How do you pick a ticker to trade?  In the past I would look at a chart and try to see which way price was moving and not take into consideration the charts previous price action.  Since I am a long trader price needed to be moving up. That's all it took and I would place my trade,  sometimes it worked but most of the time it didn't but I would try it again and again until I realized that there must be a way of trading where I could win more logically and with a plan, and then I found this guy who loved to talk a lot, Tim Sykes and he has turned me completely around when it comes to trading.

Today I look at a chart and I am looking at different time frames, going back a couple years and there HAS to be room in the basement, meaning price has to have been lower before.  When I run my scan it will pick up many tickers that have tremendous gains on the day but they spiked up from nothing, you know the chart, the one where price is in the cellar for a long time and then all of a sudden there's that huge green bar.  

What caused that sudden spike and can it continue growing or will it drop right back down to where it started.  Today I will stay away from those tickers because they have nothing to offer me as far as trading.  I like tickers that have some good support below the current price and preferably recent support, but I have entered trades where I have used support from a couple years ago and caught the bottom.

Now I review the charts that were the results of my scan one at a time and I eliminate the bottom tankers first, and then  I go over the rest but only giving each chart a quick couple of minutes and eliminating the really ugly one's, then I will take the one's I am interested in and work with them for a few minutes each.  Finding S/R levels, news, SEC filing's, seeing when the ticker was traded by Sykes, run the ticker through VectorVest for a report and their analyst.

Then I write on each chart what my thoughts are and where I would place my entry level or levels and my projected profit levels,  I never place a stop loss unless I have to step away from my work station.

Currently I am watching Sykes Penny Stocking Framework Part Deux and gleaning all I can from them and by doing so I am very confident that I will be a prosperous trader.

A profit is a profit no matter the amount