8/31/2010

Three types of traders

There are broadly three types of traders:
  1.  the first type can look at a idea or concept and understand and make it work
  2.  the second types are in search of perfection so the first thing they do is they find faults in any method, they back test to death and can never find things that will satisfy them. 
  3. the third kind are clueless. They do not understand good from bad. Everything to them is  Greek or Latin.

There are no perfect methods. You have to make things work. Add some discretion, add some judgement and you can make  it work.
If you take that attitude you will find hundreds of workable methods.

RIMM, CREE, BRCM, and MON were leading the bearish trend today

BRCM: Broadvom Corp


CREE: Cree Incorporated

MON: Monsanto Co

RIMM: Research in Motion Ltd.

Note: Chart Notations
Green Spike in Middle Panel= Stockbee Breakout Buy Signal
White Spike in Middle Panel = Stockbee Breakout Buy Signal (liquidity supported)
Red Spike in Middle Panel= Sell Signal


The market continues to be in bearish mode and breadth trends are also currently negative.

SPRD is attracting buyers today

SPRD: Spreadtrum Communication Ads

Note: Chart Notations
Green Spike in Middle Panel= Stockbee Breakout Buy Signal
White Spike in Middle Panel = Stockbee Breakout Buy Signal (liquidity supported)
Red Spike in Middle Panel= Sell Signal


Very few things are working on long side currently. SPRD is one of those rare stocks doing well. Stock has 313% EPS growth and 341% sales growth in recent quarter. 

What can you learn from a trader who made 24500% return in 18 months....

Most of you have read the book " How I made 2 million in the stock market". Darvas grew his 10000 dollar account to 2.45 million in 18 months. People were so skeptical of his book and claims that the New York Attorney General investigated the claim and found it to be true.


What method did Darvas used to make that kind of money? He brought breakout to 52 weeks high after a consolidation on growth stocks with high earnings and sales growth.


How did he discover his method. By trial and error. And also he discovered the method because it is in the structure of the market. That is how growth stock operate during bull markets. That is the inherent nature of the market. That has not changed for 100 years.


The Darvas story is also about developing self efficacy belief. He did all the things most of us do at some stage. Bought penny stocks, invested on rumors, chased tips, bought lows and so many things. But ultimately he discovered his own method.





As Bandura says., of all the thoughts that affect human functioning, and standing at the very core of social cognitive theory, are self-efficacy beliefs, "people's judgments of their capabilities to organize and execute courses of action required to attain designated types of performances" . Self-efficacy beliefs provide the foundation for human motivation, well-being, and personal accomplishment. This is because unless people believe that their actions can produce the outcomes they desire, they have little incentive to act or to persevere in the face of difficulties. Much empirical evidence now supports Bandura's contention that self-efficacy beliefs touch virtually every aspect of people's lives—whether they think productively, self-debilitatingly, pessimistically or optimistically; how well they motivate themselves and persevere in the face of adversities; their vulnerability to stress and depression, and the life choices they make. Self-efficacy is also a critical determinant of self-regulation.


Persistent efforts are required for reaching that stage . But most human beings are capable of that.


But overall one thing you must understand is that one of the ways to get explosive returns in the market is to buy growth stocks breakout in bull market. Which means you need skills to determine when the market is in bullish or bearish mode, you need skills to identify growth stocks and sectors, you need skills to trade ad identify breakouts on such stocks and you need skills to exit at right time and retain those explosive gains.


Now that is a big idea worth thinking about if you want explosive gains.


For me a combination of EP+Top25 breakout+MM helps achieve that goal. But that is just one way to do it.

Email overload? Try Priority Inbox

This is very good functionality. Especially if you get hundreds of emails a day. Due to my public blog and members site I get lots of emails. While some are from readers who need help on particular issues, many of the emails are non priority emails. Many are nuisance emails. All the emails that are about method, or software help, or Telechart scan help, or are asking for direction about how to learn to trade, or overcome a slump, or other trading related issues I answer promptly.

