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Intelligenceinvestor

VISUAL INVESTOR: An Investing Tutorial for EveryoneToday is a wonderful day! I am overwhelmed with positive emotions, like a racer who has crossed the finish line. My first book, The Visual Investor, is out on TradingView. It's written for everyone, from those just starting out in the stock market to experienced investors. You could say you're holding it in your hands now. The idea for this book came to me a long time ago, thanks to the influence of one person, as well as my invisible teachers: Benjamin Graham, Warren Buffett, Charles Munger, Peter Lynch and Mohnish Pabrai. Day after day, I worked on the content of chapters, charts, tables, and drawings to take you from theoretical foundations to applied knowledge that allows you to answer the key questions of any investor: What? When? And how much? My motivators, namely you, dear subscribers and the TradingView editorial team, also made an invaluable contribution to the creation of this book. Every kind word, constructive criticism and award in the form of “Editors’ Picks” made me happier and helped me to create further. Why “Visual Investor”? This is my reverence for the technologies we have come to now. The modern investor has incredible opportunities compared to our colleagues, even from the beginning of the 21st century. Access to companies' financial data has become an order of magnitude easier, and their visualization allows for fundamental analysis to be done much faster than before. Global financial centers are now much closer to investors from different countries, thanks to the development of local regulation, active work of financial institutions and services. All this has expanded the range of investment instruments and formed a new way of life for our savings. A modern person may not be a passive observer of fluctuations in the purchasing power of his own capital. On the contrary, he can independently make decisions to increase this capacity, using technology and a systematic approach. Unfortunately, unmanaged savings will suffer the unenviable fate of the hundred dollar bill from the beginning of the last century. This chart shows how the $100 bill has depreciated since 1914 due to inflation. By the beginning of the First World War, the monthly salary of a highly skilled worker or employee could reach exactly this amount. If your super-rich great-great-grandfather buried a chest of these bills, and you found it, you'd probably be furious with him. Because $100 now is like $2 then. “Dear Grandpa, why didn’t you buy something from that list ?” you might say in your heart. However, we must give credit to our hero, as the propensity to save is a skill that any investor should start with, and something I talk about in the early chapters of my book. As Charles Munger said, “I was a cautious little squirrel who hoarded more nuts than I needed and didn’t climb into my own pile of nuts.” The book is divided into three parts, allowing you to start with any of them, depending on your current level of knowledge. Part One This part will be interesting to anyone who wants to understand why we need investments, what a joint-stock company and a stock exchange are, how the price and its schedule are formed. Duration of study: 3 hours 15 minutes. Part two This part will be of interest to anyone who already knows the basics of stock trading but wants to understand the fundamental analysis of a company's business. Duration of study: 5 hours. Part three This part will be of interest to anyone who understands the financial statements of companies and wants to build a decision-making system on the stock market based on this knowledge. Duration of study: 11 hours. I recommend reading the book “Visual Investor” thoughtfully, with pauses to understand each chapter. It is precisely with this measured pace in mind that the estimated duration of study for each block and each article has been calculated. You can move faster if you like. If you devote 1 hour a day to the book, then after 20 days you will be able to master the entire theory. Don't rush to apply the knowledge immediately you've gained in real life. TradingView has great tools for hands-on research, such as the Market Simulator and Paper Trading, that will help you solidify your knowledge without risking your capital. Similarly, civil aviation pilots train on a flight simulator before their first flight. Remember that your knowledge, systematic approach, persistence and a pinch of luck can transform everything around you. But if you still need my support, I'm here. Yours, Capy. Part One 1. Investing is the ability to say "no" so that you can say "yes" The reader will learn that investing is a conscious skill of foregoing immediate spending in favor of greater value in the future, based on strategy, patience, and an understanding of the difference between investing and speculation. Duration of study: 15 minutes. 2. Raising initial capital: 4 approaches, of which one is not good The reader will learn about four ways to form start-up capital for investments, and why borrowed money is the least sensible of them. Duration of study: 10 minutes. 3. The lifestyle of your savings, and why Big Mac? The reader will learn that investing is a conscious way to preserve and increase the purchasing power of savings, in which the level of potential profit is always proportional to the risk taken. Duration of study: 10 minutes. 