I use Incredible Charts software to search for new...

I use Incredible Charts software to search for new opportunities, paper trade stocks I don't actually own, and monitor my portfolio. It costs $9.95 per month for the budget package. The data for the day is not updated till 7 pm. The market closes at 4:10 pm, so this is almost 3 hours until I can check my portfolio. It only takes a quick check of say less than 10 minutes. If one or more stock closes below a stop loss, I sell sometime the next day. Ideally we want our stock portfolio to have big wins, small wins, break even, or small losses.

The most time consuming part is searching for stock opportunities. New 6-month and 52-week highs is a good start. Recall how often BIG was making new 6-month highs. These are the market leaders. Conversely, the likes of TLS, RFG, MYR, FXJ, and BDR are the market losers. All these stocks are trading below a declining 130 and 200-day moving average.

Watching the stock portfolio too closely is counter-productive. I don't pay any attention to intraday market depth. Nick Radge once said that market depth is a lie. This is especially true for position traders like myself that might not have the time during the day to actively monitor their stock portfolio.

The free charting alternative is Yahoo Finance. They offer charting with the basic technical tools I use. I always have a 130-day (26-week), and a 200-day (40-week) moving average on my charts. Some also might use a 10 and 30-day moving average for smaller periods. If my software went down, I could still use Yahoo Finance as a backup. There may be even better free alternatives that some of you are already using.

My stock universe is mostly confined to the ASX 500 (All Ords). I'm not sure if BIG ever reached the ASX 500, but it was one of the very best performers in 2016 and 2017. These are the type stocks we want to own. Other past standout performers include AVZ, BAL, KGN, LOV, OMH, A2M, and CSL. Note these charts have a similar look about them.

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