Finding Stocks To Trade Shouldn’t Be That Hard

For traders, finding stocks to trade can be a dilemma. However, it shouldn’t be that hard if you know where to look. Let’s explore some basics and break it down to make it easier.

First, let’s discuss trading habits. Many traders believe that the markets open at 9:30 EST, but trading today starts as early as 7 A.M. Early morning action begins, followed by official pre-market trading at 8 A.M., and the official market opening at 9:30 A.M. EST. Therefore, if you have been sleeping in, you could miss out on some interesting early morning trades. However, be cautious, since pre-marketing trading has a higher element of risk attached to it due to a lack of liquidity.

If you want to find stocks to trade, don’t scan the pages of Wall-Street Journal, Independent Business Daily, and the like. News in those publications is often too old to trade on. The first thing to do is check the after-hours action from the day before. The NASDAQ homepage offers an Extended Hours Trading link that shows the list of most active stocks after hours. In most cases, these stocks are moving based on news released after the close. Additionally, check out the Pre-Market Most Active list as well as the NASDAQ-100 Pre-Market Heat Map for potential stocks to consider.

MarketWatch is an excellent source of news to watch out for analyst up/downgrades, earnings reports, and FDA actions that could include approval, disapprovals, or comments on an application.

Watching Bloomberg TV before the 5 A.M. premarket trading begins is recommended, followed by switching over to CNBC once pre-market opens since CNBC has a larger audience. Once the markets open, real-time quote systems will have at least the top ten most active on the three main exchanges, both gainers and losers. RealTick has a screener called Hottrend Realtime Radar that automatically shows stocks that have unusual volume compared to their volume patterns. Check if your supplier has a similar feature.

Lastly, check your Dow Jones news feed for the latest breaking news starting at about 6:30 A.M. New York time to make informed trade decisions.

Happy trading!

This article can be reproduced without permission as long as the About The Author tag is left in tact and hot links included. Questions and comments can be sent to Floyd at [email protected].

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