Creating a Stock Watchlist

How to create a stock watchlist is easy!

Hey I’m back what a great trip! Lets get back to the business of making money.

I received this comment when I was gone -

This is a very common question and very easy to answer but not so easy to implement.

First, yes, occasionally I will play the market and do some index spreads. The majority of the time I would place a way out of the money index spread or wait until about two weeks until expiration and place a typical out of the money credit spread. A couple of weeks ago was great because the market was so indecisive. Now that we are in a downtrend some of the volatility has escaped from the market, but index spreads can still be profitable.

As for individual stock picks, it takes time to develop a watchlist. The watchlist I have is about 4 years old and has gone through lots of development, additions, subtractions, and readditions. It comprises of strong fundamental stocks, weak fundamental stocks, strong fundamental stocks that have fallen out of favor with the Big Boys (for now), popular stocks, popular companies, etc., etc.

So what I am saying is that a watchlist can be made up of many different types of stocks and it should be made up of different stocks. The important thing is to watch these stocks everyday for a good four weeks to determine how they act. After you get a feel for what an individual stock does on a daily to weekly basis then monitor the charts of this stock and look for trading opportunities. After another 4 weeks of this it should take you about 10 secs a chart to determine if there is a likely trade there or not.

I look through my 100 stock watchlist in about 15 minutes per day and then spend another 15 to 30 mins checking the possible trades if there are any. Sometimes there are none; other times there are more than my capital will allow to trade.

So as you can see it is easy to start a watchlist but not so easy to stay dedicated to watching the list and making changes as needed to find the stocks with the best trading opportunities. I am going to change this last part and make it very easy for you to find the right opportunities - just start a watchlist and watch it. That’s it the only rule is to watch stocks, give it a couple of weeks and you will see whether a stock is valuable enough to be put on your list.

To get you started you can always check out my HOT List at my Resource Page

then add your own favorites

then add companies you are familiar with like Starbucks, McDonalds, IBM, Procter & Gamble, Ebay, any company you can think of.

Now you have a watchlist started, now watch it. Throw out the ones that don’t have good trading opportunities, throw out the ones that do not have options to trade , just watch the list and get the feel for reading charts.

Next we can talk about setting up a screener through OptionsXpress to find stocks to add to your list, or use an already setup screener from one of the subscription websites.

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Squidoo Resource Page

Check out Option Spreads Resource

Let me know what you think. Either comment here or email me from there. I am looking for ideas from traders or actually new traders on what they would like to see in the resource page. It is an enhancement to this blog. Things that may have been posted months ago such as links may be long gone and you would have to go back and look through the entire blog postings or try and use the search, well usually you will find the information consolidated all there.

Let me know what else you would like to see on that page.

Thanks

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Updated HOT List

Looking over my watchlist and HOT lists I have decided to do some rearranging.

Check it out at my resource page at Squidoo

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I Squidoo, do you?

Squidoo is a site that helps the user find what he is looking for from a person who has already been there done that.

What I mean is that it is like a search engine with a more personal touch. The pages called lenses that you find upon searching a keyword, such as options, are designed by individuals called lensmasters. These lens are a fantastic resource for someone doing what they always do on the internet search for information. The lens focus on a specific topic and is usually that topic is of interest to the lensmaster, otherwise why would he/she build it, so the information on there is more personal. the links provide and the information on there is from an expert of sorts. A person that has already looked into what you are looking for and has found the sites and information that has helped him/her. It makes it more valuable.

Have you tried the search engines lately for searching on anything? Many times the first page is just another search engine search that has the same links on them, or the first page is filled with the exact same website that really is not specific to what you are looking for? The lens solves this problem by giving you specific insight to what someone else has done in searching out this information.

Squidoo is still in Beta stage but it is open to the public. What this means is that we are on the ground floor, and I am recommending to you that you Squidoo!

That’s right, if you are reading this page on a regular basis you have an interest in the stock market and possibly options in particular. Go ahead and create a lens on this interest.

Here is mine - Option Spreads. I use this as a resource page for this website. All the information that I post here is compacted over there. You will find the links of the websites that I have used to learn what I have learned. My Hot List is over there. Books that I recommend, Books that Amazon recommends. Games that are a lot of fun that you do not realize you are actually learning something while you play them. Go take a visit.

Oh and if you think that you can not make a lens check out my 7 year old sons lens - Fun Stuff. If he can you can.

I squidoo, do you?

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