Feeling Overwhelmed

[Pedro 0]

tl;dr: What are your suggestions for picking a single stock to watch as a new trader?

 

First off I'd like to say that I really like the BBT community -- keep up the great work!

 

I've been paper trading in DAS for two months and learning about day trading for about four months. I've read Andrew's two books on day trading and recently joined this community.

 

I'm feeling overwhelmed by deciding on which stock to watch during the day. I feel like if I can find a single stock to watch I will be able to trade better, otherwise I find myself constantly chasing stocks. Can someone please provide some advice on how to pick a stock and not get FOMO by the action happening on other stocks and the BBT chatroom? I feel like I bounce around my watchlist too often and miss all of the significant moves.

 

My morning routine is:

 

1. Find pre-market gappers in Trade Ideas

2. Eliminate the gappers which don't have a news catalyst. Eliminate stocks with bad volume profiles.

3. Watch BBT morning show to hear moderators' opinions on stocks and adjust my watchlist as needed

4. Listen to Andrew and Brian in the chat room on their current plays

5. Look for 1-, 5-, 15-min ORBs

 

I usually have between 8-10 stocks on my watchlist in DAS and I have all their 5-minute charts off-screen to monitor their price action. However I always find myself chasing after the market opens. In particular I find myself following Andrew's trades, which have been profitable but that really bothers me because I don't want to follow people (Andrew even states in his books that you shouldn't be a follower but rather make your own decisions on trades).

 

I'm attracted to the idea of trading the same stock every day so that I can specialize in its behavior. That's why on the one hand I feel like trading the SPY every day might be my best bet, but on the other hand if I go that route then I should be trading futures so I can trade order flow in which case I wouldn't stay part of this community. For you folks who trade the same few stocks every day -- how do you pick those stocks?

 

Sorry for the wall of text, I just have a lot on my mind right now!

 

Thanks,

Pedro

[SamuelRice 1]

I am new at trading too so this may not be the most helpful answer, however, I don't think there is necessarily one stock to watch. I think that the stocks in play change every day and that sticking to one stock would limit your strategy from reaching its full potential, because ORB's don't just occur for every stock, every day (based of the Andrew's criteria and BBT tradebook). I think when creating your watchlist watchlist, if your trading ORB's, you need to be looking at where the price action is compared to  where VWAP and the MA's are. If they aren't close then take it off your watchlist and don't look at it. I don't know what type of screen space you have, and how many stocks you can watch at once but if you build your watchlist based off your strategy and then every once and awhile look at the chatroom, because they call out great stocks, you will be better off then just trading apple for a 1, 5 or 15 orb. Because AAPL may only work for your strategy once a week and it could be chop the other days. I could be wrong on my assumptions here and if anyone disagrees pls correct me but yeah, I hope that was helpful.  I also recommend the chat room in the morning at 8;30 Carlos and Norm find amazing stocks in play. Also I recommend meditating it puts you in tune with your emotions and it may help you feel less overwhelmed, headspace is a great app that can help you get started too.