The Market Toolbox Blog

Jan

Market Toolbox Blog – A Look at 2012 YTD Performance in the Research Lab

It’s been a while since I put a post up here. I wanted to take a quick look at how we are doing so far in the Investing Systems Research Lab members area.

But first, let’s take a look at the final return for 2011. (click to enlarge)

57 of our Trade Plans (swing trades) got filled. 80% hit Target 1, 65% hit Target 2 and 53% hit Target 3.

Based on a $30k starting account, trading 10k on each of the trades, our final return for 2011 was 40.27%. That was on top of a 29% return in 2010.

Not bad considering the overall market had a ZERO percent return. Based on what I have seen, I think we outperformed a lot of professionals and hedge funds.

The great thing about the Trade Plans in the Research Lab is that they are “planned in advance”, just as you would suspect.

Every morning, 30 minutes before the market opens, Research Lab members simply log in and hit the “Waiting Trade Plans” page to see if there are any new trades “on deck”.

We show the exact Entry, Stop-loss and Target Exit prices, presented on a live chart that’s updated in real-time.

Here’s an example of what a Trade Plan looks like on the inside… (click to enlarge)

As the trade plays out, the “system” takes over and managed the trade until it is moved to the Closed Trades page.

Research Lab members can simply program the order in at their broker, sit back, and let the trade work.

No need to sit in front of the computer all day to take the trade plans…

We have other tools for members that are trading during the day.

OK, so let’s see where we are here at the end of January, year to date/month to date. (click to enlarge)

We have 6 Closed Trade Plans. 4 winners, 2 stop-outs. As you can see, our winners are bigger than our losers and our winning percent is much higher than our losing percent.

If you are interested in the details of the target settings, stops etc, just shoot me an email: info at investingsystems.com with any questions.

Another great feature in the Research Lab is the weekly blog.

Last week I posted an analysis on AG and included this “chart to watch”.

Here’s what AG looks like at the close today, zoomed in on our trade.

The Blog post in the Research Lab was the precursor to an actual Trade Plan that worked out well. As you can see on the chart above, it actually worked out better than planned. This is because on Wednesday, it came within 1 penny of hitting Target 3, so we held it overnight. The next morning it gave us the opportunity to sell well over the targets. The stock actually followed through as you can see and part of the “analysis” I presented discussed other possible ways to play this stock going forward. It’s off to a good start…

Here’s how it looked in the Trade Plans. Note that once it hit T 3, the “system” moved it to the Closed Trades page, and stopped updating the price data..

Actually, while AG was a great trade, PLCM was even more extraordinary for those members that “had the nerve” to hold through earnings. (see the Trade plan chart at the top of this post)

Our Trade Plan in PLCM hit Target 3 this past Monday during market hours, but was releasing earnings after the close that day. We had some discussions in the Live Broadcast in the Research Lab about the pros and cons of holding some of the position into earnings. As it turns out, PLCM crushed earnings and gapped up significantly the next day.

Our entry on PLCM was 17.45 and Target 3 was 18.67. It opened at 21.13 Tuesday.

I should mention that the Trade Plans are swing trades and are designed to be completely “actionable” by our members.

That is why we typically average 6-8 trades a month. That’s not including the Trade Plans that are “staged”, but never trade at the EXACT Entry price. We have had more than a few get away from us, because they gapped over the entry and moved higher.

I won’t go into all the specifics of how the Trade Plans module in the Research Lab works here, but I will say this.

We stand behind our Trade Plans 100% and have the track record to prove it. It’s perfect for semi-active traders looking for good setups, planned in advance.

Easy to execute and profitable…

For more active traders, those of you that sit in front of the screens and trade all day, the newest feature in the Research Lab is the perfect tool.

The Live Grid picks stocks every day from the open and puts winning stocks in front of us everyday in real-time.

Here’s a screenshot of the Grid today at the close. (click to enlarge)

The Grid runs 5 intra-day scans and updates automatically every 2 minutes with real-time quotes.

The indicators help us evaluate the stocks easily and give us a great focus list each day.

Stocks come and go from the Grid all day and the best ones rise to the top.

We use the charts to show us which ones to trade and when to buy and sell.

We have video tutorials with some of the techniques we use in the Strategy Room videos section of the Research Lab.

In addition to that over 18 hours of “technical analysis and trading” training videos, you can watch at your convenience.

Finally, the best part of the Research Lab is the Live Shows we do every M-W-F at the market open.

We mark up charts for entries and exits, demonstrate our trading strategies and discuss the market.

The Trading Room broadcasts we do are “all charts, all the time”.

We frequently find great picks from the Grid, isolate perfect entries and discuss trades, marking up everything on real-time charts.

If you are not a member of the Research Lab you should be.

Many of our members have already recouped their entire annual membership so far this January.

I hope you will take it for a test-drive so you can see what’s inside and I personally guarantee you will like what you see.

If you are semi-active, moderately-active, or very-active stock trader, I’m confident you will find the Research Lab to be an extraordinary toolset.

After all, I trade my own real money on these stocks and built these tools to help me make money trading stocks.

That’s what it’s all about right?

Join the Research Lab

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