Hey Guys,
The market came down hard over the weekend. It triggered multiple stoplosses for me. This morning the S&P 500 is around 3800, its lowest point of the year. I expect there to be a battle at this price point. For one, it's at what looks like a major support level from the last time the price was down here (May 20). For another, if the S&P 500 closes below 3850-ish (which it hasn't yet this year), then it will formally be classified as a bear market. So there are bulls and bears out there today who are going to be fighting hard to claim victory over what could be an important battle.
I picked up new positions today. In the main account, I bought CAT and COP. In the options account I bought options for COP and VZ. In the low-priced account I bought HTHT and NEE.
When the market is turbulent like this, it can seem like things are out of control. I try to put my blinders on and focus just on the task at hand, which in my case is following the back-tested trading strategy. There is a lot of noise in a market environment like this, but I focus on taking one trade after another as they trigger.
For those of you who use the watch list, you might sometimes wonder how I choose which stocks to trade, especially on days like today where there are so many tickers that trigger. Ultimately, any ticker that reaches the Potential Entry Price qualifies for the back-tested trading strategy, so I'd be happy to own any tickers from the watch list that trigger. But when I'm faced with lots of tickers, I might use some of these criteria to narrow down my choices:
1) I check the overnight activity to see if the price for any came down below the Potential Entry Price. If so, I prioritize those because they might offer the best odds of getting filled. My top priority is just to make sure I get two trades in per day for any given account.
2) I like to diversify industries in my account if that's possible.
3) I check the buying power impact of potential positions if I am near my limit on available buying power and prioritize ones with a lower position value.
4) I look at the historical track record of each individual ticker on this page.
If all you're doing is following my live trades, then you can ignore the above. That list is just for people who focus primarily on the watch list for doing their trades.
If you have any questions or feedback, I'd love to hear from you.