Replies to post #39829 on lowtrade

[lowtrade]

I feel properly managing a watchlist is important

Agree completely.

Ones watch list is the bucket you use to replace your last trade with. I say one should have at least twice the number of stocks you trade, in your watch list. The more the better.

I personally try to maintain 2 watch lists. A watch weekly list checked Mondays and a strong watch list checked daily.

So if one trades 4 stocks at a time. They should have at least 8 watch stocks to draw from.

In the daily trading, you move into and out of trades. If you had too prospect for something new after completing each trade, you could be spending a lot of personal time prospecting. Duplicating work that could be scheduled weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. But if you have prospects waiting, your work load prospecting is more manageable and can be scheduled. Good time management is a lazy mans nirvana and I'm lazy. I'd rather spend 2 hours +/- every 2 weeks prospecting, then half and hour or more every other day.

By using watch lists, your able to have planned trades just waiting to be implemented once you close one trade and one of you watch stocks breaks out. Or at least draw cash from your portfolio reserve cash if timing isn't correct.

Within the business of stock trading, a watch list is actually like product inventory. And the better a business owner can manage their inventory, the better run and profitable the business is.

The largest portion of my portfolio cash is in swing trading big board stocks on 2 week cycles. So normally I try to prospect 2wice a month and look for watch stocks which have chart patterns with 1 to 3 weeks before possible break out of the charts pattern. After weekly checks, I move watch stocks to strong watch if they progress as expected. Or I remove them off weekly watch if they don't. It's all a balancing act. But if managed well, as you say. This becomes a large part of successful trading.

Especially if you trade what you want, not what's in front of you. You need a good inventory of what you want to play ready. The added bonus is by finding positive chart patterns early, you can actually plan the trades entry and exit well before entry. No last minute on the fly guess work. All boiling down to better time management. Basic, simple and clean.