On daily basis I get request for backlinks. These are nuisance requests. The way to get good links to your blog is not to beg for them, but offer something worthwhile. If you have compelling content and if you offer value to your reader, they will come and they will tell others and your blog will grow. I can tell you that from my personal experience of running this blog. Without any active efforts at playing the SEO optimization game or asking for backlinks or aggressively promoting my blog and site on social media, I have over 1200 members now. The best form of publicity is word of mouth. If readers find valuable information, they will link to you, they will keep coming back, they will recommend your site to others. At least that is my personal belief.

The other types of emails I get are from publishers asking for my address to send me books for review in hope of getting a favorable review for their book. I know lot of bloggers who do this , I do not do this. All books I review, I buy with my own money. I only recommend books I genuinely like and find useful. As regular readers know, there are very few books I recommend as a buy.

The other nuisance emails I get are from PR agencies who send out press releases to bloggers in the hope that bloggers will republish them. To me that is complete moronic PR strategy. This is a big nuisance. Some days I get hundreds of emails from these PR morons. Most of these people just blast put press releases without looking at your site content or your focus areas. Almost every day I get emails saying "I invite you to interview XXX XXXXX, founder of Shitty Corporation about how to buy gold. You can reach me at xxx-xxx-xxxx and by e-mail at pr@shittypromotions.com. I hope to hear from you!

Hopefully this new functionality by gmail would help prioritize these kind of incoming messages.

____________________________

Email overload? Try Priority Inbox: "(Cross-posted from the Gmail Blog)

People tell us all that time that they’re getting more and more mail and often feel overwhelmed by it all. We know what you mean—here at Google we run on email. Our inboxes are slammed with hundreds, sometimes thousands of messages a day—mail from colleagues, from lists, about appointments and automated mail that’s often not important. It’s time-consuming to figure out what needs to be read and what needs a reply. Today, we’re happy to introduce Priority Inbox (in beta)—an experimental new way of taking on information overload in Gmail.

Gmail has always been pretty good at filtering junk mail into the “spam” folder. But today, in addition to spam, people get a lot of mail that isn't outright junk but isn't very important—bologna, or “bacn.” So we've evolved Gmail's filter to address this problem and extended it to not only classify outright spam, but also to help users separate this 'bologna' from the important stuff. In a way, Priority Inbox is like your personal assistant, helping you focus on the messages that matter without requiring you to set up complex rules.



Priority Inbox splits your inbox into three sections: “Important and unread,” “Starred” and “Everything else”:



As messages come in, Gmail automatically flags some of them as important. Gmail uses a variety of signals to predict which messages are important, including the people you email most (if you email Bob a lot, a message from Bob is probably important) and which messages you open and reply to (these are likely more important than the ones you skip over). And as you use Gmail, it will get better at categorizing messages for you. You can help it get better by clicking the or buttons at the top of the inbox to correctly mark a conversation as important or not important. (You can even set up filters to always mark certain things important or unimportant, or rearrange and customize the three inbox sections.)

After lots of internal testing here at Google, as well as with Gmail and Google Apps users at home and at work, we’re ready for more people to try it out. Priority Inbox will be rolling out to all Gmail users, including those of you who use Google Apps, over the next week or so. Once you see the 'New! Priority Inbox' link in the top right corner of your Gmail account (or the new Priority Inbox tab in Gmail Settings), take a look.

Posted by Doug Aberdeen, Software Engineer



Are you serious about your trading?

If you are serious about your trading and want to build an enduring edge the Stockbee Member site might help you. Members tell me they have tried lot of things before coming to my site and it has offered them the most extensive and detailed methods to swing and position trade.

It is only for those who want to develop their own self sufficient trading method. It is not a stock picking service. It is service for you to build your own scans and trading method to have your own daily pick based on your method.

Be warned it will take you time to learn to trade. Learning to trade is difficult art and unless you are willing to spend months or years to perfect your strategy and also develop your mental edge you are unlikely to succeed in this game. Unless you understand that no site, no service, and no mentoring is going to work.

Why traders come to stockbee?

The member site is one of the most recommended site for learning to trade by other traders and bloggers. You will see no advertising, no hard marketing, no promotions, no free offers, no affiliate marketing, no incentive to other bloggers to promote the site, no constant twits self promoting the site, no free trial  and no tall claims of making you instantly wealthy, and yet the site attracts new  members everyday. Members come from all walks of life and all kinds of trading size and trading styles.

