About 2-years ago when I started this newsletter the target trade alert had a market cap of $100 million with a price between $.01 – $5… and $5 – $7 trade alerts were the exception. The Q1 client satisfaction survey showed 90.7% of clients desired trades under $7.
The survey also illustrated my clients can be broken into 3 distinct groups.
1. Active day and swing traders = in chat to day trade and any swing trade alert works
2. Inactive swing traders = not in chat to day trade and fast moving swing trades don’t work, prefers swing trades like the 17% 10-day MM swing
3. Account builders = client can’t day trade because account is below $25,000 and is looking for more ideas between $.01 – $3
After the survey I realized I didn’t need to change much with my service to meet the needs of all 3 groups. All I needed to do was communicate better. The way I see it group 1 is taken care of with the way the service is currently run. It’s group 2 and 3 that I need to communicate better with.
So I created this alert cheat sheet and new master watch lists nano – micro cap and small – mid cap. Here’s how it’s going to work.
Regardless of what swing trade I take it all starts with 3 distinct chart patterns: oversold, continuation and breakout. The alert cheat sheet should clearly communicate how I expect the trade to develop from the moment I get in. This is designed so you can mirror more effectively based on your schedule and where you are in the world. Remember, the goal is to make this service work for busy professionals, that’s how it all started when I left public schools about 2-years ago.
To make the communication even better, the nano – micro cap and small – mid cap master watch lists should be the cheery on top. Here’s how I intend to use those lists.
Each night or morning I’ll build 2 watch lists.
The first will be titled with the date as always and come from the small – mid cap master watch list.
The second second will be titled ‘Account Builders’ followed by the date and come from the nano – micro cap master watch list.
I will send alerts from both lists… trading as I am now, going after any swing trade I see that can make money. So why the 2 lists you’re wondering? Again, to improve communication. If I take a trade from the nano – micro list it could be much more explosive and payday could come sooner. If I take a trade from the small – mid watch list it’s probably going to be a longer swing like MM.
Group 1 continues to mirror all trade alerts, basically nothing changes but group 2 can now focus on the trades I think might play out like MM did. Finally, group 3 can focus on the ‘Account Builders’ watch list which will consist of smaller market caps and thus lower priced trades which can deliver higher percentage returns.
Of course any stock from either watch list can be held long but remember, all this is taking into consideration how it trades AFTER my alert, I hope that part makes sense.
For me there’s very little extra work here now that I’ve set all this up. I’ll just keep doing watch lists at night or in the morning and swing trading from those watch lists during the day, sending you the alerts as I go. As the client on the other end, the communication of how I expect a trade to develop should be much better. Of course what I expect and what happens is almost always going to vary trade to trade but the bottom line is, going in this gives you more information to determine if the JRCC breakout is for you or the long term MM swing.
This will start tonight with 2 watch lists and I’ll collect client feedback on it at the end of Q3. Again, nothing has changed with how I trade, the big change here is how I communicate each trade I take. See I don’t want group 2 ‘inactive swing traders’ chasing the JRCC breakout from work and getting stuck and frustrated when they could just wait for the next MM 17% 10-day swing. This new communication tool I’ve put in place should enable effective alert communication moving forward.
Here’s the alert cheat sheet and new master watch lists nano – micro cap and small – mid cap. I told you I collect client feedback for a reason and I’m extremely serious about making my newsletter #1 for busy professionals. Thank you for putting your trust in me and I hope you like this change to service.
Hi JB,
I am a former client. I believe I fit into both group 2 and 3. Full disclosure: I stopped using the service due to the fact that I was solely reliant upon SMS alerts and, by the time I was able to get a break from teaching, it always seemed like the train had left in terms of the price action that could be benefitted from.
Does this service change address this? How?
Hi Scott. Yes, the majority of my clients are in group 2 and 3. Breakouts will still happen, I can’t control that and in fact it’s a good problem to have, we want the price to go up after an alert and the sooner the better. But for busy professionals, the bottom line is breakouts don’t work for the reason you mentioned. So you’d be looking for longer term swings like the MM trade http://www.jasonbondpicks.com/blog-posts/how-to-make-10000-in-10-days right? So now when I send an alert you can make sense of what I expect from it. For example, I’m about to start accumulating ZNGA above the 20 Moving Average per this morning’s watch list, this is not a trade I expect to breakout, it’s also a mid cap so it’ll move slower i.e. the larger the cap the slower the move. MM took 10-days to run 17% for us and it went down before it went up. ROYL on the other hand is pending news before the 30th and I expect that could breakout and run hard. You’ll hardly ever seen a mid cap run 20% in day but nano caps and micro caps do that all the time. So bottom line, I’ve provided as much education to clients about how and why certain stocks move the way they do so you the client can determine if the breakouts are for you or the slow, steady swings.
Hi Jason, I have full time job from 10-5. What works for me is EOD trading i.e. I get an alert from you at the EOD or start of day for few buy suggestions and I am able to buy in the morning and sell off once it moves. Will Group 2 or Group 3 work for me? Thanks.
Jason, awaiting your reply but looks like you ignored it.
Hi, I put out a watch list at night or in the morning. Then when the market opens I make trades and alert those trades. You could either make your own trades off the watch list by learning the strategy and applying it or you could mirror my trades. To do the later you need to have computer access to trade during the market hours. Hope that answers your question.
Hello Jason, I’m really considering joining your community and your service.
I would do so with a really small account, something like $2000-$3000.
I was wondering, what would be the main difference between group 2 and 3.
Wouldn’t the third group carry a greater risk?
Hi and thanks for considering my service. Today’s account builders watch list put out to clients last night was GV 22%, OCZ 10% (which i bought), ZIXI 7%, GLUU 4% and LEDS 5%. Not sure what you mean by the account builders group 3 carry the risk? The only difference between what I do and an account builder is the market cap i.e. account builders are nano – micro caps while my normal swings are small – mid caps. Does that clarify it at all?
Well I have the impression that smaller caps usually have more volatility then greater risk. Well anyway, your service seems great. I would really like to learn to swing trade, so I’ll be joining your service for sure soon.
P.S.: Do you have any low comission broker for non-resident US Aliens, that you recommend?
Thanks. I use E*TRADE but some of the guys / gals in chat talk about SureTrader as being cheaper.
JB, Suretrader is not cheaper, at least as far as transferring money in and out. I use Suretrader because I don’t have a $25000 account yet, and I like to be free to trade more than the US security exchange rules allow for small accounts.
I use Etrade Pro for my charting, scanning, and level II, and just do my trading through Suretrader. I also have a trading account with Td Ameritrade, and use their ThinkorSwim platform with paper money (fake money) to practice day trading with. All of that works best for my current situation. I have been a member of JBP for about 4 months now, and have learned more than my previous 10 years of trading. I look at stocks, and charts in a totally different way now. A much more informed way.
BTW JB, I love the Dr Evil reference in the pic above! ha! See you in the chat room!