How To Research New Stocks

For the past few weeks, we discussed ways to manage your current positions. These techniques included organizing your positions to position settings to individual position information. They all are great ways to manage your current positions, but what about ones you don’t own yet?

Today, we cover the Stock Analyzer. This tool is a great starting point for researching new stocks easily while still getting meaningful information.

Accessing the Stock Analyzer

You find the Stock Analyzer in our Research tools. In the top black menu bar, click Research. Then, in the submenu, click Stock Analyzer.

From here, you can begin researching new stocks. Simply type the ticker that you want to research, select Long or Short, choose your Entry Date, and click Analyze. The results will display below.

Reviewing the Results

The results area contains a lot of meaningful data. It can seem a little overwhelming at first, but we’ll make it easy for you.

In the upper left-hand corner, you’ll find basic information about the ticker you’re researching.

In this example, we’ll look at GT.

You’ll see the ticker symbol, its name, and the exchange it’s traded on.

To the right of that, you’ll see the stock’s current status. You can click these boxes to get more information. The SSI box also tells you how long the stock has been in that state. D means Days; W means Weeks; M means Months, and Y means Years.

Below the ticker, you’ll see the basic information for the stock’s performance in the market. Please note that the Latest Close is updated around 8PM Eastern each day. This means if you do your research at 10AM Eastern, you’ll be looking at yesterday’s Close Price.

To the right of all this information are the stop loss strategies.

This is where the fun starts. We’ll give you the stop out price based on our SSI, VQ, and a 25% trailing stop. This will give you an idea of whether this stock would be good for you.

The Data

We looked at the close price for our sample stock, GT. It was sitting at $33.50. Based on the SSI, you’d be stopped out at $28.81. The VQ would stop you out at $26.43, and a 25% trailing stop would stop you out at $25.13. From here, you could pick the best stop loss strategy for you.

To better visualize these stop loss strategies, look at the chart below.

The red line on the chart shows you where the position would be stopped out based on the SSI. The yellow line tells you when the stock would hit a period of correction.

This might be more information than you’d like to see on the chart, however. You might want a simpler view. Or… maybe you want to see even more information. We make this easy for you.

To the left of the chart is a legend.

The legend has lots of colorful circles. You can click these circles to make them appear or disappear on the chart. In the photo above, you can see the SSI Stop Loss circle is colored in.

This means the SSI Stop Loss will appear on the chart. The VQ circle isn’t colored in. This means you wouldn’t see the VQ on the chart.

What should I do if I like the stock but don’t want to buy it yet?

Sometimes, you might like how the stock looks, but you might not be ready to buy it quite yet. You want to watch it for a little while longer.

We have the perfect solution for you. Add the position to a watch list right from the Stock Analyzer.

Below the chart, there is an option to add the position to your manual portfolio.

Watch List

A portfolio will be pre-selected for you. To change this, simply click the portfolio name. A list of your other manual portfolios will appear. Click the one where you want to add this position. It will then become the selected portfolio. Finally, click Add.

From there, just fill out the form that appears, and this new position will be added to your portfolio. Then, you can add alerts to the position and monitor its market performance before you decide to buy.

Try the Stock Analyzer Today

We hope that this tip helps you in researching new stocks. 2018 could prove to be an exciting year for your portfolio, and we want to help you along the way.

Login to TradeStops today, and check out the Stock Analyzer. Even if you aren’t thinking of buying new stocks, you could research the stocks you currently own to optimize them.

To your investing,

Customer Success Team