{"id":7902,"date":"2010-10-27T17:06:37","date_gmt":"2010-10-27T21:06:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/?p=7902"},"modified":"2021-02-11T16:59:57","modified_gmt":"2021-02-11T21:59:57","slug":"traders-ask-should-i-trade-stocks-in-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/traders-ask-should-i-trade-stocks-in-play","title":{"rendered":"Traders Ask: Should I Trade Stocks In Play?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hi Mike,<\/p>\n<p>I hope that my email finds you well.\u00a0 I have a question about trading stocks that are in play.\u00a0\u00a0 I&#8217;ve studied several approaches to game planning.<\/p>\n<p>1) Come in with 10 &#8211; 20 stocks that have potentially good daily set ups, and wait for good intraday price action to confirm that its worth trading.\u00a0 I&#8217;ve found that this approach has led me to over trade, and jump around from stock to stock.\u00a0 I particularly like to be focused, so this approach has hurt my trading.<\/p>\n<p>2) Come in with 2 &#8211; 3 ideas, that are technically sound.\u00a0 Have a deep understanding of the levels and wait for stock to come into your level or price action to confirm.\u00a0 I&#8217;ve found that with this approach, I can come in with 2 or 3 ideas; however, those stocks may or may not have good price action on that particular day.\u00a0 Just because I planned for it, this does not mean that the next day it will have money flowing in or out of it.\u00a0 I could technically come into the office and have nothing to trade because the intraday action is not there.<\/p>\n<p>3) Am I better off coming in the morning and looking for stocks that have fresh news, earnings, i.e. catalyst.\u00a0 I&#8217;ve heard of this approach, however, it seems like with this approach you really won&#8217;t prepare well, because you won&#8217;t know what to trade until the last minute.<\/p>\n<p>Mike, its imperative that as short term traders we&#8217;re involved where the money is at.\u00a0 How can I better prepare, so I can locate the money and get involved in high probability stocks.\u00a0 In this particular sense, are scanners a better tool than a watchlist gameplan?<\/p>\n<p>Too many times I find myself trading stocks where money is not coming into them, stocks that are not in play; stocks that have too many candle sticks with tails, instead of solid candles.<\/p>\n<p>What do you suggest is the best approach?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bella Responds<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I love your observation about the wicks in stocks sans fresh news. \u00a0So true. \u00a0And so why this is not where I want to start for my stock selection. \u00a0Great job working on your game here to improve your stock selection. \u00a0It&#8217;s all stocks selection these days!<\/p>\n<p>There is not a right approach for EVERYONE. \u00a0 But there is a right approach FOR YOU. \u00a0I do have an opinion on the right approach for most and this is what we teach.<\/p>\n<p>We trade the Stocks In Play:<\/p>\n<p>a) stocks with fresh news<\/p>\n<p>b) stocks with unexpected news<\/p>\n<p>c) stocks plus or minus 3% on the open<\/p>\n<p>d) stocks with news that will cause a significant intraday move<\/p>\n<p>e) beats on revs for the full year, improved margins or market share, new drug, are key words that catch my attention<\/p>\n<p>Why do we trade these stocks?<\/p>\n<p>1) they offer more intraday opportunities<\/p>\n<p>2) they tend to trend cleaner intraday (bye bye wicks)<\/p>\n<p>3) they are more liquid so you can trade them with more size (never met a trader who doesn&#8217;t want more size)<\/p>\n<p>4) they move more than other non news stocks intraday<\/p>\n<p>5) the order flow, reading the tape, is easier to read<\/p>\n<p>Ok I am going to stop here as you have gotten the point. \u00a0Second Day plays are excellent as well in this trading environment. \u00a0I will not pass on a stock that has found a very important technical level sans fresh news. \u00a0 We have built the SMB Radar which helps us find stocks intraday that move like Stocks In Play.<\/p>\n<p>But my first choice is a stock with fresh news. \u00a0 (Feel free to send rdavis@smbcap.com an email and request a two week free trial of our SMB AM Meeting where we discuss the Stocks In Play.)<\/p>\n<p>Mike Bellafiore<\/p>\n<p>Author, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/One-Good-Trade-Competitive-Proprietary\/dp\/0470529407\/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top\">One Good Trade<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hi Mike, I hope that my email finds you well.\u00a0 I have a question about trading stocks that are in play.\u00a0\u00a0 I&#8217;ve studied several approaches to game planning. 1) Come in with 10 &#8211; 20 stocks that have potentially good daily set ups, and wait for good intraday price action to confirm that its worth trading.\u00a0 I&#8217;ve found that this &#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/traders-ask-should-i-trade-stocks-in-play\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,908],"tags":[4674,18,1193,653,1354,1349],"class_list":["post-7902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mike-bellafiore-bellas-blogs","category-traders-ask","tag-one-good-trade","tag-smb-capital","tag-trader-education","tag-trader-training","tag-trading-coach","tag-trading-mentor","no-post-thumbnail"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Traders Ask: Should I Trade Stocks In Play? | SMB Training<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/traders-ask-should-i-trade-stocks-in-play\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Traders Ask: Should I Trade Stocks In Play? | SMB Training\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hi Mike, I hope that my email finds you well.\u00a0 I have a question about trading stocks that are in play.\u00a0\u00a0 I&#8217;ve studied several approaches to game planning. 1) Come in with 10 &#8211; 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