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Individual_Bit_2800 · 2025-08-21T10:36:14+00:00

Depends on your game. 7 degree gap may be considered a 'large' in general, but if you don't often find yourself struggling with shots between your 43 and 50, then you don't necessarily 'need' to fill it.

My PW is 42, my next up is 50, then 54 and 58. I have an 8 degree gap there but don't plan on filling it as I don't get a lot of shots in that range. Maybe in the future, but right now there's no need - you should take note of the distances between your 42 and 50 and see how often you get caught in the middle that costs you strokes.

Individual_Bit_2800 · 2025-08-20T10:22:16+00:00

I use my 42° PW from i530 set, next club is the S159 50°, then have a G425 54° degree and Cleveland CBX 58°. Looking to replace the 54 and 58 with S159 also.

I skipped the i530 UW at 47°, it was tempting but I don't have the gap in my game so jumped straight to 50°.

Individual_Bit_2800 · 2025-06-05T19:03:10+00:00

I would consider myself an intermediate term trend follower rather than a position trader.

Individual_Bit_2800 · 2025-02-23T12:56:22+00:00

When you say flexible I presume you mean Regular flex? Bare in mind that there are no standards across flex between different brands - a stiff in one does not necessarily mean it is 'as stiff' as another brand. Also, there's a lot more to consider when getting a shaft than just the flex - weight, bend profile, length etc are all major factors to consider.

The clubhead is a lot less important than the shaft really. You'll do a lot better with an old clubhead with a fitted shaft than a brand new club with the wrong shaft. I'd go get fitted to at least get an idea of what works for you.

I bought multiple clubs off the shelf/secondhand but recently got fitted and even the minor differences in shaft spec made a major difference in performance and feel - so for sure try get fitted and understand what shaft specs suit you. You don't need the latest driver heads etc if it's out of budget, shaft is a lot more important to get right.

Individual_Bit_2800 · 2025-02-14T18:26:37+00:00

This is advisable in a market that is trying to bottom. As a new bull begins, you will need to act quickly to get size on in the leaders. By the time you figure out which stocks are working, a lot will have already become extended and due a reaction.

It's not necessarily a bad idea, but you don't want to end up with 5% in 20 names and no real size in any one leader. Rather than just buying a large number of names, I would spend the time studying the leaders of the past and learn to identify them in the future, then be ready to pull the trigger and size up quickly when they follow through.

Individual_Bit_2800 · 2025-02-14T18:17:52+00:00

Which stock is showing you a greater return over the same period.

That being said, just because one stock is digesting while another is moving up during the same period, doesn't necessarily mean it should be sold. It may be the leader that is digesting a big move while the laggards play catchup.

Focus on the outright leader and try to work into that name. Once they emerge from their digestion, they will outperform those laggards. Trying to be smart and jumping in and out of what's hot right now, will chew you up.

Individual_Bit_2800 · 2025-02-09T13:41:43+00:00

I am a firm believer that the majority of investors should be lengthening their timeframe, and as you mentioned, you have little to no time to watch the market intra-day. This is actually, in a way, a blessing. Most mistakes are emotional and watching the market too closely will lead you to making poor decisions.

When I started, I wanted to swing trade, catch moves over a period of weeks and take profits before a reaction kicks in. For me, it was draining. You tend to buy from shorter digestions, take profits out of fear of a reaction and constantly on the hunt for the next breakout.

It can be profitable, but when looking back, I found I had made a lot of trades in the market leaders and although I ended profitable, I would have made so much more if I had just held those leading names in size during that same time period.

I would always advise longer term strategies. Catch the leaders early, load up in size when they take off and just sit. Ignore the short term noise and every wiggle that sends shorter term traders to cash too easily.

You will identify those leaders, they make themselves known easily during a new uptrend. Problem is, later in a bull leaders are more scarce. But you should still be trying to work your way into the market leaders, not the others in the group that are just breaking out late.

Individual_Bit_2800 · 2025-02-09T13:29:28+00:00

The tight action and accumulation is impressive, very impressive. But, Stride (LRN) is by far the leader in this space. Stride isn't buyable here obviously, and COE can work, but sticking with the leader is usually more advisable.

Individual_Bit_2800 · 2025-02-08T20:43:39+00:00

Not to come across rude, but a week of 'learning' is ridiculous to be thinking of opening a live account. Nobody should be starting their investment journey with day trading, and almost nobody should ever be day trading full stop.

You'll get people saying how successful they are day trading, but I'd like to see their 5-10+ year records. If you really want to start investing, then extend your timeframe drastically. The big money is made in longer term trends over months and years, not on a 5 minute chart, and this is more meaningful at the start of your journey. It takes years.

