How I Use SwingTradeBot

I created this site to help me manage and speed up my nightly stock research.  Here I'll share how I'm currently using the site as a way to help others see how everything here ties together. My process consists of a few general categories:

  • Analyzing the broad market
  • Finding new trading candidates
  • Managing positions that I currently hold
  • Managing / monitoring my watchlist

Because I'm a technical analysis based trader, at the heart of SwingTradeBot are technical alerts.  After every trading day the site updates each stock's prices and determines which of the technical patterns which we track occurred on each stock that day.  That process usually finishes by 6 pm New York time so I start my analysis some time after 6.  (For the non-US markets the nightly update takes place 2 to 4 hours after that market closes.) 

You'll see the results of that nightly processing on the stock scan results pages, on each stock's page and on certain other pages, like the bottom of the recent IPOs page and the industry and sector pages (e.g. here's the semiconductor industry page and the healthcare sector page).

The technical analysis scan results also appear on what I consider to be the most important pages of the site -- each user's portfolio and watchlist pages.  It's on these pages where you can quickly get a feel for how your stocks stocks are acting technically.

Analyzing the Broad Market

I created the General Market Overview page to help me get a quick read on the major indices.  At the top of that page is a trend table, which shows how each index is faring with respect to its 10 (short-term), 50 (intermediate-term) and 200-day (long-term) moving averages.  A quick glance at how much red or green is in that table gives me a good idea of the market's health and whether I should be looking for longs or shorts.

Under the the trend table is a graph of the percentage of stocks above their 50-day moving averages.  I like to use that indicator during selloffs to tell me when the market's getting really oversold.  (I don't like this indicator quite as much as Worden's T2108 but it's a decent proxy for T2108.)  Once that indicator dips below 25 I take that as a sign the market's getting stretched too far to the downside and begin to take appropriate action depending on how I'm positioned at that time. Lower on that page are sections which summarize the most active stocks as well as the "hottest" signals for the day.

Finding New Trading Candidates

In order to hunt for new trade opportunities I'll check certain stock scan results. Depending on how the broad market is positioned and acting I'll focus more on bearish or bullish technical patterns.  I usually find it useful to see what types of technical events occurred most on a given day, so I'll sort the scan results table by the 'total' column. Looking at those numbers gives me some insight into how the market is acting.  I get a very different feeling if I see 900 stocks broke below their 50-day moving averages vs a day when we get 1,000 stochastic buy signals.  Also note that there are two tabs on that page -- one tab which lists all the scans and one tab which breaks them out by category.

From there I'll drill down into the results of an individual scan.  So let's say I've clicked on the "Down Five Days in a Row" scan.  I'd do that if I was looking for stocks which I thought were due for a bounce. When I look at that scan I want to see the strongest stocks in that list, so I'll sort by grade and possibly even filter by stocks which are in an uptrend.  All of the scan pages have filter controls which allow you to adjust the result list by the following:

hover over a ticker symbol to get a pop-up chart

From there I'll click through to any interesting stocks to see their detailed technical analysis page and stock charts.  (I'll usually command-click on a Mac or CTRL-click on Windows to open the stock pages in new tabs on my browser.)  If I like what I see on a stock's page I'll add it to my watchlist by clicking the add to watchlist button.

Managing / monitoring my watchlist

The watchlist and portfolio pages are what I check most on the site.  The watchlist page lets me see for each stock its percentage change since being added to the list as well as the day's percentage change.  I'll often sort the list by those columns to get a quick feel for how those stocks have been performing and to see which ones I need to trim.

Below the list of stocks with their performance numbers is a list of recent technical signals for the stocks in the watchlist.  I make sure to check this section daily to see any technical developments that inspire me to initiate a trade. As I wrote in an earlier blog post, this feature is the key reason I created the site.  If I'm really pressed for time I can simply look at this section of the watchlist page to see if there are setups I need to take.  One of my biggest problems in the past was missing setups and this feature has helped me tremendously in catching setups on stocks that I've been stalking. At the bottom of that page is recent news for stocks in the watchlist.