4. What is a stock? Let me tell you a story Using the example of a shoe workshop owner, the reader will learn how companies issue shares to raise capital and expand their business. Duration of study: 15 minutes.​​ 5. Stock Company. Selling something that no one will buy piecemeal Using the same example, the reader is explained the process of transforming a company into a joint-stock company and conducting an IPO to attract investment. Duration of study: 10 minutes. 6. I dream of entering the stock market. The question is: What for? The reader learns that going public is a way for a company to make its shares available to a wider range of investors, increase liquidity, and simplify the process of raising capital. Duration of study: 10 minutes. 7. How is the share price formed on the stock exchange? We do it The reader will learn how the price of a stock is formed on the stock exchange through the mechanism of bids from buyers and sellers, reflecting the balance of supply and demand. Duration of study: 20 minutes. 8. Bid/Offer: The Yin and Yang of Stock Prices The reader will learn how buy (bid) and sell (offer) orders from the order book on the exchange, determining the mechanism for concluding transactions and the formation of the market price. Duration of study: 20 minutes. 9. Market order or the hunger games of stock trading The reader will learn that market orders allow shares to be bought or sold immediately without specifying a price, satisfying the current demand or offer at prices available in the order book. Duration of study: 15 minutes. 10. The birth of the chart. The evolution of the tape The reader will learn how price movement charts are formed from the stock exchange quotes feed and will see historical examples of the evolution of methods for displaying market data. Duration of study: 10 minutes. 11. Japanese Candlesticks: Game of Body and Shadows The reader will learn how Japanese candlesticks are constructed, including determining the opening, closing, high, and low prices for a selected time interval, as well as the importance of the candlestick body and shadows in analyzing price movements.​ Duration of study: 20 minutes. 12. A little bit about volumes and the master of all averages The reader will learn how to analyze trading volumes and use a 252-day moving average to evaluate stock price movements. Duration of study: 10 minutes. 13. My Three Comrades: the Chart, the Screener, and the Watchlist The reader will learn step-by-step how to use the TradingView platform's chart, screener, and watchlist features to find and track stocks even if he doesn't know the company's ticker. Duration of study: 15 minutes. 14. Two captains of the same ship The reader will learn how to use fundamental analysis to assess a company's financial strength by adding financial indicators to a chart in TradingView, and why the author prefers this method over technical analysis. Duration of study: 15 minutes. Part two 15. My crazy partner is Mr. Market! The reader will learn about the concept of "Mr. Market" introduced by Benjamin Graham, which illustrates the irrationality of market behavior and emphasizes the importance of fundamental analysis in making sound investment decisions. Duration of study: 10 minutes. 16. Picking rules - the Lynch method The reader will learn about Peter Lynch's investment principles, including the benefits of private investors, the importance of a financial safety net, the need to understand a company's performance before investing, and the importance of analyzing its earnings.​ Duration of study: 15 minutes. 17. A pill for missed opportunities The reader will learn how to set up alerts in TradingView to react promptly to changes in stock prices, thereby avoiding missing profitable opportunities to buy or sell. Duration of study: 15 minutes. 18. Man on the shoulders of giants The reader learns the story of an Indian engineer who, after starting to invest in his 30s, achieved significant success, emphasizing the importance of self-education and inspiration from eminent investors. Duration of study: 10 minutes. 19. Price is what you pay, but value is what you get The reader will learn about Warren Buffett's approach to investing based on the difference between price and the intrinsic value of a company, and the importance of fundamental analysis in making investment decisions. Duration of study: 10 minutes. 20. Balance sheet: taking the first steps The reader will learn about the structure of the balance sheet, including the concepts of assets, liabilities, and equity. Duration of study: 30 minutes. 21. Assets I prioritize The reader will learn which balance sheet items are most important for assessing a company's sales performance, and why the author focuses on cash, accounts receivable, and inventory when analyzing current assets. Duration of study: 20 minutes. 22. A sense of debt The reader will learn about the structure of liabilities and shareholders' equity on a company's balance sheet, including the differences between short-term and long-term debt, and will understand how to analyze debt burden when assessing a company's financial health. Duration of study: 20 minutes. 23. At the beginning was the Equity The reader will learn about a company's capital structure, including the concepts of retained earnings and return on investment, and will understand how these items are reflected in the balance sheet. Duration of study: 20 minutes. 