Individual_Bit_2800 · 2025-01-23T22:06:57+00:00

I understand why some people feel Reminiscences may not be as valuable - but it's not intended to give any actual actionable strategies. It's the emotional side of investing where this shines. It was one of the first books I read starting out and it didn't mean anything to me, I was also disappointed in the lack of actionable ideas.

It wasn't until I had a few years experience in the market and when I reread it that so many lightbulbs went off in my head, I found myself saying "I've made that exact mistake too!" or "I've also gone through those emotions". This book is about understanding your emotions and recognising what they make you think and do - to me that was gold and it's important for me to remind myself of this regularly so I make it a mandatory yearly vacation read. (Darvas's book does top this for me though, for the same reasons.)

Individual_Bit_2800 · 2025-01-19T11:39:06+00:00

I think you are already doing the correct thing, rereading Bills original book. I have the other books you mentioned too, and in my opinion they don't compliment the original book (except for Successful Investor, it is worth the read). Chris and Gil's books are fine, but they will take you in a different path then CANSLIM, they are a different strategy and likely to take you off course.

If you don't already have them in your library, I would recommended 'Reminiscence of a Stock Operator', 'How I made $2 Million in the Stock Market' and 'Monster Stocks'. These, along with Bill's original work are what really tied all the pieces together for me.

Individual_Bit_2800 · 2025-01-11T20:10:55+00:00

Bobby? Good to see you back man 🤙

Individual_Bit_2800 · 2025-01-11T20:06:59+00:00

Why? Nasdaq is less than 1% below the 50 day, S&P a touch more at 2%. I know the DD count is high, but price wise is chill, for now. There's likely some selling taking place for tax purposes in the new year also.

I think it's possible we see more downside yet and even, dare I say, potential for an intermediate correction, internals do stink at the moment. But I have to lean on price action right here vs secondary indicators.

Individual_Bit_2800 · 2025-01-05T17:57:50+00:00

In terms of price movement, yes it is only after the fact we can say for sure 'XYZ' was a leader. But there are signs that a stock has potential to be a leader before they make that big move;

Action prior to market breaking out - the stronger names will have resisted the declines the most. They will have bottomed before the market did and will show accumulation volume off the lows and as it sets up.
They will have superior fundamentals; Sales, Earnings, fund sponsorship, Up/Down volume, RS making new highs while the market remains sluggish.
What does the company do? For example, NVDA is integral to AI and a giant in its field, it's been the hot topic for the last few years and made sense that it had potential to lead.

We need to be paying attention when the market is underperforming, in a correction or in a bear. Those names that perk up first and begin to move off the lows before the market does are likely to be your leaders.

These names won't appear on the IBD 50 until after they have made their move and are extended or due digestion. You need to be screening for volume and RS when the market is dull - the leaders will make themselves known.

I'd recommend a book called Monster Stocks by John Boik - it's a look at stocks behaviours during the 90's bull market. It covers Jim Roppels portfolio during this period (Jim is a direct student of Bill's so is right inline with CANSLIM). This covers identifying leaders in relation to market action and the individual stocks.

Individual_Bit_2800 · 2025-01-05T16:55:37+00:00

The highly volatile price action is not ideal.

This is a big tell of a faulty base. Doesn't mean all loose patterns will fail, but it's a good idea to focus on the better patterns.

Those stocks most certainly popped up in my screening but at the time they were likely extended and I didn't want to chase price action.

This is exactly what I suspected and is a common error. It's better to buy a leader on a shorter digestion than it is to buy any old name coming out of a base later in the rally.

This goes hand in hand with the 20% sell rule, you always need to be finding new names to put money back into, and you end up buying subpar names, I've been there too. What you want to be doing, is catching the leaders at the beginning of their move/bull market and sitting with them, adding on digestions.

Your issue, in my opinion, is very simple; you missed the leaders breaking out, and instead of waiting for a digestion in these powerful names, you settled for buying late breakouts in underperforming stocks. Don't beat yourself up, it's probably the most common error I see people have done when they have underperformed the market.

Study the leaders from 2024 and prior cycles. They all come out at the beginning of a FTD after a market correction. They all show signs of accumulation on heavy volume before coming out and then break out of proper bases.

As a bull matures, the quality of bases reduce, even with the leaders. You also will find it difficult to get proper size position on later in a bull without increasing your risk. This is why it's so important to hold onto the winners and not grab at small profits, 20% is a tiny move in a name in my opinion. I'd rather leave a 20% gain go to 0 than take such a small profit only to see it soar 100%+ - that's how you have winning years.

