Chart Your Way to Profits: The Online Trader's Guide to Technical Analysis with ProphetCharts, Second Edition

Chapter 4. Watch Lists and Chart Styles

Watch lists are a way of keeping your trading world organized. As you become a more experienced trader, you will have a variety of ideas about what to trade. Sometimes you will come across a stock you are thinking about buying. Other times you will see stocks you might want to short. Or you might want to start a list of companies whose products you like, and another list of companies whose stock you already own.

No matter how you want to organize your trading ideas, the effective use of watch lists is the best way to handle the goal in ProphetCharts. And this certainly doesn't mean putting all the stocks into a single group called "My Watch List." This chapter will show you the mechanics of managing watch lists (as well as chart styles) and how to use them effectively.

WATCH LIST BASICS

At the top of ProphetCharts are the various menus, one of which is named Watch Lists. Within it are all the controls you need to manage your watch lists. A watch list is a compilation of financial instruments that you collectively name and manage. You control what is inside the list, and you can move things to and from various lists to keep them well organized.

You might not necessarily own the stocks in your watch lists. Some watch lists you create might be along the following lines:

• Candidates Long—Stocks you are considering buying. Candidates Short—Stocks you are considering selling short.

  Figure 4.1. The Watch Lists menu provides all the basic controls needed ...