24. The income statement: the place where profit lives The reader will learn about the structure of a company's income statement, including key indicators: revenue, cost, gross and operating profit, as well as the importance of these metrics for assessing the financial condition of the enterprise and their impact on the dynamics of stock prices. Duration of study: 30 minutes. 25. My precious-s-s-s EPS The reader learns that earnings per share (EPS) is calculated as net income available to common shareholders divided by the number of common shares outstanding, and that diluted EPS considers potential increases in the share count due to employee options and other factors that affect earnings distributions. Duration of study: 20 minutes. 26. What should I look at in the Income statement? The reader will learn which key income statement metrics — such as revenue, gross profit, operating expenses, debt service expense, net income, and diluted earnings per share (EPS Diluted) — the author believes are most important for assessing a company's financial health. Duration of study: 10 minutes. 27. Cash flow statement or Three great rivers The reader will learn about the structure of the cash flow statement, which includes three main flows: operating, financial and investing, and will understand how these cash flows affect the financial condition of the company. Duration of study: 20 minutes. 28. Cash flow vibrations The reader will learn how to analyze a company's operating, investment, and financial cash flows to assess its sustainability, strategy, and ability to effectively manage resources. Duration of study: 20 minutes. 29. Financial ratios: digesting them together The reader will learn that financial ratios are relations between various financial reporting indicators that allow an objective assessment of the financial condition and value of a company, and will understand how to use key multiples to analyze the investment attractiveness of a business. Duration of study: 25 minutes. 30. What can financial ratios tell us? The reader will learn about key financial ratios such as Diluted EPS, Price/Earnings Ratio (P/E), Gross Margin, Operating Expense Ratio, Return on Equity (ROE), Days Payable and Days Sales Outstanding, and Inventory to Revenue Ratio, and will understand how to use these metrics to assess a company's financial health and investment attractiveness. Duration of study: 30 minutes. Part three 31. Price / Earnings: Interpretation #1 The reader will learn how the P/E (price to earnings) ratio helps assess the value of a company by determining how many dollars an investor pays for each dollar of earnings, and will understand why a lower P/E may indicate that a company is undervalued. Duration of study: 25 minutes. 32. Price/Earnings: amazing interpretation #2 The reader will learn an alternative approach to interpreting the P/E ratio by viewing it as the number of years it takes to break even on an investment, assuming the company's earnings are stable. Duration of study: 30 minutes. 33. How to apply an indicator that is only available upon request? The reader will learn how scripts written in Pine Script work on the TradingView platform and what levels of access there are to them: from completely open to requiring an invitation from the author. The article explains how to request access to an indicator if it is restricted, and what steps to take to add it to a chart once permission is granted. Duration of study: 15 minutes. 34. How to assess the fundamental strength of the company? The reader will learn about the approach to assessing the financial stability of a company through the aggregation of key financial indicators and multipliers, allowing a visual and quantitative assessment of the dynamics and current state of the business. Duration of study: 30 minutes. 35. How to evaluate the work of company management? The reader will learn about the approach to assessing the effectiveness of a company's management through the prism of the concept described by Eliyahu Goldratt in his book "The Goal", which focuses on three key indicators: throughput, inventory and operational expenses, and will understand how these indicators affect the financial results of the enterprise. Duration of study: 30 minutes. 36. How to evaluate the state of a company's cash flows? The reader will learn about the importance of cash flow analysis in assessing a company's financial health, including the interpretation of operating, investing, and financing flows. Duration of study: 25 minutes. 37. How to catch the rainbow by the tail? The reader will learn how to determine optimal price ranges for buying stocks based on the principles of fundamental analysis and the idea of investing with a margin of safety. Duration of study: 40 minutes. 38. How to convert craziness into results? The reader will learn how to navigate market volatility, make smart stock selling decisions, and use a fundamental approach to turn emotional market swings into rational investment actions. Duration of study: 35 minutes. 39. How to use Replay to study indicators? The reader will learn how to use the Market Simulator feature on the TradingView platform to analyze historical data and test indicators, including step-by-step instructions for activating the simulator, selecting the start date, adjusting the playback speed, and interpreting the results when analyzing NVIDIA Corporation stock. Duration of study: 30 minutes. 40. How to explain my decision-making system? The reader will learn about the author's approach to choosing stocks for investment, which includes an analysis of the fundamental strength of the company, cash flow dynamics, news, P/E multiple and other aspects of the decision-making system. Duration of study: 35 minutes. 