{"id":495,"date":"2005-05-26T04:00:34","date_gmt":"2005-05-26T09:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/selfinvestors.com\/tradingstocks\/mail-bag\/position-sizing-finding-buy-candidates-in-strong-industries\/"},"modified":"2005-05-26T04:00:34","modified_gmt":"2005-05-26T09:00:34","slug":"position-sizing-finding-buy-candidates-in-strong-industries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/selfinvestors.com\/tradingstocks\/mail-bag\/position-sizing-finding-buy-candidates-in-strong-industries\/","title":{"rendered":"Position Sizing & Finding Buy Candidates In Strong Industries"},"content":{"rendered":"

Question<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

How do you determine your position size and where do you set you
\ninitial stop?  Do you enter the entire position at once or look to scale in?
\nHow do you choose among the potential candidates for purchase and maintain a
\nbalance across strong sectors?<\/p>\n

My Response<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Good questions.  When I’m maintaining a portfolio I typically like to hold
\nno more than 6 or 7 positions (for a smaller portfolio this may be less, a
\nlarger maybe a bit more).  With this in mind, most positions for this
\nportfolio will be in the 10K to 20K range.<\/p>\n

As far as how big a position I take in a stock really depends on the stock
\nand the action of the market.  If the market is uncertain, I’ll initiate
\nsmaller positions to start and add to that position if it continues to act
\nwell and\/or market conditions improve.<\/p>\n

For stocks that I would consider to be "core" holdings I’ll initiate larger
\npostions.  These are stocks with a longer history of solid results with good
\nsupport from institutions.  I would consider FFIV such a holding.  Other
\nexamples of these kind of companies might include a YHOO, SBUX, EBAY,AAPL,
\netc.<\/p>\n

As far as setting stops I don’t set stops because I’m able to watch the
\nmarket during the day.  Stops should generally be set a couple percentage
\npoints below the nearest support level (that could be a moving average OR a
\nwhole number).  For example, in the case of ECIL my sell trigger would be a
\ndrop below 8 since this was an area of resistance in the past and appears to
\nbe serving as an area of support right now.  Whole, significant numbers
\noften serve as areas of support\/resistance.  If the stock price is below 10,
\nany whole number can be support resistance.  As you get to higher priced
\nstocks, that tends to move to multiples of 5.  <\/p>\n

As far as choosing candidates, I use the Breakout Tracker just as my members
\ndo.  It’s really a system I built for myself because I wasn’t happy with
\nwhat’s available.  I’m just sharing it : ).  Look at the Top Industries tab
\nand look for common themes among 10, 20 and 30 day performance.  If you
\ntake a look right  now you’ll notice strength in anything internet related, semis, home
\nfurnishings\/appliances.  Basically, tech is where the money is moving.  You
\ncan see top stocks from top industries by clicking the link "show stocks of
\ntop industries".  The default sort is by Total Rank.  This instantly gives a
\nlist of the highest rated stocks in the industries that are really moving.
\nYou’ll notice 2 right at the top that were featured in the latest stock
\nwatch report: FFIV and VDSI.<\/p>\n

You can also find these top candidates in the Breakout Watch screen (which, by the
\nway can be filtered to show only those stocks from the Top Industries) in
\norder to find buy candidates quickly.  I use this screen to come up with a
\ngreat list of candidates very quickly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Question: How do you determine your position size and where do you set you initial stop?  Do you enter the entire position at once or look to scale in? How do you choose among the potential candidates for purchase and maintain a balance across strong sectors? My Response: Good questions.  When I’m maintaining a portfolio … Continue reading Position Sizing & Finding Buy Candidates In Strong Industries<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mail-bag"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/selfinvestors.com\/tradingstocks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/selfinvestors.com\/tradingstocks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/selfinvestors.com\/tradingstocks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/selfinvestors.com\/tradingstocks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/selfinvestors.com\/tradingstocks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/selfinvestors.com\/tradingstocks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/selfinvestors.com\/tradingstocks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/selfinvestors.com\/tradingstocks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/selfinvestors.com\/tradingstocks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}