Quote from Accountant_23:
Here is my first mistake - small but nonetheless. A bunch of guys at the office use Scottrade and said nothing but nice things about it as a trading platform and broker. I thought my choices were scottrade, ameritrade, e*trade, shwabb, or TD waterhouse. I had no idea there were other non commercialized brokerages out there. So among those 5, commissionswise my best choice was scottrade, not to mention the great referals from the people I work with. I think long run (when I start trading more weight), my choice is still good as I do love scottrade. For now though, I would have been better off with Interactive Brokers because their $.01/share commissions would put me at a $2 roundtrip as opposed to the $14 I spend with Scottrade. Once I start trading 1000+ shares that's when It will pay off by still paying a fixed $7/trade. But yes, only trading 100 shares with a $14 commission means I need the stock to move at least 14 cents to break even.
Today's picks are narrowed down to 3:
1.) MCD: Prior Close (PC): 31.32
Pivot Point (PP): 31.22
Why: I am taking the large ($.10) pivot/close spread because MCD is trading at a much lower P/E than WEN and in the past 3-4 weeks it has slowly (thats good) been catching up (investors are realizing it should be on par or better than WEN). I liked MCD before it was $30, but I still like it at 31.32, it's still cheap.
2.) HON: PC: 37.26
PP: 37.21
Why: Low ($.05) pivot/close spread and a good high/low range yesterday (not too big of a swing (3%+) and not too little (<1.2%). Generally, a stock with a big prior day swing won't have the momentum to keep it up and will have a pullback, and stocks that have no momentum are too risky to bet that they will the next day.
3.) GE: PC: 37.18
PP: 37.12
Why: Same reasons as honeywell. Plus GE has been trading up for the past couple weeks and looking good to investors.
I'll let you know what I actually picked at noon/lunch time. For now, back to work.
Good Luck today!