41. The most subjective facet of my decision-making system The reader will learn how news, although difficult to formalize, influences the investment decision-making process and why its interpretation is the most subjective aspect in stock evaluation. Duration of study: 35 minutes. 42. Full instructions for studying the fundamental strength of a company The reader will learn how to use applied tools to evaluate a company's financial results, visually track their dynamics over time, and analyze the movement of key cash flows, which accelerates the process of selecting companies with strong fundamental indicators. Duration of study: 90 minutes. 43. Full instructions for determining price ranges for opening and closing positions The reader will learn how to determine optimal price ranges and trade sizes when investing in stocks, based on the principles of value investing and Benjamin Graham's "margin of safety" concept. Duration of study: 120 minutes. 44. 10 tricks for developing discipline or here was Warren The reader will learn ten practical methods to help investors develop discipline, including using alerts, keeping a trading journal, and developing good habits, and will understand how discipline affects the achievement of investment goals. Duration of study: 40 minutes. 45. The Inside Out Investor The reader will learn how emotional states such as fear, excitement, and fear of missing out (FOMO) influence investment decisions and will understand how awareness of these emotions helps an investor stick to their chosen strategy and make informed decisions. Duration of study: 20 minutes. 46. Effective inefficiency The reader will learn about the different approaches to using Stop Losses in investment strategies, their impact on the profit/loss ratio, as well as the concept of market efficiency and strategies in it. Duration of study: 30 minutes. 47. Institute of Intermediation and 24 Coffee Lovers The reader will learn about the factors that create market inefficiencies, such as delays in the dissemination of information, high volatility, the actions of large players and participant errors, as well as the role of intermediaries - brokers and exchanges - in ensuring the efficiency and convenience of trading in financial markets. Duration of study: 25 minutes. 48. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind The reader will learn about the life of Charles Munger, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, his investment philosophy based on common sense and discipline, as well as his views on the importance of personal relationships and moderation in achieving success. Duration of study: 5 minutes.
AMEX:SPYEducation
by Be_Capy
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless MindHere you have Charles Thomas Munger, the permanent vice president of one of the most successful companies in the world, Berkshire Hathaway. He was not at the origins of this business, but it was Charles, together with Warren Buffett, who turned a dying enterprise into a star of the world stock market. It didn't take a Master's degree in Business Administration or incredible luck. As Mr. Munger said, to succeed you don't necessarily have to strive to be the smartest, you just have to be not stupid and avoid the standard ways of failure. He worked as a meteorologist, then a lawyer, and finally as someone we know well - an investor who inspired many to take a smart approach to business and their own lives. “I don’t think you should become president or a billionaire because the odds are too great against you. It is much better to set achievable goals. I didn't set out to become rich, I set out to be independent. I just went a little overboard”, Charles joked. Wake up every morning, work hard, be disciplined and surprisingly, everything will work out very well. This commandment sounds a little archaic in times of rapid rise and easy money. However, for anyone who thinks years and decades ahead, it is difficult to come up with something better. Speaking to students at his hometown University of Michigan, Mr. Munger said the most important decision you make in life is not your business career, but your marriage. It will do more good or bad for you than anything else. He attached such great importance to human relationships. This correlates strongly with a study of human happiness that has been ongoing for over 85 years under the auspices of Harvard University. The scientists' main conclusion was that everything we build (portfolios, businesses, strategies) is worthless if there is no person in our lives to whom we can say a simple “I'm here”. Or “Thank you”. Or “I love you”. The healthiest and happiest in old age were not those subjects who earned the most. And those who have maintained good, trusting relationships. Marital. Friendly. Related. And in this light, Charles Munger's words about caution, moderation and common-sense sound quite different. It's not about money. It's about a life that can be lived with the feeling that you have enough. That you don't have to be a hero. That you can just be a reasonable person. Loving. Healthy. Calm. Perhaps this is the main secret of Mr. Munger's success in the stock market? In the long run, the one who has already won achieves a positive result. November 28th, 2023, was the last day of the cheerful Charlie's life. There were 34 days left until his 100th birthday.