 

Managing Positions that I Currently Hold

The portfolio page is similar to the watchlist page but has some additional features.  Similar to the watchlist page, it also shows performance numbers (in this case, in dollars as well as percentages), recent technical signals and recent news.   Each night I make sure to check the recent signals section of this page.  I'm especially interested in bearish events on my long positions and bullish events on my short positions.  Those signals may not make me outright exit positions but they do put me on high alert to make sure my stops are where they need to be. Speaking of stops, the portfolio page also has a section to help you to manage trailing stops.  When you add a stock to your portfolio you can enter a few different types of stops / exits:

  • a stop at a specific price
  • a Chandelier exit, which allows you to specify the number of ATRs
  • a moving average stop -- you can choose from the 10, 20, 50 or 200-day moving averages

I check the stops section of that page in order to manage my stop loss orders in my brokerage account.  Any stops that have been violated get highlighted in red.  I plan to add some more functionality around stop management in the future.

Summary

So that's how I'm currently using the site.  My watchlist and portfolio contain stocks that I either own or that I'm stalking.  In either case, I want to be alerted to technical patterns / events that those stocks make.  The site tracks the stocks for me and allows me to easily view the technical alerts.  I use the nightly scan results to search for stocks making technical patterns that I like to trade.  When I find a candidate I add it to my watchlist.

So how are you using the site?  What features / functionality would you like to see added? You can leave a comment below or email me at swingtradebot - at - gmail - dot - com.

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SwingTradeBot over 8 years ago

This comment was originally posted by Jon Van Tuin (@jonvantuin) on 2015-07-25 12:54:15.


Please add ATR $ amount as a filter along with being able to filter only stocks that trade options and specify the minimum average daily option volume traded

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SwingTradeBot over 8 years ago

This comment was originally posted by antibala (@antibala) on 2015-08-13 06:24:44.


Mike, How many stocks are allowed on your watchlist? It looks like 50 is the maximum allowed. Please increase it to a 100 and also include current price! Great site!!!!

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SwingTradeBot over 8 years ago

This comment was originally posted by an Anonymous user on 2015-09-10 03:03:45.


Thanks, great site; which scan do you recommend for weekly vertical credit spreads

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SwingTradeBot over 8 years ago

This comment was originally posted by Michelle Exley (@disqus_GtvkSpDr5u) on 2015-11-20 20:54:58.


You're very kind to share this with all of us - thank you!!!!!!!!

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SwingTradeBot over 8 years ago

This comment was originally posted by 3percent (@3percent) on 2015-12-10 20:38:17.


Great site. You can get the eod data from NSE (national stock exchange of India) for free.

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SwingTradeBot about 8 years ago

This comment was originally posted by otot (@nightowwl) on 2015-12-30 06:06:04.


Thank you so much for all you've done. The information provided has been a tremendous help.

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SwingTradeBot about 8 years ago

This comment was originally posted by TraderMike (@mseneadza) on 2015-12-30 08:52:23.


You're welcome.

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SwingTradeBot about 8 years ago

This comment was originally posted by an Anonymous user on 2016-01-08 23:10:08.


Awesome job!

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SwingTradeBot about 8 years ago

This comment was originally posted by olivier hayat (@olivierhayat) on 2016-01-13 18:50:44.


Dear Sir
First thank you so much for your amazing and wonderful work you are an Angel :)
I am sorry for my poor english.
I would like to know what I have to use into your scan if I want to short a stock
I am looking for stocks who are just break MA200 or MA50 and I am lost with all your scan
please can you indicate me which one is the best to discover a good candidate for short selling
Thank you in advance for your help and for your kindness
Olivier

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SwingTradeBot about 8 years ago

This comment was originally posted by TraderMike (@mseneadza) on 2016-01-14 04:15:19.


Hi Olivier,

First: You're welcome!

The scans you want are "Fell Below 50 DMA" and "Downside 200 DMA Break". You might also be interested in the scans which show stocks which tried to rise above their moving averages but fell back below. Those are "50 DMA Resistance" and "200 DMA Resistance"

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SwingTradeBot about 8 years ago

This comment was originally posted by TraderMike (@mseneadza) on 2016-01-14 04:15:39.


Thanks Tristan

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SwingTradeBot about 8 years ago

This comment was originally posted by Benjamin Hayat (@benjaminhayat) on 2016-01-14 07:19:21.


Hello mark

First thank you for your fast answer that's a real pleasure
Where can I find 50 DMA Resistance and 200 DMA Resistance??? I mean where can I find those scan in your menu?
Kind regards

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SwingTradeBot about 8 years ago

This comment was originally posted by TraderMike (@mseneadza) on 2016-01-14 12:56:08.


