Watergirl,I use a combination of techniques to identify trading...

Watergirl,

I use a combination of techniques to identify trading opportunities.

For a start, my trading package is Westpac's WEBIRESS, which gives me with good access to live trading data, co history, notices etc as well as charting.

Personally I use a combination of Fundamental and Technical analysis to trade shares. I find that reading extensively, both current financial news reports, HC Forums, other Web based information sources, and greatest of all, Live Company Announcments, tends to identify many trading opportunities. I generally look for potential price moving announcemnets for day traidng purposes. After identifying a potential, I will take a look at the chart for that co to determine if the technicals also line up, support and resistance points etc (Basically Candlesticks, Slow SToch, VOL, Exp MA, Bollingers), and if time allows, take a quick scan through that companies recent announcements to determine if there are any hidden traps I should be aware of, such as recent rights issues (share overhang) etc, but at the end of the day, the trend is my friend, and I trade accordingly.

I also generally, and especially if things get a bit slow, tend to look at the current market movers to find any shares with a good run still left in them.

In terms of other scanning, I use incredible charts to run scans for Price gaps in the last two days, and signals for appropriate Slow Stoch levels. For both those criteria, I have a volume filter as well so as to limit the number of postives I get to as few as possible.

The most important thing that I have found is to get to know intimately the trading patterns, co fundamentals etc, of a small number of companies, and trade these over and over and over again. I watch the trading action on a couple of key shares, and when I see trading patterns and momentum change, take a look at the charts to confirm that conditions are staring to look good to make a trade.

I like to trade shares at 10c level because the next pip up gives me 5% return, while the next pip down nets me a 1% loss.. (I NEVER buy at 10.5c- 1pip down =5%loss) Other than that I try to trade shares in the 25 to 60c range as each pip movement in price provides me with a good return,and provide good scope to put in place a stop loss which won't suffer too much slippage. Shares at these price points generally also tend to have suitable price volatility to trade, without the increased risks posed by trading the real penny stocks in the 0.01 to 5c range. I do trade these but not often and then with very tight and disciplined stops and a reduced amount of capital.

I am also slowly building up a database of companies with my notes about each of them. I am compiling a nice little list of potential movers based on various fundamental criteria, such as low PE, SP not reflecting underlying net tangible asset value, shares oversold on market concerns about refinancing (HFA rise is a good eg), mining or energy exploration companies sitting on good resources but oversold as a result of a lack of finance for development (LYC) etc. The list is endless but it's paid off concentrating on those factors- but was trying to do it from diary notes and memory. I only started compiling the list last week because I realised that my manual diary notes were rushed, it was difficult to find what I was looking for, and because I forget the co. code etc. Also starting to keep note of potentially price sensitive events and dates for companies.

Last but not least, I personally have found that it becomes easy to over analyse, so the best advice I can give is to try and keep things as simple as possible and use what works best for you. Try to set yourself a general strategy about the type of trading you want to do, the shares you want to target, risk management and so on- this will also allow you maintain your focus because there are just too many shares and too many techniques out there to enable you to try all of them all of the time. Also remember to regularly review your trading strategy and adjust it to reflect your current situation, experience and so on.

Geeze I get carried away don't I- raining outside so sailing my Hobie cat was out today and an ear infection prevents diving so.....you guys are lumped with me lol