NYSE:BRK.AEducation
by Be_Capy
Institute of Intermediation and 24 Coffee LoversWhen the market is efficient, the most efficient strategy will yield zero financial return for the investor. Therefore, firstly, it is necessary to strive to find inefficiencies in the market itself to apply a strategy that will be effective for it. What creates market inefficiency? First, there are delays in disseminating important information about the company, such as the approval of a contract with a major customer or an accident at a plant. If current and potential investors do not receive this information immediately, the market becomes inefficient at the time such an event occurs. In other words, objective reality is not considered by market participants. This makes the stock price obsolete. Secondly, the market becomes inefficient during periods of high volatility. I would describe it this way: when uncertainty hits everyone, emotions become the main force influencing prices. At such times, the market value of a company can change significantly within a single day. Investors have too many different assessments of what is happening to find the necessary balance. Volatility can be triggered by the bankruptcy of a systemically important company (for example, as happened with Lehman Brothers), the outbreak of military action, or a natural disaster. Third, there is the massive action of large players in a limited market - a "bull in a china shop" situation. A great example is the story of 2021, when the Reddit community drove up the price of GameStop shares, forcing hedge funds to cover their short positions at sky-high prices. Fourthly, these are ineffective strategies of the market participants themselves. On August 1, 2012, American stock market trading company Knight Capital caused abnormal volatility in more than 100 stocks by sending millions of orders to the exchange over a 45-minute period. For example, Wizzard Software Corporation shares rose from $3.50 to $14.76. This behavior was caused by a bug in the code that Knight Capital used for algorithmic trading. The combination of these and other factors creates inefficiencies that are exploited by trained traders or investors to make a profit. However, there are market participants who receive their income in any market. They are above the fray and are engaged in supporting and developing the infrastructure itself. In mathematics, there is a concept called a “zero-sum game”. This is any game where the sum of the possible gains is equal to the sum of the losses. For example, the derivatives market is a perfect embodiment of a zero-sum game. If someone makes a profit on a futures contract, he always has a partner with a similar loss. However, if you dive deeper, you will realize that this is a negative-sum game, since in addition to profit and loss, there are commissions that you pay to the infrastructure: brokers, exchanges, regulators, etc. To understand the value of these market participants and that you are paying them well, imagine a modern world without them. There is only a company issuing shares and investors in them. Such a company has its own software, and you connect to it via the Internet to buy or sell shares. The company offers you a quote for buying and selling shares ( bid-ask spread ). The asking price ( ask ) will be influenced by the company's desire to offer a price that will help it not lose control over the company, consider all expected income, dividends, etc. The purchase price ( bid ) will be influenced by the company's desire to preserve the cash received in the capital market, as well as to earn money on its own shares by offering a lower price. In general, in such a situation, you will most likely get a huge difference between the purchase and sale prices - a wide bid-ask spread . Of course, the company understands that the wider the bid-ask spread , the less interest investors have in participating in such trading. Therefore, it would be advisable to allow investors to participate in the formation of quotes. In other words, a company can open its order book to anyone who wants to participate. Under such conditions, the bid-ask spread will be narrowed by bids from a wide range of investors. As a result, we will get a situation where each company will have its own order book and its own software to connect to it. From a portfolio investor's perspective, this would be a real nightmare. In such a world, investing in not one, but several companies would require managing multiple applications and accounts for each company at the same time. This will create a demand from investors for one app and one account to manage investments in multiple companies. Such a request will also be supported by the company issuing the shares, as it will allow it to attract investors from other companies. This is where the broker comes in. Now everything is much better and more convenient. Investors get the opportunity to invest in multiple companies through one account and one application, and companies get investors from each other. However, the stock market will still be segmented, as not all brokers will support cooperation with individual companies, for technical or other reasons. The market will be fragmented among many brokerage companies. The logical solution would be to create another market participant that would have contracts with each of the companies and universal software for trading their shares. The only thing is that it will be brokers, not investors, who will connect to such a system. You may have already guessed that this is an exchange. On the one hand, the exchange registers shares of companies, on the other hand, it provides access to trading them through brokers who are its members. Of course, the modern structure of the stock market is more complex: it involves clearing, depository companies, registrars of rights to shares, etc.