FAQ
Which Stocks Should I Buy?
That's the multi-million dollar question.
Short answer: No one could answer that for you. But there are tools to point you in the right direction.
StockGains.io incorporates 15 years of stock market research and experience into a simple and easy to read lists.
Late February 2020, many stocks have dropped to bargain (unreasonable) prices. I immediately started selecting strong stocks with the highest upside potential. By late March, I was like a kid in a candy store. Some of these picks were an instant 50% gain within days. Humans (and robots) tend to overreact when there's fear. I tend to just buy more. :)
Strategically, as long as these companies don't go bankrupt, the probability of being positive in the long-term is high. The markets have always gone up 100% of the time. Since the beginning of time.
Due to the nature of COVID-19, it makes sense to treat this as a natural disaster. Statistically, pandemics ease out after 1-2 years. But the market tends to react faster than that. Historically, quick drops are also met with quick rises (V-shape). And since the fed just keeps printing more money...you get the point. Hopefully you now realize how powerful it is to know the difference between the current price and the price before the drop. Stuff happens fast. FOMO turns to rage.
Intelligent Stock Ideas
Now, I've paid for many stock subscription services. Some were over $300 a month! Although many had great information, it didn't help me with automation. Even then, they didn't seem to have all this information in a convenient place. I still had to spend hours combing through papers and pulling together relevant data.
So, after applying my research to custom filters, I started to realize how some of these guys were picking their stocks. And refined it.
StockGains is personal research tool I've built for my own trading. Thats it. It helps me pay the bills.
Now, if you've found StockGains useful...that's great! Just know coffee will help pay for server costs. And as long as I could do that, the site stays up. :). Just keepin' it real.
How to use StockGains.io
- "All" mode = God Mode. These are all non-ETF stocks greater than $1. No "protective layer" as with the "Filtered" mode. Most of these stocks with high gain potential are pretty damn risky unless you're thinking about maybe doing a quick trade. You're going to have to do your DD. Look at the charts!
- Health is determined by the Altman's Z-score. If you see "danger" or "caution" those companies might not survive a second COVID-19 wave/shutdown. The cash/debt and enterprise multiple (EV/EBITDA) is also indicative of that as well. Keep in mind many of these companies have fundamentally changed (airlines, cruises, etc), so it's going to be a slow game.
- The Pre-COVID-19 date is Feburary 14, 2020. Before it all went down.
- Data is updated once a day on weekdays. I may implement real-time data and after hours at a later time. This was built with the buy & hold trader in mind.
- Look for green. Whether you're a growth or value investor, seeing green in the listed columns is always a good thing. Pro Tip: If the day change % moves up a good amount and it's green and good across the board - there might be momentum with that stock.
- Different people will use StockGains differently. It really depends on what type of trader they are. The magic is in being able to search and sort the columns quickly. Then figure out how much risk you're willing to take.
- The day change % column is something I keep an eye on. If the stock got beaten down bad but is consistently rising, it might be a good time to jump in. Bad stocks will usually stay stagnant no matter what its price is.
- The search tool is powerful. It will reference all columns so you could go straight for certain sectors, specific stocks, etc. It's great when you just want to look up the stats of a stock quickly.
- Charts gives you a bird's eye view. It's still very important to look at the charts. You could do this by clicking the ticker symbol. But I've laid out the critical parameters and color coded them for easy picks. FWIW, I prefer to have my charts look like $AMZN.
- Many of these stocks won't recover to their pre-COVID prices. As mentioned, some of these companies have fundamentally changed and will never go back to their February prices.
- Potential % is just a guideline. If the stock did well pre-COVID, they should be fine post-COVID. Again, look at the charts and health. Obviously if the number of outstanding shares changes, etc. that would impact the maximum price as well.
- ETFs aren't filtered. I use this list to see what's moving on a day-to-day basis. Trading ETFs could be tricky, especially the leveraged ones. Keep in mind some have very fast decay. Don't trade them if you don't know what you're doing. You've been warned.
My Methodology
- At this point, I'm not brave enough to go for these "150%+ potential gain" stocks. I opt for the "safer" route. So, if I see green across the board and the chart looks good, I usually just buy at market or trail buy at 8%-12% depending on where the $SPY is at. I've gone for $500-$1,000 chunks and basically build my own index fund of stocks that might have at least 50% potential.
- Secondly, I usually sort columns (perhaps MCAP or day change %), look for good companies and good potential upside (35% or higher). If I could make 50% off $1,000 - I'll do it. Obviously, the higher the potential upside %, the higher the risk...generally. Also market caps under $200 million are usually more prone to bankruptcies - and we'll probably see more of them. So keep an eye out for this column.
- Also, with $0 commissions on most discount brokers, I'm using StockGains daily to essentially build my own index fund. This goes against a lot of long-term growth/value traders (such as Buffet)- but it seems to mitigate risk while providing gains during COVID.