 Welcome to Access to Trader, the number one community for those who are committed to taking control of their trading in order to achieve success, profitability, and longevity. Thank you for joining us. Here's Dan Shapiro to help you find your edge, master your process, and own your future. Suzanne asked a pretty good question. Dan, please explain making a video on how to make a daily watch list. It's actually pretty simplistic in nature. Always remember this, and I've kind of talked about this for many, many years. There's a difference between a watch list or an actionable trading list. Do you guys understand the two? A watch list is something you are putting in front of you in the future that if the stock takes out that price in the future, then you are putting your attention to. Making an actionable trading list is when a stock is imminent. What I mean by when a stock is imminent, when you're trading, for example, a beta name, the stock within $2, $3 on a normal name, like an Apple, like a Microsoft, like a Facebook, like a Netflix, like in the video, that's an actionable watch list. For me to turn around and say, hey guys, let's watch Amazon on Monday off of $36.33, that's a watch list. There's a high probability in a normal world, a normal environment, the stock's not going to rally back 70 points into the close, although anything's possible in this market. And the point is, the stock is 70 points out of the way. This is something that you want to call putting it on your watch list. But a name, for example, like a Tesla, for a Tesla off this channel right here, could be on your imminent trading list because it's coming to a top of the range. When you're physically making an actionable trading list versus a watch list, you want to keep that in mind. You want to make sure any stock that's not close, that's absolutely not close to confirming, you want to leave that stock alone. As much as it's great and you've had tremendous history with the stock and you had great success, you want to focus on the names that you know there's a high probability they're going to trigger the next day. Then you have an absolute high probability of trading them because if you were watching everything, you're going to miss everything. So that's the first course of action when you're making a quote unquote watch list or an actionable trading list. The second thing you should do is get yourself, I don't want to call it a charting platform, but get yourself a software platform that lets you go through a lot of names. If you're like me, especially if you're like me and you have kids and your time is very, very precious, especially after the close, you want to make sure that you have a sufficient amount of time to not only do your research, but obviously kind of transfer to your family life as well. I like using TC2000, I use eSignal throughout the day, eSignal it's like 200 bucks a month, I'm very, very comfortable with eSignal. I've been using eSignal since 2003 and I just like it, I like it a lot, but it's not a system where I can do my chart work. TC2000 I like a lot, number one TC2000 I use the delayed version and the reason why I use the delayed version, I only use it to chart after hours. And what you'll notice here, and let me show you here when it starts up, TC2000 it's like 25 bucks a month, but the reason why TC2000 is great for charting, only charting only, you're not trading, you're not using it to trade, you're not using it for anything, you're literally using it for charting. And the reason why I like TC2000 for charting, I can go through every single index very, very quickly, really quickly and more important I can go through them manually. Unlike something like, what's that FinViz, right, that you program your parameters and all that stuff, I like going through charts manually. And the greatest part about TC2000 is the spacebars feature. For all you guys who have TC2000, you kind of know why it's so important. So the first thing when you're making an actionable trading list, number one, you need to have an opinion, right, you have to have an opinion. What is the market doing, what has the market done, and what is the market, at least your initial opinion looking to do. The first thing before you get to any of that, right, you need to have a direction, you need to have a directional bias just by looking at the daily chart and saying, well, what do I think is going to happen next, right? So if you look at the Q's chart, and this is based on the last three days, you can see that the Q's are holding on to the 20-day moving average. Everybody see that guys, right? So we're kind of in a teetering zone because we also understand that if the Q's lose, right, if the Q's lose the 20-day moving average, there's a lot of room down. So we're kind of in a very delicate area. So for you to turn around, or for me to turn around, or for anybody to turn around, to say to yourself, well, I know 100% this market's going lower, you're wrong. If you turn around and say, I know 100% the market's going higher, you're wrong as well because, again, we've tested this 20-day moving average kind of three days in a row. So something has to give. Susan, you see what I'm saying? Something has to give. So this is one of those scenarios when I'm charting for Monday's session. If we close like this, I take all the data points into my head. So what do we know? We know the market is jittery, right? We know the market's jittery. There's a new strain coming out of Africa. Obviously, that's not a good thing, okay? We also know on the flip side of it, we also know that traditionally the holiday season is very, very bullish. And that kind of corresponds why we're not breaking down below the 20-day moving average, right? So that's so far, so far, again, talking about data points, that is bullish, okay? Then we start looking at the bearish points of all. The bearish point argument is, well, wait a minute, well, if more strain news comes out over the weekend, and they start talking about more lockdowns, and they start talking about more imminent lockdowns, that's obviously bearish, and that's obviously correlating into the triple bottom here on the downside. The good news is, right, and again, you keep on playing devil's advocate. When something is not as clear as a whistle, you start playing devil's advocate, okay? Until you finally come to the conclusion that it's very, very inconclusive going into the new week, or you have a definitive opinion. And if you have a definitive opinion, what's going