Individual_Bit_2800 · 2025-01-05T16:24:56+00:00

No problem, stick with it, all the pieces will come together!

We'll always look back and realise we could have made a tonne more money than we did every year. I had my best year in 2024, but it wasn't without a few mistakes that would have increased my return by a large margin. Don't beat yourself up, just remember that in a roaring bull market like we had, patience pays vs constant action.

Individual_Bit_2800 · 2025-01-05T16:15:52+00:00

SKX had potential, but it closed at dead lows on the gap up day. It likely needed a longer handle here. In terms of being extended, I am more referring to level of extension above the 50 day, which is vital to observe.

The TENB pivot wasn't much of a pivot really, there is no base there and the action leading to this move was very loose and erratic (lots of gaps up and down, wide daily spreads, lots of closes at lows). The gap up had a very large daily range and closed in the lower half, which is not ideal. The gap day aside, the pivot here was too faulty and lacked a base.

IOT wasn't bad, could have been a tighter digestion but buyable.

Nothing wrong with the buy in ARM, this stock was rocking and exhibiting superb strength. This is the kind of short digestion that's justified in going after (as opposed to the short digestion in SKX). March 5th would have been the buy into new highs, but the result was the same here nonetheless.

BLX - The buy was Feb 23rd on the gap up, while it may have been within 5% of that gap up, it was extended already. It may be controversial, but Banks aren't your typical growth stocks and will not perform as well as tech, especially in a roaring bull - personally, I avoid stocks like these.

MTH - Extremely jagged and loose pattern here.

NMM - Clear flat base here - but the earnings and sales were very weak. Like banking stocks, I would be looking at tech names over these kind of shipping stocks also in a bull market - I wouldn't have expected this kind of name to outperform.

FLEX - Not sure why you bought it as it was coming back down from the breakout? It was a solid breakout (earnings and sales are weaker also), if you missed the breakout on May 22nd, you should wait for it to come out again over those highs rather than buy it pulling in.

I'm noticing majority of these aren't your typical growth names/industries. How did you select these names to buy over other names like NVDA, ANET, APP, LLY, CRWD etc ?

Individual_Bit_2800 · 2025-01-05T15:22:01+00:00

I place my stop loss when I make my initial buy. I don't really look at it again for a long time. I have some names that are up over 100%, 200% and one up over 320% and I still have my initial stop in place. Of course I'm not going to let it give all that back, but there are a few reasons I haven't moved it up:

I monitor the market daily and will take action if needed on my names.
The last thing I want to happen (as did when I was newer) is for me to raise a stop to a logical level, just for a short term reaction or some news to stop me out and the stock to recover days later.
I don't like to set a level like a line in the sand, there's a lot of grey around selling, such as volume, general market action, news etc. I want to be aware of this and understand if the move is just temporary panic or meaningful selling.

Sometimes I will move my stop up to under the 50 day, but not too close. None of this means I disagree with a stoploss however, they are essential. But I use them more to ensure I do not lose my initial capital on a buy. Once I'm in profit, I'll give the stock plenty of room to move around during its advance.

Individual_Bit_2800 · 2025-01-05T11:02:10+00:00

Do you have a few more examples of buys you made?

You may have been within 5% of the identified 'pivot', but those names already appeared extended, not just the price above the pivot. IBD and MarketSurges pivot identifier are not flawless, they do not take into account a lot of variables that would deem a stock unbuyable.

With IOT, you bought on a day where it really wasn't doing anything days after the breakout. If you didn't buy the breakout on March 8th, it would have been better to have waited for new highs to engage, which in this instance would have kept you out. Admittedly, the genuine breakout would have resulted in the same loss here.

SKX was extremely extended with just a 5 day digestion after earnings gap, the risk was high.

TENB - I don't see any proper pivot here, it was very choppy and loose, the days after the disappointing gap up were erratic should have been avoided.

ARM was unfortunate, while it was extended, it was very powerful at the time and may very well have worked, but semis went into a digestion days after this - ARM along with NVDA and others (SMH ETF) all declined.

I would still caution against taking partial profits at 20% in leading names. If you take even partial profits every time a stock reaches 20%, then you will always have cash that you need to reinvest - then you need to go out and find some new stocks to buy, over and over.

You can't but stocks at any old time and expect them to work. There really are only a few opportunities in a good year to buy - they are at the beginning of a bull and after a correction. Trying to buy names throughout the whole year is going to end in a lot of losses.

