Welcome to Stock InvestorWelcome to Stock Investor
Stock Investor
is a sophisticated trade analysis tool designed to introduce retail investors
to computer based trading.
Stock Investor follows a three step approach to trade identification, investigation/analysis and managing the trade, both at the point of purchase, as well as at the time of sale.
Two major schools of thought influence the approach and content of most investment analysis software.
Technical Analysis focuses on the price movements in the markets. Often associated with charting techniques, modern software allows complex mathematical projections to be made and plotted on the screen to indicate trends and patterns.
Fundamental Analysis looks to the underlying financial health of individual companies, or markets and other macroeconomic factors such as interest rates, exchange rates, commodities prices, etc. to give and indication of the underlying value of companies, as opposed to the price of their stock.
Stock Investor uses tools and techniques from both major schools and has included components from each in its software to facilitate the three step process to Trade the Stock Investor Way.
The Stock Investor Summary Page, see below, provides ready access to the components necessary to complete the following three steps to effective trading:
The first step is to identify potential trades.
Stock Investor delivers the results from a large number of standard market scans via its Precomputed scanning technology.
The complex scans are run on the Stock Investor server and the results are available to users for immediate download. Most of the scans employ Technical Analysis criteria and the scans extend across the entire market.
There are a number of different types of scan results and users will eventually decide that some produce results more compatible with their trading needs and approach than others.
Another area to search is the calendar that shows stocks that will soon split. This calendar is designed to take advantage of the well-known phenomena where the price of shares after a stock split often will not be changed to the same degree as the split itself, giving shareholders a few percentage points gain. For example, a stock selling at $50.00 that has a 2 for 1 stock split will often trade after the split in, say, the $27.00 to $29.00 range.
Once suitable investments have been identified, the underlying business or market that the company is engaged in can be scrutinized. This is largely a function of Fundamental Analysis and Stock Investor contains powerful tools to download and display a wide range of company information and business news.
Click the Fundamental command to open Stock Investor's Fundamental Analysis work page at the Company Profile tabbed page
Individual company analysis must also include a review of past and current price performance. This is normally accomplished with charts and various Technical Indicators that use the price data in complex calculations to analyze the price movements and trends.
Click the Technical command to open a Price Chart for the selected stock.
Stock Investor's comprehensive Portfolio function allows you to keep track of details of all your trades including entry price, date, brokerage, etc. and recalculate them at any time to ascertain your current position.
Using the Watch List quote pages, at a glance you can view a table of your current positions, or keep an eye on groups of companies you are interested in. The table contains links to a number of other functions, for example price charts.
Stock Investor contains a dedicated Paper Trade function where users can practise their trading and management techniques.
Stock Investor Summary PageBelow is the Stock Investor Summary Page.
The Stock Investor specific tool bar is displayed underneath the menu bar.
The Page Monitor is displayed on the right margin, and the Three Step Trading Links panel is displayed on the left.
The work area displays News Headlines, Financial Markets charts, Precomputed Scan Results and Recent Volume indicators:
Click on an area in the graphic above, to go to its explanation below.
The following paragraphs describe and explain the screen elements on the Summary Page that are shared with other screens in Stock Investor.
In the next section the Summary Page Screen Elements will be described.
The Menu Bar resembles a standard Windows® menu bar, but each drop-down menu contains Stock Investor commands.
A full description of the Menus and the commands contained in them are explained later in the Menu Bar section.
The Tool Bar commands contain the primary tools used in Stock Investor.
A full description of each tool’s drop-down menu and the commands contained in them are explained later in the Tool Bar section.
The Title Bar identifies the program as the Stock Investor and describes what work page is currently open in the work area.
The Page Monitor bar is displayed on the right margin of the work area, and shows all the work pages currently open in the work area.
Note that the current page is highlighted in blue, and that the icons to the left of the words indicate the type of page that is open.
In Stock Investor Quote Pages, Options Chains, Price Charts, Precomputed Scans, Portfolios and various Reports can be displayed.
Clicking on either the words or icon will open that page in the work area.
The standard window display buttons (Minimize, Maximize/Restore, Close) are in the extreme right hand corner of the active window.
Controls to Hide/Show the Navigation and Page Monitor Bars are nearby. The work area’s Close button is also located here.
For more information, go to the Window Display topic.
This multipurpose display area can display details of the data download in the Remote Action Panel (the default view), or use the drop down menu to select a list of all Quote Pages, or links to the Stock Investor three step trading pages.
When a price chart is currently open in the work page, the access panel also displays details of currently selected tools, such as Indicators, Hi-Lites and Drawing Tools and tools that are commonly used can be grouped into a Favorites panel (the default view) for more convenient retrieval and use.
For more information, see the Access Panel topic in the Shared Utilities section.
The Remote Action Monitor displays a graphic when Stock Investor downloads or updates its data.
More information is available from the Remote Action Panel display in the Access Panel. The most detailed information about the data retrieval process is available in the Remote Action Window. It can be detached from the Remote Action Panel.
For a more detailed description and explanation, see the Remote Action Monitor topic in the Shared Utilities section.
The status bar provides current information on the status of your data connection.
The following paragraphs describe and explain the Summary Page's tools and links.
Stock Investor's Summary Page is designed to firstly give users a quick overview of current market conditions and performance. Market Charts, News Headlines and Volume Leaders assist in this objective.