to need to happen? We're either going to need to break below the 20-day moving average on a close, or the market's going to have to rally into the close, and we know going into Monday's session, at least, that the bottom has been tripled, triply defended, and we're going to rally. So this close today is going to be kind of important to kind of going into Monday's session, so you don't have a definitive view. Like, I don't have a definitive view or a definitive strong opinion going into Monday's session. However, right, let's kind of rewind. Everybody see the first time we closed over the 50-day moving average, and again, this is kind of like, was a big deal, right? Kind of a big deal going into that area. Here is where you have a definitive opinion, right? Here is where you have a definitive discussion, and you have a very strong bias going into the next trading day, because the market technically closed above the 50-day moving average, right? That's super bullish. So in this case, if you guys remember, we were 100% bye-bye as going into the next day, because again, there's no more bullish signal than the Nasdaq 100 closing and reclaiming the 50-day moving average. So that's your first thing. You kind of use your eyeballs, and I always tell new traders, hey, instead of trying to figure out Fibonacci retracements and all these different things, and map these and pitchforks and dog shits and all these things in between, that clutter your judgment, use your eyeballs, and your first order of business should be, well, what are my eyeballs telling me? If it's very, very obvious, like here, close above the 50-day moving average, you're super bullish. If we close below the 20-day moving average, that's obviously a sell signal. If we close right in between, you're 50-50, you kind of need more data. So that's the first thing. You let your eyeballs be your greatest point of interaction, which where you believe the next possible move will come. Once your eyeballs have an opinion, you start looking at charts, right? Think about how many, Susan and everybody else, think of many things we've just talked about without actually looking at charts, right? If trading was just so as simple as buy and sell, well, there would be a lot more success. It's all the moving parts that you get up to the physical trade that is going to give you an edge. And we've been talking about charting and setting up to bias and setting up an opinion for the next trading day. We haven't even talked about charts yet. And that's where it comes into play. So the reason I use TC2000, I love this spacebar feature. And I use this after the close. I think it's a 15-minute delay, which doesn't matter. I start charting around 4.30, 5 o'clock anyway. But it lets me get a broader view of what's happening in every single index. Since we trade the cues primarily and we trade the components on in the Nasdaq 100, I usually go through the Nasdaq 100 first. So I'll go through the list, right? And I'll start looking at areas of interest. So what do we need for a stock to go higher? Right, guys? Think about it. What do we need? Right, guys? We need room. We need an area of the chart that's going to let you take advantage between supply and the next supply. So when you look at a stock like this on mRNA, even though it's strong today, if you're looking for a move into Monday, right? If you're looking for a move to Monday, you see how close it's getting to the next supply zone, right, Susan? You see how close it's getting to the next supply zone? So this wouldn't be a focus of mine, right? This would be zero focus of mine because it's moving up based on the headlines. Now, if the stock goes again on Monday, you're pretty confident to say it's probably gapping up again. So this is not an area of the market that I would focus on on Monday because, number one, technically, there's only a little bit of room left at the next supply zone. And if the market gaps it up again, well, the stock's going to be up 20, 30 points. Again, we're not guessing. We can't anticipate that happening. So something like that would be off my list, right? And you start going one by one, zoom, right? And you say to yourself, well, why is zoom up? And again, you don't have to technically break down every single symbol, but at least you have to have an idea of what's happening, right? You need to have an idea of what's happening in the stock. Why is the stock up? But why is this doorcraft stock after missing earnings, after missing estimates, all that stuff? Why is it going higher today? Again, there's no technical reason, right? There's no technical reason for the exception of possible lockdowns. So you look at a stock here. There's no room. There's no, it got rejected of supply. There's no edge. You keep on going. Peloton, same thing. NC, right? Gapped up, whatever the hell this NC is, got rejected supply. So you're starting to create an opinion, right? You're starting to create an opinion based on what you're seeing in today's charts. And you're saying to yourself, well, what's not clear? Susan, you see that? Guys, you see that? The first three, four symbols is saying to yourself, well, wait a minute. I'm not getting a clear view of the market, right? There's nothing that's coming out and screaming to me, which way the market's going to go. And that's the point, right? That is the point, the difference between creating a watch list or creating an imminent list that you know you can take advantage of the next day. And as you start going through symbol, right? Symbol, after symbol, after symbol, you see how unclear it is? Folks, everybody see that? You see how unclear it is, right? Like again, yeah, maybe Netflix is an entry above 679, but is this going to be on your quote unquote watch list for Monday? 