You will see that many trading bloggers have been using my market timing methods, scans , stock ranking lists and chart templates. They have developed their own methods based on my methods. Many paid newsletter site recommend my site to their subscriber for learning about trading and market.

Over the years thousands of traders have been members and those who benefited from the learning talk about the site to others or talk about the methods used and that is how new members learn about the site.





What will I learn in the members site?

The members site will give you in depth understanding to develop your own trading method. The emphasis is on making you self sufficient and confident of your own trading method and style.

As a member you will learn the basics of swing trading, momentum investing, growth investing and risk management.

You will learn about Stockbee Trend Intensity Breakouts method that uses momentum based swing trading to find 3 to 5 day swing trades for 8 to 40% profit.

You will learn about Stockbee Episodic Pivots Breakout method which uses Post Earnings Announcement Drift (PEAD) to find stocks that had a game changing earnings and that are likely to rally for 3 months to 12 months.

You will learn about  Stockbee Dollar Breakout method that uses momentum, range expansion and swing trading approach to find 5 to 40 dollar moves in high priced stocks.

You will learn about  Stockbee Lemonade Strategy for 401k which uses market timing and momentum to invest in 401k. You will get weekly update on how I am using the strategy on our 401k to do allocation decision.

You will learn about Stockbee Market Monitor method for market timing using breadth. It allows you to avoid risky periods in market and allows you to identify market turns. It is used for 401k allocation decisions.

You will learn about Stockbee Double Trouble method to find stock with confirmed upside momentum using anchored momentum and that are likely to continue their up move.

You will learn about Stockbee Night Time is Right Time method to find news catalyst based trade ideas for short term day trade and swing trade.

You will learn about Investor's Business Daily’s IBD 200 list and how it can be used to find swing trading candidates for explosive moves.

You will learn about Telechart 2000 and how to use it effectively to scan for swing and position trade ideas and to set up your 401k strategy.

You will learn about Jesse Livermore Range Breakout, Darvas Box setup, and many other member shared methods.

You will learn how to set up your own scans, select right kind of stocks, how to set up stops, when to enter , when to exit, how much to risk, how to track your trades and all other details about trading. You will learn about developing your own methods and not relying on others for trade ideas.

The site has hundreds of videos and trading methods and variation of methods. Members help each other in developing the methods and share actively their research and finding. A collaborative spirit allows you to get input from others on your trading ideas or problems.

The site gives you opportunity to interact with some of the most successful traders and learn from them about their trading methods. It is a vibrant community with members from different background and experience willing to help each other. The emphasis is on continuous learning and up gradation of market knowledge and setup knowledge. The members range from hedge fund employees, financial advisers, active swing traders, investors and new traders.

If you are looking to develop your own trading strategy the membership site might be for you. You have to be willing to put in the effort to build your own method. There are no silver bullets offered on members site. Every method, every scan, every nuance is detailed and all possible help is offered to design your own method.

Do you have a trial?

If you are just looking for trial you are better off trying thousands of other trading sites that offer free trial or one month trial and offer you promise of riches.

It is for those who are ready beyond the trial phase and ready to put serious months or years  of efforts to learn to trade on their own. It is for those who want to learn to find their own fish.

The free blog has all the details about the methods I trade and if you go through the posts highlighted in the sidebar you will learn about them.



How can I become a member?

To sign up go to www.stockbee.biz and follow the sign up process. The site uses Paypal for payment processing.

Top 25 ETF by momentum

DTO: Powershare DB Crude Oil Double Short ETN

 TMF: Direxional 30 Year Treasury Bull 3X

VXZ: iPath S&P 500 VIX Mid-Terms Futures

Note: Chart Notations
Green Spike in Middle Panel= Stockbee Breakout Buy Signal
White Spike in Middle Panel = Stockbee Breakout Buy Signal (liquidity supported)
Red Spike in Middle Panel= Sell Signal