The list of precomputed scans contained in the Stock Screenings window also provides a quick market overview using scan results.
Its second role is to serve as a point of departure for the Three Step Trading processes and tools.
The Three Steps Trading Links panel contains links to the tools that are normally used, arranged in the order in which they would ordinarily be accessed.
The Stock Selector allows users to specify a particular stock upon which to perform the Step 2 Research functions (Fundamental or Technical) or to display the details of using either command in the drop-down menu:
To open Stock Investor's Fundamental analysis work page at
the Company Profile tabbed page, select
the first command and press the Go To
button.
To open a Price Chart
for the selected stock, click the Chart
command and press the Go To button.
Options Chains are tables that display all the Exchange Traded Options (ETOs) currently quoted for the selected symbol.
To open the Options
Chain for the selected stock, click the Options
Chain command and press the Go
To button.
Use the Refresh 
button to update all price data and news headlines displayed
in the Summary Page.
The links contained in the Three Step Trading panel take users to the tools required to perform each step.
The stock selected in the Stock Selector will also populate the two work pages linked to the Step 2 Research commands:
An easy way to search whole markets for trading opportunities is to review the results of various Pre-Built Searches, or pre-computed scans as they are also known.
Click the Pre-Built Searches command to open Stock Investor's Pre-computed Scans Page. The work page contains a list of pre-computed scan types divided into two groups: Trade Setups and Rankings
Click on any of the types to display the current day's scan results for that type of scan.
Results for previous market days can also be retrieved and displayed.
Stock splits can often offer trading opportunities.
Stock Investor's Splits Calendar provides an easy to read display of each market's Stock Splits, organized into monthly calendars, or, alternatively, view details of all past and currently announced splits for the currently selected stock.
Click the Splits Calendar command to open the Stock Splits Calendar, then select a month to view, or click View Selected Symbol.
The stock selected in the Stock Selector will also populate the two work pages linked to the Step 2 Research commands:
Click the Fundamental command to open Stock Investor's Fundamental analysis work page at the Stock Investor Fundamental Rank tabbed page.
The Stock Investor Fundamental Rank (SIFR) tabbed page offers a range of fundamental analysis tools and indicators.
The other two tabbed pages of the Fundamental analysis work page also reference the same symbol and provide additional fundamental and financial information regarding the selected stock and the market in general.
Click the Technical command to open a Price Chart for the selected stock.
Use the indicators included in the Stock Investor default template, or use the drawing tools, Hi-Lites and other indicators to analyse the price patterns and trends for trading opportunities.
The stock selected in the Stock Selector will also populate the two work pages linked to the Step 2 Research commands:
All trades and stock holdings can be readily tracked and valued using the portfolio function.
Click the Portfolio command to open Stock Investor's Portfolio Manager work page.
Use the Quote Pages function to maintain fully customizable Watch Lists for stocks and other securities that are either currently held, or currently being monitored.
Users can create groups and add or remove stocks and other securities, indexes, etc. to them. Custom views can be created using any number of different data fields, once created and populated the resulting table can be vertically sorted by clicking each columns heading.
Click on the Watch Lists command to open the Quote Page work page.
Paper Trading is an effective training exercise.
Click the Paper Trade command to open a special account in the Portfolio Manager in which paper trades can be recorded and automatically updated and re-calculated. This function allows paper trading exercises to be more realistic and effective.
Any search or research not complete without regard to current market conditions or political changes in the real world.
Ready access to News Headlines is available through the News list.
Simply click on a Headline to view the whole story in a pop-up viewer.
Press the Refresh button in the Stock Selector area
to download the latest news. The News Headlines are displayed in chronological
order, the most recent appearing at the top of the list.
As more news reports are added, use the scroll bar to move through the list.
For more information, go to the Stock Investor News Headlines help topic.
General market conditions can have an effect on the performance
of individual stocks. Before making a trading decision, it is often advisable
to monitor the overall market. Traditionally, indexes have been used for
this purpose.
Move the cursor over any of the three tabs to show a yearly chart for each of the three major US Market Indices:
Dow Jones Industrial Average (DOW)
NASDAQ-100 (NASD)
Standard and Poors 500 (S&P 500)
Statistics for each market appear below the chart including Todays Open, Last Trade and Today's Change.
Press the Refresh button
in the Stock Selector area to update these statistics with the latest
price data.
This list contains the results for the pre-computed scans
that use Stock Investor's red/green
arrow signals.
The Stock Screening table lists the results for each scan type by company size:
|
Company Size |
Capitalization |
|
Large (L) |
> $10 Billion |
|
Medium (M) |
$2 Billion - $10 Billion |
|
Small (S) |
$300 Million - $2 Billion |
|
Micro (M) |
< $300 Million |
Click on any scan's row to open a table displaying all its details in the Pre-computed Scans work page.
Pre-computed scans are calculated on the HUBB server using the Closing prices a the end of each trading session.
The View Volume Leaders window organizes the stocks with the leading volumes for the last trading session for both the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the NASDAQ:
The table also displays the LAST price as well as the actual (CHG) and percentage (% CHG) change in price from the previous trading session.
Only the top eight Volume Leaders are listed in descending order.
Click More... in the top right corner of the window to display the top 250 stocks in either market using the Volume Leaders scan results in the Pre-computed Scans work page.
V Go Back
Return to the Stock Investor Introduction page.
