How do you screen / Find Stocks

[Luc1Grunt]

Thought I would open a can of worms here while refining a few strategies.

Many picks are tossed out on this forum and I'm sure those new to trading / investing wonder how they are "found.

Some screens / techniques? Remember, trading and investing are not the same.

How about MACD fast line crossed the MACD slow line within the last 2 days and volume has increased 15% during the same period.....for starters.

[Svenwulf]

i have also been kicking around starting this thread for awhile now. have hesitated with all the new bashers, after all they remind us this is a Cramer board, and i'd hate to ruin things with stock talk or constructive brainstorming.

but hey, discretion has never been one of my strengths, so...

as stated trading and investing are very different. i am discussing trading. i apologize if any of this is obvious, but i am striving for simplicity.

the TA stuff is great. very important to understand, and you should be learning something new all the time. but anytime i have put money on a squiggly line, i generally am in a weaker position, and more prone to panic. i prefer other methods for idea generation. TA works well for many people, and that alone makes it a market force.

i will always have a planned or current catalyst for a trade. i have my "comfy" sectors, but am always trying to learn about other parts of the market.

obviously earnings are a great trading vehicle. statistically an under perform time for the market, some of my biggest wins, and loosers have come gaming earnings. do not play a company you don't know. do not play a company you love. look for a discrepancy in price history compared to competitors or related firms. see if the discrepancy is warranted. do not trust option activity, the capital requirements render them too easily distorted. and always remember to account for street sentiment.

for obvious reasons this is the rookie version. i like to think i put much more into it than that. and earnings are only a small window of opportunity, so of course an active trader needs other ways to generate ideas. these are all just my opinions, and i do hope to hear others chime in with even basic ideas.

[Ghost]

Rummaging thru WSJ/IBD articles. Doing research on Peer performance can unearth some interesting directions. Cramer does pick some good p/e peg stocks and if they pass the tests, I'll observe. Fast Money is good for a few tips b/c they're playing daily. i.e. I am usually tuned into Bolling's word on energy/nat gas. Yahoo finance and local business sectors have the advantage of employees' opinions and local coverage.

[englishman26]

I have a pet monkey. He likes to throw darts so I wrote letters on a dart board and he throws 4 darts. Usually he misses the board at least once and get my three letter symbol and I'm ready to trade.

Oh that and read IBD, wall street journal, Business Week, thestreet.com, and many many other websites. I use technicals to trade good stocks that I like for fundemental reasons.

I tend to trust the monkey more though and he's much quicker.

[MoMoney4Me]

I prefer the the products and services available from Value Line available here : https://www.ec-server.valueline.com/...s/product.html
The ETF survey and Investment survey

I also subscribe to IBD e Tables and Investors.com
http://www.investors.com/IBDStore/

Weekly service to Barron's online
http://online.barrons.com/public/main

Morningstar's premium content
http://www.morningstar.com/

You'll also find some valuable info for free on Forbes, Marketwatch, CNN Money, MSN Money, Yahoo Finance, and Standard and Poors websites.

And you guys here on cramersmadmoney.com often have had ideas that top all the lists

[BuyOnDips]

I like searching yahoo's Industry Center. Just click on the sector you want research.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/ind_index_alpha.html

Once you are on the sector industry page, then click the industry browser link on the upper left hand side of the page.

Here's the listing of apparel stores.
http://biz.yahoo.com/p/730conameu.html

Then you can click on each company to find out the latest information about the stock.

MSN has lists of stocks that are prescreened to various parameters which can give you stock leads.
http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor...stopstocks.asp

[aiki14]

This is strictly for trading.
I screen for large moves with anomalous volume, big pretrade moves on no or little news, then around 1pm I short them.
I look for high volume up trends from open with little or no pretrade up moves, go in long around 10 or 1030. I am on the board every second I have a position in case I need to move out.
And I am opportunistic if something is moving either way and I see it. I track 240 stocks at a time in real time. I attached a pretty poor pic I took with my phone this morning, That's us on the left.

[MoMoney4Me]

Originally Posted by aiki14

This is strictly for trading.
I screen for large moves with anomalous volume, big pretrade moves on no or little news, then around 1pm I short them.
I look for high volume up trends from open with little or no pretrade up moves, go in long around 10 or 1030. I am on the board every second I have a position in case I need to move out.
And I am opportunistic if something is moving either way and I see it. I track 240 stocks at a time in real time. I attached a pretty poor pic I took with my phone this morning, That's us on the left.

Great strategy aiki.
It's more than I have knowledge of or time to master, but from the looks of your past performance on VSE you're doing very well for yourself.

[Ghost]

Originally Posted by aiki14

I am on the board every second I have a position in case I need to move out.

What online broker do you use?

[aiki14]

Originally Posted by Ghost

What online broker do you use?

E*Trade and Merrill Lynch, through the Thompson Workstation.