Top 25 ETF ranked by momentum

AGQ,Proshares Ultra Silver
AMJ,JP Morgan Alerian MLP Index ETN
BRF,Market Vectors Brazil Small-Cap
DGP,DB Gold Double Long ETN
DTO,PowerShares DB Crude Oil Double Short ETN
DUG,ProShares UltraShort Oil & Gas
ECH,iShares MSCI Chile Index Fund ETF
ERY,Direxion Energy Bear 3x Shares
EUO,ProShares UltraShort Euro
EWM,iShares MSCI Malaysia Index Fund ETF
GDX,Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF
GDXJ,Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF
GLD,SPDR Gold Trust
IAU,iShares COMEX Gold Trust ETF
ICF,iShares Cohen & Steers Realty Majors Index Fund ETF
IDX,Market Vectors Indonesia Index
IEF,iShares Barclays 7-10 Year Treasury Bond Fund
RSW,Rydex Inverse 2x S&P 500 ETF
SCO,ProShares UltraShort DJ-UBS Crude Oil
SIVR,ETFS Silver Trust
SLV,iShares Silver Trust ETF
THD,iShares MSCI Thailand Investable Market Index Fund ETF
TLT,iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond Fund
TMF,Direxion 30 Year Treasury Bull 3x
VXZ,iPath S&P 500 VIX Mid-Term Futures

8/30/2010

Blue Fin Screener Free Trial for Stockbee readers

This is a guest post by Dan of Patient Fisherman Blog.
--------------------------
When I first joined the Stockbee site back in 2007, I knew I stumbled onto something significant but didn’t realize how much of an impact the site would have over the next few years.

From time to time, Pradeep will post on self-efficacy and the basic psychological issues to deal with in trading. Trust me, I had a LOT of these…talk about baggage.

Early on I was confronted with several Inhibitors. “Inhibitors are things which inhibit us from acting on our knowledge.”

With everything laid out in front of me, the scans, how they worked, why they worked, and when they worked, I was still having issues executing on this information.

A few of these inhibitors were:

1. I work full-time so how do I gather all the information in a timely and efficient manner while not interrupting my normal workday.

2. If I was on the road how could I access the results?

3. When trading an EP, catalyst is very important. How could I quickly access the information such as; earnings surprise, sector strength, guidance, and sales and eps data?

4. We constantly talk about sector and how much of a role it plays in stock movement but we really did not have a way to easily find which sector any given stock was in.

5. Pullback EP trades can work much better if a stock gaps up a lot on the first day. How could I easily keep track of every earnings surprise so I could enter at a later date, at a lower risk buy point?

After weighing these problems, I was confronted with three options, quit and try to trade full-time, quit trading, or create an option that would allow me to access this data so I could make a trade decision within minutes.  

Taking the more sensible and conservative option, at least that’s what my wife told me it was!  I decided to build a tool that would allow me to access all of the scan results from any where at any time: Bluefin.

Now I can find a Pullback EP by selecting the Post Earnings Surprise watch list, then clicking the Vol Surge column header. This will sort all stocks in the watch list by volume surge. Scroll down looking for a 4% move and then click the symbol to get a chart. I also use the 5DG, 10DG, and 30DG growth columns to figure out if the stock are overextended or not.

We can do the same for Sector EP by running the StockBee Episodic Pivot scan across all watch lists. You can then focus on stocks with EP in Top Stocks Ranked by Momentum and Sector Momentum and Emerging Opportunities watch lists.

During Earnings Season I primarily use Today's Earnings watch list looking for candidates meeting  EP criteria. Normally, I sort by Vol Surge and look for 4% breakout or higher. I keep the Earnings Google spreadsheet handy because this contains the Eps/Sales and sector data. At some point this will get migrated over to Bluefin.

Through-out the day I review the StockBee Top 25 breakouts by clicking the watch list Top 25 Break Outs. You can see all of the results and then sort by 5DG or 30DG growth to look for stocks breaking out on prior weakness. I also add a filter in the 6MthHi column to only show stocks within 10% of their 6 month high.

To find Stocks moving in the top sectors I run the StockBee MDT Break Out scan and look for stocks in the Top Stocks Ranked by Momentum and Sector Momentum and Emerging Opportunities watch lists.

