Stock Scans
Hedge fund managers and mainstream traders have access to amazing automated trading software and scanning tools—so you might think they have a huge advantage over the little guy, the ‘everyman’ trader.
That may have been true before, but not anymore.
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Trading isn’t easy. It takes a lot of hard work. And, if you think it doesn’t, then you’re not doing your homework and any luck you’ve had with stocks recently is just that—luck. Luck runs out.
You can trade like a hedge fund manager if you’re willing to put the work into it, because you have all the tools right in front of you with STT.
It’s great to have a ton of stock scanning tools at your fingertips—and all in one place. More to the point, it’s great to be able to trade like Timothy Sykes without doing all of the hard work. The strategy is Timothy Sykes’ and the scans all come together on Stockstotrade.com.
But, what if you’ve never done this before? It might seem overwhelming when you download the STT software and are confronted with loads of possibilities and have no idea where to start.
Remember, there are over 16,000 stocks scans, in real time and filtered.
It’s hard to know where to start, so you can start with pre-set scans that mirror Timothy Sykes’ strategy, or you can set up your own filter criteria with a little help from STT lead trainer Tim Bohen, who also is a big fan of the Timothy Sykes pre-sets. He uses them every day, along with his own filter set-ups.
Then there’s the news … So, you’ve found stock scans that looks like a perfect set-up, in terms of gains and volume, but what about catalysts? And what about catalysts that get out there in real time and you see it before the stock starts moving in response?
Here’s a tip from STT lead trainer Tim Bohen on how to find a low float runner.
Tim always has the low float news scan running on another monitor, but you can also just keep it running on a sidebar.
Not everybody follows the same things and Tim likes to follow low-priced stocks when he’s looking for low float runners. He likes stocks under $20, but not necessarily the true penny stocks.
The STT news filter is what Tim calls the ‘firehose of information.’ But the problem—especially around pre-market or market open time—is that there is a new article every second. Unless you’re a savant, you can’t possibly track all this news flow to find the gems.
First, Tim starts by filtering out the big stocks that he’s not going to trade, like Amazon and Apple. The news filter allows you to set up very specific criteria. In this case, Tim’s criteria looks like this:
- Price: .50 – $20
- Volume: 1 million minimum (when it’s near the end of the day); or around 5,000 if it’s pre-market, and these numbers will climb throughout the day
- Percent change: 10% (sometimes in pre-market, Tim will knock this down to 5%)
- Float: < 10 million (for the last couple of years, low float stocks have been the real runners)
Now you’ve got the criteria, and in the process you’ve filtered out everything you don’t want and the low float runners are all that’s left. Then, it’s time to look at the news that pops up. If you get that before it starts moving, it’ll be a good trading day.
This gives you the ideal set-up for a low float squeeze play.
That’s Tim Bohen’s usual criteria, but the preset scanners are there because one size doesn’t fit all and the market isn’t the same from day to day.
The pre-sets are especially useful for traders who want to jump in right away and might not have the time or knowledge to figure out their own criteria. The pre-sets give you a jumpstart and then you learn as you go and can tweak along the way.
They may vary in terms of stocks price ranges, 52 week highs or lows and news. Not everyone likes penny stocks and not everyone likes $900 stocks. The pre-sets offer something for everyone, and most importantly, they are tools for learning.
Then we have Oracle, STT’s algorithm-based watchlist-builder. This is a great tool, especially for new and intermediate traders to learn from. It’s also great for really busy traders. In the pre-market period, Oracle builds a list of stocks that have the most potential to move on the day.
Tim usually builds his watchlist the old-fashioned way, sifting through hundreds and hundreds of tickers every night. Not everyone has time for this. But … what Tim has discovered recently is that about two-thirds and sometimes even three-quarters of the tickers he finds the old-fashioned way turn up on Oracle.
Does it mean that everything that Oracle throws you way is a trade? No. But it does allow you, with a single click, to find the basket of stocks it predicts will be movers based on STT’s proprietary algorithm. As the pre-market and regular market open, Oracle takes all the market data and builds you list of potential entries, as well as support and resistance levels. It then makes you a template to guide your trading day.
If you’re too busy to put in all the work of sorting through 16,000 stocks to put together a watchlist, Oracle is a life saver.
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