Major question; creating the hit list
irby, thanks for all your replies. This is rapidly becoming my favorite thread. I have what is probably a universal question. In discussing stocks, people have always asked me how I select the stocks I work with. As an investor, the answer was easy, as I did not work with more than about 50 stocks. But now, as I approach short term and day trading as a sideline profession, I have the same question myself.
In an effort to create a meaningful list of stocks, I went through the Investors Business Daily and listed all stocks that had earnings and price strength above 80. I wound up with about 750 stocks. This was too much for my software, which accepts 500 stocks per list. So I broke into two lists; one for stocks that trade 25,000 shares per day or more, and another list for those that trade below 25,000.
I've been working with the list that trades 25,000 per day or more. This list has 480 stocks. My software can screen by various technical parameters, and I often screen by volume/average volume followed a second complete screen by ADX. But 480 stocks is too much for me to work with. I can never get through all of them, and I feel I am always missing out on some signals. In "Street Smarts" Linda Raschke mentions that she works with 200 stocks.
How can I trim down to a more meaningful list. And how can I keep it up to date?
As always, I appreciate your answers and those of others. It seems we have a very peaceful and informative thread here.
Harry |
