Stock Trends - FAQ
FAQ
General:
Stock Trends Weekly Reporter:
WHAT IS STOCK TRENDS?
Stock Trends™ is a unique stock market analytical tool and methodology
– designed to simplify the otherwise complicated task of using technical
analysis methods to identify stock price trends. Originally developed by Skot
Kortje in 1993 for publication in the Financial Times of Canada, Stock Trends™
currently appears as a weekly feature every Saturday in the Report on Business
stock listings of the Globe & Mail newspaper, Canada’s national newspaper.
Through the use of a unique and simple set of graphical symbols, Stock Trends
is designed to communicate the results of proven technical analysis methods
to categorize the price movement of stocks, within a historical context of 40
weeks, into one of two Trend Categories (Bullish or Bearish), and one of six
Price Trend Indicator Symbols (Bullish Crossover  ,
Strong Bullish  ,
Weak Bullish  ,
Bearish Crossover  ,
Strong Bearish  ,
or Weak Bearish  ).
Using these simple graphical symbols, investors can easily filter through stock
listings and evaluate a stock’s current price and recent price movements
within a longer-term trend perspective.
The Stock Trends indicator symbols are supplemented by Trend Counters,
which provide the “age” of both the current Trend Symbol and the
Trend Category, further enhancing the trend analysis results communicated by
Stock Trends proprietary methodologies. Stock Trends also employs an analysis
of the Relative Strength of a stock compared to the overall market trend, as
well as an assessment of extraordinary trading volume conditions.
Using Stock Trends, investors can look for familiar patterns to determine
when to buy and sell individual stocks. The Stock
Trends Portfolio is a successful example of how the results of Stock Trends
analysis can be used in a trading strategy to generate significant above market
returns.
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WHAT IS TECHNICAL ANALYSIS?
Stock Trends approaches stock evaluation from the branch of investment research
known as technical analysis. Technical analysis is the science (some say art!)
of identifying patterns of demand and supply in financial markets. Originally
used in the futures market, the charting of price and volume patterns has increasingly
won favour in the stock market. With the advent of computers, the science of
the market technician has found a following among individual investors. Its
allure is the intuitive appeal of its basic tenets, which challenge traditional
ways of looking at securities. When analyzing stocks, technical analysts look
for familiar patterns and decide when to hop on and off a stock’s “bandwagon”.
HOW IS STOCK TRENDS DIFFERENT
FROM OTHER STOCK MARKET TRADING SYSTEMS?
Stock Trends is a proprietary methodology of analyzing and evaluating stocks.
It focuses on using the results of simple moving average trend analysis to develop
profitable trading strategies, and the trading results of the Stock
Trends Portfolio over the past nine years show clearly how successful these
trading strategies can be.
Unlike many other trading systems, Stock Trends publishes the historical results
of its trading strategies for all to see and assess. Of course, it’s easy
to be proud of such successful results, so we are always amused by the interesting
excuses given by other trading system publishers for not disclosing the details
of their historical trading results.
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DOES STOCK TRENDS APPLY TO MUTUAL
FUNDS?
Stock Trends does not apply to the analysis of mutual funds, as the nature
of trading in mutual fund units does not lend itself well to traditional technical
analysis methods. Stock Trends is designed to focus on the trends of individual
stocks and their relationship to other stocks and market indices.
DOES STOCK TRENDS PROVIDE ANY
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT STOCKS BESIDES THE STOCK TRENDS INDICATORS?
Stock Trends focuses on providing investors with information about the Stock
Trends methodologies, the results of applying those methodologies to stocks,
and successful trading strategies based on the Stock Trends analysis. There
is an abundance of resources on the Internet providing investors with a wide
variety of stock market information, and Stock Trends does not seek to duplicate
what is readily available from many other sources.
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HOW OFTEN
ARE THE STOCK TRENDS INDICATORS PUBLISHED?
Stock Trends indicators are published weekly every Thursday
night and distributed to subscribers of Stock Trends Weekly Reporter. They are
also published every Saturday in the Globe and Mail, Canada's national newspaper.
DO I HAVE TO PAY TO USE THIS
WEB SITE?
No – there is lots of information available on this site for free. We
do offer premium subscription services for a fee, including Stock Trends Weekly
Reporter™. To find out more about these subscription products, click here.
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CAN I TRADE STOCKS ONLINE
ON THIS WEB SITE?
Stock Trends does not provide online trading as a service. There are many online
brokerage services where you may establish a trading account. The Globe and
Mail's annual review of online brokerage firms is a good starting point for
choosing an online broker in Canada.
HOW CAN
MY WEBSITE OR PRINT PUBLICATION SYNDICATE THE STOCK TRENDS INDICATORS?
Stock Trends indicators and related products are available for syndication
to financial websites and print media publications worldwide. For more information,
click here.
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HOW CAN
I ADVERTISE ON THE STOCK TRENDS WEB SITE?
If you are interested in advertising on Stock Trends, please click here
for more details.
HOW DO
I CONTACT STOCK TRENDS TO SUBMIT A SUGGESTION, REPORT A PROBLEM, OR RECEIVE
FURTHER HELP?
We value your opinion and welcome your feedback. To submit a suggestion, report
a problem or send us your comments, please fill out our online feedback form.
To contact Stocktrends Publications by phone, fax or mail, see Contact Us.
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WHAT IS
STOCK TRENDS WEEKLY REPORTER ?