15 points out of the money? Right, guys? Raise your hand if this is going to be on your imminent watch list for Monday. Probably not, okay? So this is basically confirming to you what the charts are confirming to you. The market right now is a little bit of mess. Nobody likes indecision. The market doesn't like uncertainty, okay? The market doesn't like anything that it can't control and obviously a new strain is one of them, so the market is nervous. And this is why you're seeing a lot of charts either got really beat up today or gapped up into supply based on the whole stay in the whole movement and they're getting rejected now. And you keep on going, right? You keep on going one after another, after another. Anybody see a clear chart? Anybody see a clear chart? Anybody see a clear chart? Right? Everybody see that? Susan, you see a clear chart? Does anybody see a clear chart? And that's my point, right? The market, when the market is clean, when the market is clear, the charts are going to jump out at you, right? They're really going to jump out at you. When you have a market like this, so we've seen not technical damage yet, but a hot mess off of a macro headline, you're not going to get a lot of opportunities. Everybody see that? Susan, you see that? And the first order of business, the first order of always of business, when you're making an actionable trading list for the next day, okay? You better make sure the charts are very, very clean. We've just gone through how many charts? Right? Almost all of them on the NASDAQ 100? Right? Like maybe Microsoft is maybe setting up to the short side, right? Maybe reflecting on the cues, and maybe something I'd watch in case the market implodes. But the point is, you're getting a real-time example that the market right now is cloudy, right? Until we either hold the 20-day moving average on the cues, okay, or close below the 20-day moving average on the cues, for right now, at 11.08 in the morning, okay, the day after Thanksgiving, right now going into Monday's session, we are in a very, very nice way of saying it, in a cluster, right? In a spin cycle. There's no longs, right? There's no longs. The short setups are iffy at best, because a lot of names are still way higher, because again, we're still in a massive, massive uptrend. So here's a point in your career you turn around, especially after the phenomenal action we've had in the last, you know, several months, here you turn around and say, well, wait a minute, here's maybe a scenario that not every single day is tradable, right? Guys, we talk about that all the time. Not every single day is tradable. And it's not because you're lazy, okay? It's not because you're lazy or you don't want to trade, and obviously that's your prerogative. But most days are not going to be tradable when most stocks are sitting either below, below or below supply or in the middle of their ranges. So the first thing to do when you are making an actionable list for the next day is kind of get a really good sense of reality. As you can see here by the charts going into Monday, that reality is not looking good for us, okay? It doesn't mean things won't change in a heartbeat, but this is kind of where we talk about, right? This is kind of where we talk about stopping and reflecting and analyzing and collecting data versus doing this, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click. And you're getting nothing accomplished because stocks are in the middle of their ranges and you have no advantage. So when I'm making an actionable trading list for the next day, I better make sure that my opinion is being correlated in the charts. And the one thing that I'm seeing right now going into Monday's session, and I think you guys have just saw that firsthand, we are in a pretty ugly scenario. When I say we, we mean market participants. The bulls, the bears. Can you get a pivot somewhere? Of course. Can you find the sneaky pivot somewhere? Of course. Can you get a little cashflow here? Of course. But again, something like this going into Monday's session, okay, because the market is so not here nor there right now. Okay. Number one, what does that tell you? You scale down your size aggressively. Okay. If you've been on a very, very good run, I know a lot of you guys have been on exceptional runs. You're not sitting there every single day clicking the mouse, giving back your gains. You're not. You're waiting, especially for all you option players. It's the same old song and dance, the same routine. You're turning around and you're saying, look, I'm an options trader. The market's in a cluster F, right? In a spin cycle. There's no advantage here. How can you as an options trader put your money on the line when you have absolutely no value of expansion both up or down, right? There's no value. So for all you guys who are option traders, exclusively option traders, it's more important than anybody to kind of sit there and wait for these channels to expand. If they don't expand, you don't trade. That's the adultness in you, right? That's the person that's going to make a career instead of make you trade. Again, always think long term. So when I'm doing one of these lists, right? My research in the morning, research the night before for the morning, I already know what kind of day we're in store for. I already know what kind of day we're in store for on Monday. And this is your first clue, right? For all you guys who are option traders, especially, this is your first clue going into Monday's session. Chill out. Calm down. Relax. Let's collect more data, right? Let's collect more data. Let all the market participants come back. Let's see what the true nature of the market is on Monday. Nobody could possibly turn around and say, this is the true nature of the market going into next week because 90% of all traders, we're the only idiots out there that are sitting there right now looking at the market. 90% of the traders, they're gone. Long weekend. So again, it's the old adage. If a tree falls in the forest and nobody's around to see it fall, does it make a noise? Well, this is the tree fall in the forest. Nobody's around. They're aware but nobody's around. So when you're making your actionable watch list, have an opinion, right? Have an opinion. Have a bias in that direction based on charts and then start going through indexes, right? Start going through indexes to make sure your opinion gets validated on the setups that you're seeing. If your opinion does not get validated on the scenario that you're seeing or the charts are not correlating to your opinion, that means there's something wrong and that means you don't trade. So I hope that was a little bit of a kind of a look of what I look for. The individual stocks are relevant. You'll always be able to find the trade, right, Susan? You'll always be able to find the trade but you can never put yourself in a situation that you need to do it now. The market runs in its own time. It doesn't run on our time. And that's very, very important to understand. It's very, very important to understand. So that's kind of how I approach making an actionable trading list, having an opinion, and let that opinion play out organically. So hopefully that helped you out a little bit as well.