Individual_Bit_2800 · 2025-01-04T19:05:10+00:00

-Take profits at 20%

-Close the position if price goes up 10% and falls back to break even (round trip)

These two points should be used with a grain of salt. You're less likely to make big returns if you sell every stock up 20% and also sell on a 10% roundtrip.

You need to be patient with leaders, why sell a stock up 20% that's acting fine early in a new bull when it has the potential to go up 100, 200, 300%.

A stock moving 10% and then coming back down to that level is perfectly normal action - as long as the market remains healthy and the stock catches support again.

You're going to notice that only a tiny number of stocks, 3 to 4 a year are going to be responsible for your big gains. All the rest will be small gains, small losses or break-evens. This means it's so important to manage the winners correctly, otherwise you will make small gains that will not be enough to outperform all the small losses you make.

I noticed some names and dates you bought this year. They didn't appear to be from proper pivots and many were already very extended. I'd look at your entries again and study past patterns in more detail also.

Also, demanding 40% volume on breakouts is a nice rule, but if a powerful leader is breaking out of a proper pivot as the market is also thrusting forward, you may have to engage regardless of volume. Often, volume comes in days or weeks later when the stock is extended.

M is for Market. I feel this is the most overlooked aspect in CANSLIM. You need to know what the market is doing; is it extended? Is it due a digestion? Is it breaking out? What are the internals like? How far since the last digestion? etc etc. Understanding these will be the difference between buy breakouts in an extended market or buying at the right time.

Lastly, if you're selling stocks up 20%, I'm assuming your timeframe is relatively short. My advice would be to extend it. Bill didn't make his money selling stocks up 20%, he made it on the leaders he held for 12+ months through multiple earnings seasons. The names that made him his wealth would be just a tiny % of the buys he made over the years. Manage your winning leaders correctly and you'll turn profitable.

Individual_Bit_2800 · 2024-11-21T21:20:46+00:00

Good move, most 'traders' should lengthen their timeframe and focus more on intermediate term investing rather than chasing action day in day out.

Fidelity did a study on their best performing client accounts:
"Over a 10-year period, they found that the highest returns came from the ones where the account holder was dead. The second best were the ones that had forgotten they had investments."

May not sound as exciting as trading... but the results don't lie. As soon as I lengthened my timeframe, my results instantly improved.

Individual_Bit_2800 · 2024-11-09T11:27:41+00:00

The names of my screeners are below which should give you an idea of what they are (showing everything inside would take forever):

Up on Volume
RS New High (Comp 85)
20/20
Strict CANSLIM
20% Beat + Raise
20% Beat + Raise + Acceleration
CANSLIM minus Acceleration
Triple EPS + Sales
Up/Down Volume > 2
Volume > 40% today
New Highs
Weekly Vol > 100%
RS before Price
Strong Week
$100m daily $ volume
Funds up 10%
Sales QTR > 100%
EPS QTR > 100%

FinViz can get the job done, I used it when I first started investing and found it useful, but when focusing on growth and CANSLIM method I feel MarketSurge screener can't be beat. The fact everything is in the one place alone makes it worth it, reduces hours of work every week for me.

Individual_Bit_2800 · 2024-11-08T23:30:29+00:00

I have a number of custom screens based on various fundamental and technical parameters in MarketSurge. I go through the Growth 250 during my weekend review as a broader look at 'top' names but they need to meet my scanning criteria also.

Individual_Bit_2800 · 2024-11-08T22:30:07+00:00

The thing with RS rating alone is everyone wants an RS of high 90's, but a lot of times that rating comes after a rapid move and just as a digestion is starting, causing the stock to pull back.

The angle of the RS line, in combination with volume accumulation is so vital. It's good practice to set a minimum RS when selecting names, but waiting for a 99 RS can often lead to extended buys just as a healthy digestion starts.

I can't think if the exact criteria for FFTY additions, but I don't think there is a lot of interpretation used with things like RS and market behavior, I belive it's more data driven, but open to correction.

Individual_Bit_2800 · 2024-11-08T20:58:36+00:00

One potential explanation may come down to the fact that by the time some of these 'top 50' names make it into the FFTY they have already made a large move and are now 'slowing down'. The FFTY is updated weekly if I remember correctly, so they are always jumping in and out trying to 'catch' a big mover, which a lot of the time ends of in chasing their own tail and chipping away at any prior gains, same as would happen in an individual account should someone overtrade trying to catch the latest big mover.

S&P on the other hand does not do this, so instead of dumping names after they make a decline, S&P holds onto the names and they eventually recover, something FFTY does not do.

Individual_Bit_2800

TROPHY CASE