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I am still in the black for this week but it has been a struggle. It seems I have chosen 2 decent stocks, whether by luck or skill I don't really know. Here is the status
I find that my knowledge of American stocks is far less than I believed. All stocks in my normal hunting range seem to be less than healthy ($1 - $10) and it is a struggle to find decent ones at higher dollar values.
If you have any suggestions, I would like to hear them... my hunt is not going well at present.
hmmmm.... no participation...lurkers but no participation....even when I ask for some help in identifying opportunity in a marketplace that I have never been successful...as opposed to the Canadian market place where I feel comfortable.
I am discovering why I have not been successful...not because of my TA... I have just been looking in the wrong places and under-capitalized my real $US account but my experience here helping me...I will not boost my $'s in my real US account ...not with the $Cdn is worth $0.78 USD...too expensive...especially when I cannot find reasonable US stocks at reasonable prices.
Anyway I digress here is the status report for the end of this week.
I stopped being interested in trading stocks several years ago. In a sense, it doesn't matter, because markets are markets, and technical analysis, at least, is the same no matter what. But it does matter some; it's just a different arena. So, it's interesting to read your posts, but it's way off on the edges of what I'm doing. That's probably true of a lot of people.
Mind you, I get fairly few comments in my journal too, and it's much more like the trading that the majority are probably doing. A good part of that is simply that everyone has, to some degree, their own method, their own preferences as to trading/investing tactics and strategy, in general their own approach. I will probably read 20 or 30 posts on a slow day, and not one of them will have the same charts, indicators, methodology, or whatever. I can like them (mostly) because I can see some sense in what they do even though it isn't my particular way. And those who visit my thread apparently feel the same way, as a rule.
I will get occasional comments of the "good job" type (or, "yeah, I've screwed up that way too" ), but substantive contributions are rare, and I'm fine with that.... We're all so very different, I'm happy enough just to communicate across the differences and find some mutual ground sometime.
So, I do like your posts, I often leave a Thanks, I do mainly lurk, with an occasional exception like today, and that is, I think, pretty much to be expected. When I first came upon your thread, we had some interesting back and forths, because it was new to me. Probably we will again at some point.
I do get meaningful interactions with a number of people on trading and market topics, but it is from visiting many, many threads and kicking in something now and again, over time. Here too, it turns out.
Just another slant on the lurking/contributing question.
Bob.
PS, the one thing I have wanted to say to you and haven't, is that, at least some years ago when I did do stocks, the typical price of an American stock would usually be around $20. I thought then, and think now, that this was because "they" (you know "them" right? The guys that paranoids know are behind everything ) wanted to keep prices in around the price range that would appeal to investors with limited funds to invest. Now, (a) I could have been wrong about both the number and the motivation, and (b) obviously, conditions will change and I have no idea about what they are now. But that's a little American feedback regarding your problems finding good American stocks in the price ranges you have been used to in Canada.
I'll still mostly lurk, if you don't mind, but I do like your stuff....
I know what I am doing in the stockmarket is not particularly popular on this site. I am just navel gazing when I make those comments because I know I have regular readers... not on this journal so far but definitely on my Canadian Journal. It would be nice to have stock conversations on both journals as I tend to get a little tunnel visioned and the conversations help.
I have a brother who lives in the next province to mine and we get together once/week in the evening on Skype. Our main purpose of those conversations are to stay in touch (period) but since we are both in the Canadian markets often discussions last 3-4 hours (thank god for Skype ).
He initially (5 years ago) was very anti-charting but he has mellowed a lot. He is the kinda guy than likes to dig into "news"... not the market fluff but the good stuff. It is what he does best. I am pretty good at evaluating "news" as well but it is not "ma raison d'etre". So when we meet, we thrash out whether the news of a company is significant and it usually is, though I may offer a different spin on the news.
We look at the financial reports and then if it looks pretty decent he often says "now cast your bones on this stock" and I will do a full TA as I do here.
The result of such discussions is that we arrive at really good stock picks because of this interaction. I wish we were not a thousand miles apart and could regularly get together in person. It is quite enjoyable
We don't do this on American stocks as he has no interest there and my portfolio is not a poster boy for success there either... This journal has been revealing though as in my limited investigation I have discovered the huge differences between the Canadian and American markets.... stocks are not the same between our countries and I would probably find similar differences if I took a shot at European markets.
One thing about American stocks is that there is a lot more sources of information on American stocks compared to Canadian stocks. I think I have found a pretty cool scanning tool. It is not a scanning tool as such or at least not promoted as such....but it narrows down the good stocks in a way that gives me a chance to find decent ones fairly easily.
This will be the subject of future posts here .... {sigh} they don't perform the same service for Canadian stocks so It would not be discussed in my other journal.
I want to show you something that I have found that will be VERY useful in identifying potential American stock picks. Unfortunately there is no such animal that does this for Canadian stocks that I am aware of... I wish there were.
the entryway to this beauty is on Stockcharts.com and is just one more reason to make this website a major information source if you are a chartist.
At the bottom of the page you will find the entrance to an analysis of stocks by sector
If you are looking just for top/bottom stocks you can look at the other locations but we want to do an analysis by sector so for now we will click on Sector Summary
As you can see the sectors are ranked by how they performed EOD, Weekly, Month and so on. I don't pay much attention to EOD rankings.... any stock can be a one day wonder... I want to find a stock that is improving for a month... not just one day so I will check out Month since this has the best chance at showing a stock in a breakout mode.
I will look at the #1 sector water utilities and see what I will find
So we take the best of a bad lot of sectors We have a clear idea of the good and bad choices in a variety price ranges.
Of course the low cost stock attracts me first.... especially when it has gained 43% in a month... STW Resources Holding Corp is OTCB so I don't like to dabble in this area of the market so reluctantly I will give it a miss.
Here is one in a better price range.... Consolidated Water Co. Ltd. [NASD GS:CWCO]..... Here is my trigger chart
Not bad!!! Not a buy yet but certainly a possibility.... See the resistance and support channel? Also the Slow Sto is looking fine... the MACD could be more positive but the BBwidth is poised to move any day now
This is a stock worth more investigation in FA
I will be using this approach more looking in other sectors.... especially sectors and industries that are doing badly... I cannot think of a better way to discover best-of breed stocks.
ok... I am going to use this Sector performance to weed out performers from pretenders.
I am going to find the best 1 or maybe 2 Utility stocks
I will use a method similar to what I have used in my Canadian Journal....I won't repeat it in total but refer you here to the discussion I laid out in my Canadian Journal
Ok...I have started my in-depth analysis using that Dividend Reinvestment Calculator that deaddog brought to my attention last week. I truly think this will revolutionize how I chose stocks for the future. I am most encouraged by the results I am getting …
I am replacing the stock scan in that method which is the best I can do for Canadian stocks with the Sector analysis that I have shown above, then applying the Dividend analysis/return and the rest of the analysis as shown in the link taking only stocks that are green for the last month.
I am half way through the first cut.... It looks to be a very interesting race...Utilities are much more active here.
as I said the first step is to identify the stocks you want to test and that is by using the Sector summary information you get from Stockcharts.com
Next is to determine the YTD (actually I did a one year test here), 3 year and 5 year return for each stock....as this grouping of stocks have dividends this would include dividend returns
I use this tool for that... I use it for non-dividend stocks too...very useful for side-by-side evaluations
), but substantive contributions are rare, and I'm fine with that.... We're all so very different, I'm happy enough just to communicate across the differences and find some mutual ground sometime.
) wanted to keep prices in around the price 