Stock Trends Weekly Reporter™ is our weekly publication
of trend filter reports and the Stock Trends Portfolio trading strategy, available
by subscription only. We offer two report packages, one for Canadian stocks
trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), and a (soon-to-be available) new
package for stocks trading on U.S. stock exchanges. Stock Trends Weekly Reporter
is published weekly on Thursday nights and sent as a PDF file attachment by
email to subscribers. As an alternative to email delivery, subscribers may choose
to download the weekly publication directly from our web site. To find out more
about Stock Trends Weekly Reporter, click here.
WHAT DOES
IT COST TO SUBSCRIBE TO STOCK TRENDS WEEKLY REPORTER?
Monthly subscriptions to Stock Trends Weekly Reporter
cost as little as $19.95 per month, payable by preauthorized credit card. Annual
subscriptions are also available, costing as little as $133.00 per year (based
on a three year subscription), payable by cheque, money order, or credit card.
To subscribe, click here.
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WHAT ARE
THE BENEFITS OF BECOMING A STOCK TRENDS WEEKLY REPORTER SUBSCRIBER?
Subscribers to Stock Trends Weekly Reporter receive our
weekly report package covering Canadian or US stocks, including the highly acclaimed
and successful Stock Trends Portfolio, Picks of the Week, Bullish & Bearish
Crossover Predictions, and many more feature-packed reports! Each week’s
report package also includes an Editorial article written by our Chief Stock
Trends Editor – Skot Kortje. To subscribe, click here.
I HAVE
A NEW EMAIL ADDRESS. HOW CAN I CHANGE MY EMAIL ADDRESS FOR DELIVERY OF STOCK
TRENDS WEEKLY REPORTER?
You can change your email address by updating your account
information once you have logged into your subscriber account on the Stock Trends
web site.
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HOW CAN
I ACCESS MY STOCK TRENDS WEEKLY REPORTER PDF FILE IF IT IS NOT DELIVERED TO
MY EMAIL INBOX?
You can download Stock Trends Weekly Reporter after logging
into the subscriber area of the Stock Trends web site. The weekly publication
will be available on the web site every Thursday night. Also available are archives
of previous publications.
WHY ARE
SOME PICKS OF THE WEEK INCLUDED IN THE STOCK TRENDS PORTFOLIO AND NOT OTHERS?
The Picks of the Week report is generated from a filter
on Weak Bearish, as well as Bullish Crossover stocks. The Stock Trends Portfolio
looks for specific price momentum and volume requirements among Bullish Crossover
stocks only.
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I WAS
STOPPED OUT OF A STOCK THAT THE STOCK TRENDS PORTFOLIO STILL HOLDS, EVEN THOUGH
THE STOCK PRICE DIPPED BELOW THE STOP LOSS DURING THE WEEK. WHAT HAPPENED?
The Stock Trends Portfolio exit strategy is based on Thursday closing prices,
not daily trading. A stock's price must close below the stop price on Thursday
in order for the position to be sold. As a consequence, followers of the Stock
Trends Portfolio should not place stop loss orders with their broker. Instead,
they should wait for the trigger to be hit and place the sell order after the
Thursday close.
WHAT
REPORTS SHOULD I FOCUS ON?
Stock Trends is based on the assumption that stocks 'trend' - i.e. that a stock
price moves along a directional price path (up, down, or flat) for sustained
periods. Generally, it is best to find stocks that have moved in a bearish trend
and are starting to exhibit a change in trend. Stock Trends makes it easy to
spot stocks that are potentially changing to a bullish trend - look for stocks
with a weak bearish indicator.
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I CANNOT
READ THE STOCK TRENDS SYMBOLS PROPERLY. THEY APPEAR AS CHARACTERS LIKE d,D,f,F,m
OR M. WHAT IS WRONG?
The Stock Trends indicators symbols are displayed by using special embedded
fonts within the Adobe Acrobat PDF document. The characters you are seeing should
be displayed as our Stock Trends indicator symbols when the special font is
applied to them. If they are not displaying properly, the problem may be that
the font is not properly embedded in the PDF file, or your computer is not able
to display the font. Try restarting your computer and relaunching Acrobat Reader.
If problem persists, please contact us at support@stocktrends.ca
WHY ARE
THE STOCK TRENDS INDICATORS BASED ON THURSDAY CLOSING DATA?
Thursday closings have been used since 1993 primarily because of production
requirements at The Globe and Mail. However, the use of Thursday closing
data eliminates the inherent "fuzziness" of Friday trading.
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THE STOCK
TRENDS PORTFOLIO OFTEN BUYS ODD LOT AMOUNTS. WHY?
The Stock Trends Portfolio has a defined constant investment in each position
of $10,000, and calculates the nearest number of shares to purchase which will
cost this amount, usually resulting in an odd lot number. The constant investment
amount for each stock purchased ensures that the performance record of the ST
Portfolio is not unfairly weighted to stocks with a larger investment cost.
In practice, investors will find that it is more practical to round up (or
down) their purchases to even board lots, which may result in some small deviation
from the results of the Stock Trends Portfolio.
DOES
THE TRADING PROGRAM FOLLOWED BY STOCK TRENDS WEEKLY REPORTER SUBSCRIBERS AFFECT
THE MARKET IN STOCKS BOUGHT AND SOLD BY THE STOCK TRENDS PORTFOLIO?
The markets for the majority of ST Portfolio holdings are not significantly
affected by the ST Portfolio trading program, however, illiquid stocks will
cause some problems for trading - both buying and selling - and requires sensible
application of limit orders.
In most situations it is good trading practice to enter a trade with limit
buy and sell orders. Setting defined trading parameters with limit orders protects
you from the vagaries of many markets.
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