Menu -> Research -> Technical Analysis Scan Results

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SwingTradeBot about 8 years ago

This comment was originally posted by Michael Slattery (@disqus_JEFEYMssmZ) on 2016-03-15 00:25:55.


Great no BS stock research site. Thanks

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SwingTradeBot about 8 years ago

This comment was originally posted by TraderMike (@mseneadza) on 2016-03-15 00:59:38.


you're welcome!

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SwingTradeBot about 8 years ago

This comment was originally posted by an Anonymous user on 2016-03-17 21:26:07.


Thank you for a great site!!

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SwingTradeBot about 8 years ago

This comment was originally posted by TraderMike (@mseneadza) on 2016-03-17 23:30:42.


you're welcome

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SwingTradeBot about 8 years ago

This comment was originally posted by Sonia505 (@sonia505) on 2016-03-22 07:16:57.


Wow Mike! I really like your site! Thank you so much for sharing all of your hard work and knowledge with us. You are really a blessing! I am very new at this (only a couple of weeks) and have been spending all of my free time learning about trading, candlesticks and their meanings. Your site really brings together everything I have been looking for. I have only done 3 paper trades so far and have only lost on the first one, the one I did before learning about the Japanese rice traders candlestick method. They are just little trades as I don't want to exhaust all my paper money learning how to trade. I just found your site tonight and am so excited! I will be here often learning, doing research and more learning. Again, thank you...

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SwingTradeBot about 8 years ago

This comment was originally posted by TraderMike (@mseneadza) on 2016-03-22 07:46:05.


You're welcome! Funny, when I first dreamed up this site I never considered that it might be useful to beginning traders but I've been hearing that it is from several people. I'm glad that's the case.

You've done well to discover candlesticks so quickly. I'd just caution you to not use any one candlestick pattern in a vacuum. Heed to the prevailing trend first and then add on whatever indicators you like.

You may find my Flipboard magazine interesting. The link is over in the sidebar (or below if you're using a mobile device). I curate technical analysis articles in that magazine.

Best of luck with your trading journey.

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SwingTradeBot about 8 years ago

This comment was originally posted by Sonia505 (@sonia505) on 2016-03-23 08:03:15.


Thank you for your reply and advise! Even though I found out about the ability of trading to make a living a couple of weeks ago, it seems that my journey has been long and have learned so much in this short 2 weeks time.

I work from home and am self employed. I work very long hours, six days and sometimes 7 days a week and my job is very stressful.

This new adventure in trading started from seeing Timothy Skyes on the Steve Harvey show a couple of weeks ago. Actually my mom asked about penny stocks a few years ago to a family member and he said that they were rubbish so we dropped it. We thought thought he was into trading and respected his word. After seeing Tim Skyes on the Steve Harvey show it lit a fire in me and made me think that trading is possible. Since the show, in all my free time I watched a lot of Timothy Skyes's free videos on line for about a week but couldn't grasps his trading concept. I really believed in what he was saying and didn't want to give up so one night I went on Youtube and thought maybe another teacher could explain it better and then I found Stephen Bigalow and the Japanese Rice Trader Candlestick concept. What a find! Life changing!

Shortly after watching some of Stephen Bigalow's videos is when I bought the 2 trades through paper trading. One I cashed out the same day (maybe too soon) with a $200 profit. Just the frightened newbie in me. The other one went down, came up and then went down and then came up more today and it is showing that it will go up tomorrow so am holding it. I am so excited with the little almost $500 profit from these! I am doing small trades while I learn so I don't exhaust my paper trade money.

I watch Stephen Bigalows videos over and over and learn something new every time. There are so many patterns to learn. It seems that after time they become redundant. You just have to learn the concepts about the candlesticks. Tonight I downloaded his Scoop Pattern video and again a very good trading video. Another video I am excited about!

The advise you gave above about watching the trends and the indicators is good advise. He talks about those and I am still wrapping my head around these concepts. Maybe I got lucky with my first 2 somewhat newbie planned trades, They earned me almost $500. I know that I still have so much to learn but it is exciting to know that there is a future in trading and can't wait for it, Your site just brings it all together!

I know the industry I work in now and work so many hours but after I learn trading stocks I will have my evenings and weekends back!

Again, thank you so much for this wonderful site that puts so much info to our fingertips! The new trader in me can see how much information your site gives in an easy format for us to make trading decisions. You don't even know, you are truly an answer to prayer! Again, Thank you!

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