My goal is to target a few stock ideas and/or quick research snapshots that are crossing my screens. These are the same ideas that I log in my own notebook for potential trades or future reference. Now I can share my ideas again and not take up too much time formatting a blog post.

Follow me here:

twitter.com/cperruna

Here’s a sample of the tweets I have listed over the past few nights:

• We had 12 new highs and 2 new lows on the NYSE today – compare that to 3 NH’s and 705 NL’s on 3/3/09 – the trend is changing $$ – less than 20 seconds ago from StockTwits
• RVBD – nice recovery of the 200-d m.a. – longer term play with healthy market. Short term target is $18 (52-wk high area)…8 minutes ago from StockTwits
• APEI - triple top breakout on point & figure above $45 (short term buy). 50-d ma. must cross above 200-d m.a. before longer term buy…15 minutes ago from StockTwits
• VMW up on volume 135% larger than average; trading in range, $20 to $27 – short term buy above $27. 200-d MA may provide resistance…7:58 PM Apr 1st from StockTwits
• V in a trading range, EPS still solid, RS steady – $57-$60 is buy zone; it goes to $100 when the market moves but when is that…7:07 PM Mar 31st from StockTwits
• HTS is an interesting young stock, decent chart, volume up 180% today, not a buy yet (especially in this market)…6:52 PM Mar 31st from StockTwits
• DXO is dropping back to the moving average – watch it for setup…8:59 PM Mar 30th from StockTwits

The charts of the stocks covered so far are listed below. So sign up for twitter and join me as I talk stocks. You can get it on your phone, facebook and many other places.

twitter.com/cperruna

I am very pleased to announce that Dr. Brett Steenbarger’s new book can be ordered through Amazon. What makes this book even more interesting than most is that fact that I helped contribute to Chapter Nine, along with 17 other online professionals (bloggers I have followed and known for some time). Clearly, I consider the other 17 contributors more professional than me but I can’t discount what I have learned and have shared over the years.

I’ve been very quiet on the blog but that’s because my basic trading philosophy is buying long (stocks making new highs) which isn’t such a great idea right now and the fact that my baby is due to arrive in less than 6 weeks (priorities change). I hope to jump back in and get this blog going again when my screens show breakouts and positive risk/ reward setups. Until then, I’ll sit tight and be patient!

Remember:

• “But careful timing is essential…impatience is costly” – Jesse Livermore, 1940
• “Whenever I have had the patience to wait for the market to arrive at what I call a “Pivotal Point” before I started to trade; I have always made money in my operations” – Jesse Livermore, 1940
• “The big money is made in the first one or two years of a normal bull market cycle” – William O’Neil

Back to the book, I highly recommend it, as well as Brett’s past books; he’s such a great contributor to the trading world and an even more important fixture and influential contributor to the online investing community.

Brett’s TraderFeed Blog

From the Inside Flap:

Every trader is an entrepreneur. And just as a new business must capitalize upon the strengths of its founders, a career in the markets crucially hinges upon the assets—personal and monetary—of the trader. As an active trader and a coach of traders in hedge funds, proprietary trading groups, and investment bank settings, author Brett Steenbarger has helped others see the personal assets they have possessed all along: those that can pay a lifetime of dividends. In The Daily Trading Coach, he provides the tools to help you prioritize both your trading goals and your life—and become your own trading psychologist.

There are 101 lessons in The Daily Trading Coach, each averaging several pages in length. Each lesson follows the same general format: identifying an everyday challenge that traders face, an approach to meeting that challenge, and a specific suggestion for implementing that approach. The lessons cover a range of topics relevant to trading psychology and trading performance, including detailed instruction for utilizing psychodynamic, cognitive, and behavioral brief therapy methods to change problematic behavior patterns and instill new, positive ones. The chapters are independent of one another, so that you can read them in order or you can use the Table of Contents or Index to read, each day, the lesson that most applies to your current trading. In addition, the book includes insightful self-coaching perspectives from eighteen successful trading professionals who share their work online.

While the aim of the book is to help you become your own trading coach, its broader purpose is to help you coach yourself through life. The challenges and uncertainties you face in trading—the pursuit of rewards in the face of risks—are just as present in careers and relationships as in markets. The Daily Trading Coach provides a road map, and a practical set of insights and tools, for discovering and implementing the best within you.

Click here for a complete linkable list of Contributors to The Daily Trading Coach

Thank you Dr. Brett!

Below are the websites I visit everyday and I do mean everyday!

• Bespoke Investment Group
• Decision Point
• Investor’s Business Daily – Custom Screen Wizard
• TraderMike
• The Kirk Report
• Drudge Report
• The Big Picture
• Copyblogger

I visit many more websites and blogs throughout the week, with specific focus on my blogroll, but the ones above are must reads in my busy daily schedule.

Enjoy the rest of the Thanksgiving Weekend!

The book starts with a chapter on technical analysis which I recently listed as one of the 10 steps to profitable trading. I agree with Brian 100% that any person that wishes to become a successful trader must learn and start to master some aspect of technical analysis. He clearly identifies that technical analysis is not about memorizing chart patterns or funky images but about understanding the motivations of participants which may help in anticipating future moves. This is a game of anticipation more so than speculation if you play by a set of rules and attempt to do it professionally. Overall, Brain nails the point that technical analysis allows a trader to view the market with some type of clarity (this may differ from one person to another – especially in multiple time frames).

