Top Trade Alerts lists the last 10 Top Picks found by Barchart's trading strategies. Available only with a Premier Membership, a symbol's top trade alerts are used to find hypothetical trades that generated a new buy or sell trading signal at the end-of-day which represented the best opportunity for entering a trade for that date, based on the 5-Year performance of the trading signal.
Top Trade Alerts are presented as trading ideas for a stock, where it entered a new position.
When you select a Trade Alert from the top of the page, you will see details of the trade: how many historical trades have been generated by the signal, and how long each trade lasted on average. A chart is shown with the signal, along with the stock's Fundamentals and Profile information. Having this data at hand can be helpful in determining if this Top Pick is something that you may want to follow.
5-Year Signal Gain
The 5-Year Signal Gain shown on the Top Stock Pick page is specific to that symbol, to the signal (like a 100-Day Moving Average) and to the action ("Buy" or "Sell"). This represents the 5-year historical percent gain for hypothetical trades made by the signal/action, as tracked on the symbol's Trading Strategies page.
Follow This New Trade Signal
The Top Stock Pick is a daily trading idea that is a starting point for further analysis of the market. One of the 13 popular trading strategies has issued a new Buy or Sell signal for the stock, indicating a potential change in price trend. You might consider following this stock using one or more of the tools available to Barchart Members:
- Add the symbol to your Watchlist or Portfolio and monitor for other developments.
- Set an alert for the symbol that tells you when the signal reverses (when the Opinion Indicator "Makes a New" Buy or Sell).
What's Included
Each night after market close, the Top Stock Picks are generated based on stocks that have one of the thirteen technical indicators entering a new trading signal, based on the end-of-day closing price. The Top Stock Pick must meet the following requirements:
- The Top Pick is the symbol from the "All Top Stock Picks" page with the greatest 5-Year Signal Gain. In addition, the 5-Year Signal Gain "beats" the 5-Year Market Gain of the stock (the Percent Change for the symbol over the last 5-years).
- The 20-Day Historical Volatility for the symbol must be between 10% and 100%. This filter is applied to eliminate stocks that have short-term price spikes.
- The Win% for the specific trading strategy/signal must be greater than 30%. Win% is defined as the historical percentage of closed winning trades for the Signal Name / Action and is used to highlight a trade that historically has had a greater chance of a profitable signal exit.
- The symbol's last price must be greater than $2.00.
- The symbol must have traded for at least 201 days. This filter is required in order to generate the Barchart Opinions.
- The Win% for the specific trading strategy/signal is not 700% greater than the overall market gain over the same period. This excludes extreme events unlikely to be repeated.
- The trading strategy/signal must historically have been profitable.
Note: Signals can be featured on the charts with a "B" or "S" notification, but not presented as a featured date within the Trade Alerts pull-down at the top of the page. In this case it is typically because one of the above criteria have not been met, or were no longer valid at the time of the trade entry date. An example would be if the win percentage was above 30% but has since dropped; until it goes back above, subsequent dates would not be included. For more information please review the Trade History page.
Understanding The Top Stock Picks
To understand the Top Stock Pick selection, you must first understand the concept behind the Barchart Opinion and the Trading Strategies. Barchart Opinions show traders what a variety of popular trading strategies are suggesting in terms of going long or short the market. The Opinions takes up to 5 years' worth of historical data and runs these prices through thirteen different technical indicators. After each calculation, the program assigns a buy, sell or hold value for each study, depending on where the price lies in reference to the common interpretation of the study.
For example, if the end-of-day price for a stock is above the 50-Day Moving Average, the general interpretation of this strategy is that the stock in in an upward trend or a "buy". The stock's 50-Day Moving Average Opinion, then, will generate a "Buy" signal. All Opinions for a symbol can be found on the Barchart Opinion page.
Click here for more information on Barchart Opinion and Trading Signals.
The thirteen technical indicators include short, medium, and long-term strategies:
- Short Term: 20-Day Moving Average, 20-50 Day MACD, 20-100 Day MACD, 20-200 Day MACD
- Medium Term: 50-Day Moving Average, 50-100 Day MACD, 50-150 Day MACD, 50-200 Day MACD
- Long Term: 100-Day Moving Average, 150 Day Moving Average, 200-Day Moving Average, 100-200 Day MACD
Barchart's Top Picks and Trading Strategies takes this concept one step further. Hypothetically, if a stock's 50-Day Moving Average moves to a New Buy signal, it's price would continue to rise until the signal changes to a New Sell. Our Trading Strategies are designed to calculate hypothetical trading results from each of the 13 different technical indicators. If a new trade were executed when the indicator started a new Buy, and a closing trade was made it reached a new Sell, a profit might be made. Trading Strategies also can be profitable when you open a trade based on a new Sell signal, then close the trade when the signal reaches a new Buy. All Trading Strategies for a symbol can be found on the symbol's Trading Strategies page.
Barchart's Top Trade Alerts
Each night after market close, the Top Stock Picks are generated based on stocks that have one of the thirteen technical indicators entering a new trading signal. Top Stock Picks must meet the following requirements:
- The 5-Year Signal Gain "beats" the 5-Year Market Gain of the stock (the Percent Change for the symbol over the last 5-years)
- The 20-Day Historical Volatility for the symbol must be between 10% and 100%. This filter is applied to eliminate stocks that have short-term price spikes.
- The Win% for the specific trading strategy/signal must be greater than 30%. This highlights only the trades that historically have had a greater chance of a profitable signal exit.
- The symbol's last price must be greater than $2.00.
- The symbol must have traded for at least 201 days. This filter is required in order to generate the Barchart Opinions.
The Top Stock Picks are not a recommendation to buy or sell a security. Your decision whether or not to make a purchase should be based on your own due diligence and not on any representation we make to you.
THESE RESULTS ARE BASED ON SIMULATED OR HYPOTHETICAL PERFORMANCE RESULTS THAT HAVE CERTAIN INHERENT LIMITATIONS. UNLIKE THE RESULTS SHOWN IN AN ACTUAL PERFORMANCE RECORD, THESE RESULTS DO NOT REPRESENT ACTUAL TRADING. ALSO, BECAUSE THESE TRADES HAVE NOT ACTUALLY BEEN EXECUTED, THESE RESULTS MAY HAVE UNDER-OR OVER-COMPENSATED FOR THE IMPACT, IF ANY, OF CERTAIN MARKET FACTORS, SUCH AS LACK OF LIQUIDITY. SIMULATED OR HYPOTHETICAL TRADING PROGRAMS IN GENERAL ARE ALSO SUBJECT TO THE FACT THAT THEY ARE DESIGNED WITH THE BENEFIT OF HINDSIGHT. NO REPRESENTATION IS BEING MADE THAT ANY ACCOUNT WILL OR IS LIKELY TO ACHIEVE PROFITS OR LOSSES SIMILAR TO THESE BEING SHOWN.