We’ve been discussing the Kirkpatrick Method on the Stock Bee site over the past few days. We added a scan to mimic the results from the Kirkpatrick criteria found in “Invest By Knowing What Stocks to Buy and What Stocks to Sell”.  Click the StockBee MDT Break Out and then filter the watch lists by selecting Top Stocks Ranked by Momentum and Value from the drop down found in the watch list column.

Another attribute we often look for are stocks with a high short interest. This list is shorter than the others so normally I will click Top Stocks Ranked by Momentum and Short Interest and sort the stocks by Vol Surge column to see who’s getting attention for the day.

Finally, if the market is showing weakness we can hop into the Bottom Ranked Stocks by Momentum and Sector. This watch list finds the weakest stocks in the weakest sectors.

As with most applications, this is a work in progress and you can expect to see new features added monthly. Some ideas I have on the to-do list are:

  1. Add the mutual fund ranking tool to the system. You can add your funds and it will store them for future reference and ranking.
  2. Customizable columns? Choose which columns you want on your dashboard.
  3. Sectors on the Move – which sectors are moving on higher volume.


To access the Bluefin screener, follow these steps:
  1. Go to http://www.patientfisherman.com/dashboard
  2. When the login screen appears Click “Create Account” on the bottom right of the dialog box.
  3. Enter the appropriate information, and click “OK”.
  4. You will receive a message saying your account has been created. Close this dialog box by clicking “Cancel” button.
  5. Now enter your email address and password and click “OK”.
  6. From this point on, you should not have to enter your email or password when you come back to the URL: http://www.patientfisherman.com/dashboard
  7. When you are presented with the dashboard, the default screen will be the “Percolator” scan. You can update your Trading Capital by selecting the “update” button next to “Total Trading Capital”.



Below are some descriptions for your reference of the watch lists and columns found in Bluefin.

I hope you get as much use out of this tool as I have over the years. The entire purpose of starting this site was to offer tools that make things just a little bit easier.  Good luck and happy trading.


The watch lists provided are:

Today’s Earnings – This list provides stocks with earnings from the close of the previous day to before the open of today.

Post Earnings Surprises – This list provides all stocks with an Earning Surprise greater or equal to 50 in the past quarter.

Emerging Opportunities – This list spots stocks in the top sectors that haven’t caught up with the leaders found in the Top Stock Ranked by Momentum and Sector. All stocks in this list will have a 30-day growth less than 10%. .

Top Stocks Ranked by Momentum and Sector Momentum – This list takes advantage of the concept “Stocks move in groups’. It compares the individual stock strength along with the sector strength to give us a list of stocks currently leading the market. .

Top Stocks Ranked by Momentum and Value – In an effort to reproduce the Kirkpatrick method of stock selection, we took stocks with a high relative strength and compared that against the valuation of that stock to get this list.

Top Stocks Ranked by Momentum and Short Interest – These stocks are hitting higher levels of momentum with a high amount of short interest. We’re attempting to catch a Short squeeze.

Bottom Ranked Stocks by Momentum and Sector – This list was created for traders who are looking for stocks to short when the market turns. It lists the weakest stocks in the weakest sectors.

The following columns are provided:

Symbol – The symbol for the company. You can click the symbol to open a new window over at StockCharts.com. This is how I view the chart on a mobile device.

Sector – The sector name for the stock.

Watch List – The specific watch list the stock is in. Many times you will see the same symbol listed because it is across many lists. I find this useful because with a glance I can see if the stock was an earnings surprise as well as being in the Top Stocks ranked by Sector and Momentum.

Last – The last price traded for the stock. Quotes are 20 minute delayed.

%Chg – The percent change for the stock.

Vol Surge – The volume surge the stock is experiencing. Volume surge is the 100 day average volume divided by today’s volume.

Float – The number of shares available to the public for trading.

RSRank – The Relative Strength for the stock (C - AVGC126) / AVGC126.

5DG – 5-Day Growth as of yesterday’s close.

10DG – 10-Day Growth as of yesterday’s close.

30DG – 30-Day Growth as of yesterday’s close.

6MthHi – Percent from six month high.

1MthHi – Percent from one month high.

Stop – The stop price for your stock. Calculated as low for the past two days.

TotShrs – Total shares you can purchase based on your total capital.

Risk (1%) – Total amount at risk for a 1% risk trade.