He says: “price is the only thing that pays”. Very simple but true. All the tools and gadgets in the world can’t and won’t help you trade more efficiently than using simple price action which can be monitored through charts or technical analysis. He says, in other words of course, that technical analysis is not an exact science and will not predict every move but it should allow an experienced trader make sense of the movement(s) they are viewing.

I loved the first chapter because I felt I was reading my own thoughts (almost word for word).

The next four chapters focus on the four stages of a stock’s cycle or movement (in Brian’s opinion and I don’t disagree):

• Accumulation
• Markup
• Distribution
• Decline

This portion of the book reminded me of the analysis done by Stan Weinstein in his book, Secrets For Profiting in Bull and Bear Markets. There were some differences in explanation but I agree when Brian states that these four stages appear in every timeframe of every stock. Later on in the book, he talks about how and when to buy with focus on stage two and four stocks for trend traders (that would include me). Within these chapters, Brian says:

“Successful trading is all about finding an edge and exploiting it for your gain. If we cannot find such an advantage, there is no reason to be involved”.

From here, the book talks about support and resistance, trends, volume and moving averages; all things I continuously write about here on the blog because I use them and view them everyday on daily and weekly charts (support and resistance on point and figure charts). Once again, I felt I was reading my own thoughts in chapters seven through ten.

Reading along, we get introduced to chapters on How and When to Sell Short, News and Fundamentals and Short Squeezes. These chapters contain solid material but not as strong as the previous chapters or the final chapters on Risk Management, Rules and Insight and Putting it all Together. In my opinion of course.

The final chapters allow the book to close strong with focus on risk management which is one of the most important items on my list of steps to becoming a profitable trader. This chapter explores:

Market risk, time, risk/ reward (entry, stop and profit objective – which I use in every case study on the blog), trade size or position sizing, stops and other exit strategies.

This is one of the best chapters in the book and is a must read for any investor because the material can not be covered enough.

Finally, Brian covers trading tips, rules and truisms to think about and a few pages about putting it all together.

Overall, this is an excellent book, one that I recommend to any trader that is interested in technical analysis. I endorse the book enough so that I have joined the affiliate program and have placed image ads on my blog. I don’t promote too many items on this blog other than books from Amazon but this is surely a product I feel comfortable recommending. Most importantly, the book is not filled with fluff or any unnecessary fat which I believe is its best feature.

Do I have any reservations about the book?
Of course but not many that matter (as far as content is concerened), here is a short list to be fair.

• The idea of trading in such short time frames is not my forte but the point is the same regardless of the timeframe.
• The physical size of the book is larger than I would prefer but this is minor. I am not talking page count or content but actual size is not standard.
• The cover of the book is bland but I come from a design background so I will always have some constructive criticism. I never purchased a book due to its cover but I know many people do. It’s the content that counts, not the cover of the book.
• Finally we come to price. I questioned Brian about the price and he gave me the perfect answer. The book may cost more than others but you pay for what you get. The content is premium, it’s to the point and will help make you a better trader; therefore, can you really put a price on education that should repay you in the future? Personally, I would have started at a lower price point but again, that’s my own opinion.

In any case, I highly recommend the book as it is just as good, if not better than the daily stock videos Brian produces at his excellent blog AlphaTrends. I am a subscriber to his videos which download free into my iTunes program and then upload onto my iTouch every day.

Enjoy!

I promise you that I am not plugging their website for any reason other than I use it myself. I am not getting anything in return to plug the site (that’s not my style). Take a look and perform your own opinion (let me know what you think).

On another note, please take a few seconds to sign up for my free RSS feed and receive my latest posts in your e-mail, if you haven’t done so already.

Click the large icons below and sign up for FREE to get my daily blog posts in your e-mail and/or favorite RSS reader:

I leave you with some great Warren Buffett quotes (they apply to today’s market and any market for that matter):

Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.

Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.

Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.

A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.

If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.

Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote.

The investor of today does not profit from yesterday’s growth.

Click the large icons below and sign up for FREE to get my daily blog posts in your e-mail and/or favorite reader:

Absolut Must Read Links for Friday, March 21, 2008:

• Denial as a Trading Motivation
• What Level of Returns is Impressive?
• Say Goodbye to Agriculture and Gold?
• Gold, the Dollar, and Chicken/Egg Semantics
• Visa IPO: Too Much Hype – Consider These Top 15 In Demand IPO’s
• Interview with Corey Rosenbloom, from AfraidtoTrade.com
• Housing Bust Blame Game
• How to profit from a stock that’s plunging
• VIX Macro Cycle Update
• Recent Key ETF Performance
• Don’t forget to check out InstantBull and NewsFlashr

Click the large icons below and sign up for FREE to get my daily blog posts in your e-mail and/or favorite reader:

The interview can also be heard on the Trader Interview website or this direct permalink using Windows media, RealPlayer, mp3 stream or direct link to mp3. My favorite place to listen is on my iTouch using iTunes, by subscribing to the free Trader Interviews podcast.

Enjoy and certainly let me know what you think!

Show notes: Chris Perruna is a part-time trader who holds positions from three to nine months at a time, looking for larger moves in stocks he chooses based on the CANSLIM method from Investor’s Business Daily. Here we talk about the three stock screens he uses each night, why he likes stocks that are about to bounce off their 200-day moving average and why he, even though he is a longer-term trader, will get out of a position the same day if the trade isn’t working out. Chris’ blog can be found at: ChrisPerruna.com.