Daily Stock Watchlist
$GME – ran more than 150% last week; in a bullish consolidation with a bull flag pattern. Could test the $200 mark this week
$BB – looking for a $12+ close to start a bullish trend reversal. Technical indicators are slowly turning positive, support at $9.70. Expected to move quickly if it can break Friday’s high of $10.82
$LAIX – lots of activity the past few weeks; all gains have been erased from the moves it made last week. Technicals are starting to turn positive; looking for a reversal and run to $3+
$JAN – entered definitive agreement last week to sell its legacy recycling business for $25M; current market cap of $23M. Business appears undervalued
$AIKI – stock is bottoming out and setting up nicely for a multi-day swing trade. Looking for it to break $1.25 for it to run
Daily Stock Watch List
By 9:15am ET every day, we post our daily stock watchlist which consists of handpicked stocks that we think have potential to breakout during throughout the course of the day. While we occasionally include some technical analysis and price targets for these stocks, these are not intended to be trade setups. Our trade setups are posted in the Spotlight Stocks section of the website.
How We Generate Our Stock Watch List
We keep a constant eye on the market and on stocks that are reporting key news, gaining momentum, etc. We use stock scanners to look for stocks that have the highest potential for breaking out during the current trading day. The list we post for you guys above is the same list that we use to trade every day.
The second most important step is plotting support and resistance levels on the stock watch list, and watch for a breakout. We don’t trade anything on the stock watch list unless it breaks the key support and resistance levels we plot. With that being said, this list isn’t a list of stock trade setups. These are the top stocks that we think could be worth actual setups at some point in the day.
How to Use a Stock Watch List
We use screeners to find stocks that are most likely to breakout in any given day, but that doesn’t mean that they will. To effectively use a stock watch list you need to understand how to trade and have your own style, setups, and methodologies.
To create actionable trade setups with a stock watch list, follow this process:
- Chart out the support and resistance levels for each stock on a daily chart
- Add the stocks to your brokerage account
- Setup breakout alerts when your support and resistance levels are broken
- Keep an eye on pre-market volume and watch the open carefully, watching for the stocks to break pre-market highs at open
- Follow your process for analyzing and setting up an entry, and consider entering if key support levels hold
How to Create a Stock Watch List
The key to becoming a successful day trader or swing trader is learning how to become independent and build a process that best suits your trading style. You’ll want to learn how to build your own setups and watchlists, craft your own trading strategies, and march to the beat of your own drum.
We’re going to cover a short guide on how to create your own stock watch lists. While you can continue to rely on our daily stock watch list, learning to build your own list is an important step as a trader and will help you focus in on your strategy.
Picking Stocks for Your Watch List
Stock watch lists should include stocks that are highly likely to make a movement, either based on technical or fundamental analysis, or a news catalyst. We recommend that a trader has two personal watch lists:
- General stock watch list
- Active stock watch list
General Stock Watch List
The general stock watch list should contain stocks that you are familiar with and comfortable trading. These stocks should fit within your strategy and be something that you are always willing to trade if an opportunity presents itself. You aren’t going to watch these stocks hyper-actively throughout the day, so it’s okay for this list to include 50 or 100+ names.
The stocks in your list should be stocks that fit your strategy, that you know. If you trade penny stocks, your list should include penny stocks that you have traded in the past or have kept an eye on for a long time. And vice versa if you swing blue-chip NYSE or Nasdaq names. Stocks included in your general watch list should be moved into your active watch list when there is an upcoming catalyst, unusual volume, etc.
Active Stock Watch List
An active stock watch list is what you want to use as your daily or weekly list. These are the stocks that are primed for a move, based on your technical or fundamental analysis or some upcoming news catalyst.
The active list should be prepared daily, prior to the market opening. You should be going through your due diligence and analysis on these stocks every morning and plotting key support and resistance levels to create your buy/sell signals. This list is the set of stocks that you might turn into actionable trades throughout the day.
Generally speaking, you should keep this list at 10 stocks or less, otherwise you will be spread too thin trying to watch them all.
Picking Stocks for Your Active Watch List
Your active watch lists is stocks that you are comfortable trading, that you think might make a move during the current trading day or week. It can consist of stocks from your general watch list that are primed for movement, or stocks that you found that morning while scanning pre-market volume and movement. There are three characteristics that you should look for in your active stocks:
- High volume
- High liquidity
- Poised for movement
These active stocks will usually have an upcoming catalyst or news such as earnings, guidance, industry events, etc. You’ll want to focus on stocks that are poised to gap up or gap down.
Using a Stock Screener / Scanner
The best way to find stocks to add to your stock watch list is through the use of stock scanners, such as Finviz. Stock scanners can be used to scan for stocks based on dozens of pre-set screens such as technical indicators and pricing/volume signals. How you use a scanner is dependent upon your trading strategy, the types of stocks you like to trade, and the technical indicators that align best with your strategy.
As a general rule of thumb, you’ll want to stick to stocks that have daily volumes of at least 1 million shares, otherwise you might end up in a position you can’t get out of due to lack of liquidity.