be choosing one (may be two) stock(s) to trade if they move favourably with my setup.

My question is really geared to swing traders, and the question is what additional information would you read up on before deciding whether to trade the stock? For example, I have read numerous books which suggest that I should just let my charts make the decision to buy or sell a stock. But then I read contradictory information to suggest that you know things like "when is the company about to make a price earnings estimate... etc.?

So, I was wondering if someone could let me know how they go about making the final decision to trade a stock? Again, my style of trading is based on technical analysis so information such as a company's, debt to equity ratio, or its dividend rate, may not be relevant to me.

As always, your opinions and suggestions are very much appreciated.

Cheers

Carlton

[FibbGann]

Cpatte,

IMHO!

Follow your technical strategy.

Know when earnings are to be released (usually not a good idea to be in stock on earnings) IMHO.

Look at what that sector chart is like or doing.

Know the current trend of the market.

DO NOT move your initial stop for any reason, unless it is in favor of your position.

Pretty much it from my perspective.

You either buy on technicals or Fundamentals. To hard to do both because you will contradict one strategy or the other.

I personally take my list of top fundamentals, and then run technical screens and use the technicals.

I use a predfined screen I have for fundamentals. If a symbol comes up I put it in my tech screen and do not look into the fundamentals any further.

Fibbgann

[DuaneG]

Hi Carlton,

I agree with FibbGann wholeheartedly. One of the first steps to becoming a consistently profitable trader is first defining the rules of your game. There are a ton of variables in the market that can lead to analysis paralysis. The trick is to filter out what is relevant to your strategy and what is not. Once you have a handle on what is needed to succeed with your particular strategy, then you must learn to be somewhat flexible in order to adjust with the market (which is not an easy thing to do). I think you have taken some valuable steps in pursuing the education needed prior actually getting into the market. I think that over time, you will find that trading itself is the education. Nobody really learned how to drive until we got behind the wheel.

[AllenCook]

Also agree with both of the responses. I think that the idea of knowing when there will be an earnings release is not necessarily a contradiction. Rather I think the idea is to know when there may be an event out there that may interfere with your technical analysis. Stocks can react sharply and sometimes irrationally when there is news and this is one piece of news that you can be prepared for.

[cpatte7372]

Gentlemen,

Thanks for your comments. I concur with your opinions, its just pleasing to hear others agree.

In an unrelated question can you tell me what the key support levels for QQQ, DIA, SPY and SMH? I might start a new thread asking the same question, however, if you guys know the answer that would be great.

Again, thanks for all your help.

Cheers

Carlton

[FibbGann]

Cpatte,

Check out this link here I posted a chart for the
Nas e-minis. The QQQ pretty much follow the Nasdaq e-minis.
I don't get into all of the charts as far as commnetary.

Fibbgann

[cpatte7372]

Thanks Fibbgann.

Carlton