* The formation of such institutions and their licensing is handled by a regulator, for example, the Securities and Exchange Commission in the United States ( SEC ). As a rule, the regulator is responsible for legislative initiatives in the field of the securities market, licensing of market participants, monitoring violations in the market and supporting its efficiency, protecting investors from unfair manipulation. *Clearing services are activities to determine, control and fulfill obligations under transactions of financial market participants. Depository services - services for the storage of securities and the recording of rights to them. Thus, by making a transaction on the exchange, we contribute to the maintenance of this necessary infrastructure. Despite the fashion for decentralization, it is still difficult to imagine how one can ensure speed, convenience and access to a wide range of assets due to the absence of an intermediary institution. The other side of the coin of this institution is infrastructure risk. You can show phenomenal results in the market, but if your broker goes bankrupt, all your efforts will be nullified. Therefore, before choosing an intermediary, it is useful to conduct a mental survey of the person you will be dealing with. Below you will find different types of intermediaries, which I have arranged according to their distance from the central elements of the infrastructure (exchanges, clearing houses, depositories). Prime broker Exchange Membership: mandatory License: mandatory Acceptance and accounting of your funds/shares: mandatory Order execution: mandatory Clearing and depository services: mandatory Marginal services: mandatory Remuneration: commission income from trades, clearing, depository and margin services This category includes well-known financial houses with history and high capitalization. They are easily verified through lists of exchange members, clearing and depository companies. They provide services not only to individuals, but also to banks, funds and next-level brokers. Broker Exchange membership: mandatory License: mandatory Acceptance and accounting of your funds/shares: mandatory Order execution: mandatory Clearing and depository services: on the prime broker side Margin services: on the prime broker side or own Remuneration: commission income from trades and margin services This category includes intermediaries with a focus on order routing. They delegate participation in depository and clearing services to a prime broker. However, such brokers can also be easily verified in the lists of exchange members. Sub-broker Exchange Membership: no License: mandatory Acceptance and accounting of your funds/shares: mandatory Order execution: on the broker or prime broker side Clearing and depository services: on the prime broker side Margin services: on the broker or prime broker side Remuneration: commission income from trades This category includes brokers who have a brokerage license in their country, but do not have membership in foreign exchanges. To provide trading services on these exchanges, they enter into agreements with brokers or prime brokers from another country. They can be easily verified by license on the website of the regulator of the country of registration. Introducing Broker Exchange Membership: no License: optional, depending on the country of regulation Acceptance and accounting of your funds / shares: no Order execution: on the side of the sub-broker, broker or prime broker Clearing and depository services: on the prime broker side Margin services: on the broker or prime broker side Remuneration: commission income for the attracted client and/or a share of the commissions paid by them This category includes companies that are not members of the exchange. Their activities may not require a license, since they do not accept funds from clients, but only assist in opening an account with one of the top-tier brokers. This is a less transparent level, since such an intermediary cannot be verified through the exchange and regulator’s website (unless licensing is required). Therefore, if an intermediary of this level asks you to transfer some money to his account, most likely you are dealing with a fraudster. All four categories of participants are typical for the stock market. Its advantage over the over-the-counter market is that you can always check the financial instrument on the exchange website, as well as those who provide services for its trading (membership - on the exchange website, license - on the regulator's website). Pay attention to the country of origin of the broker's license. You will receive maximum protection in the country where you have citizenship. In case of any claims against the broker, communication with the regulator of another country may be difficult. As for the over-the-counter market, this segment typically trades shares of small-cap companies (not listed on the exchange), complex derivatives and contracts for difference ( CFD ). This is a market where dealers rule, not brokers and exchanges. Unlike a broker, they sell you their open position, often with a lot of leverage. Therefore, trading with a dealer is a priori a more significant risk. In conclusion, it should be noted that the institution of intermediation plays a key role in the development of the stock market. It arose as a natural need of its participants for concentration of supply and demand, greater speed and security of financial transactions. To get a feel for this, let me tell you a story. New Amsterdam, 1640s A warm wind from the Hudson brought the smell of salt and freshly cut wood. The damp logs of the palisade, dug into the ground along the northern boundary of the settlement, smelled of resin and new hopes. Here, on the edge of civilization, where Dutch colonists were reclaiming their homes and future fortunes from the wild forest, everything was built quickly, but with a view to lasting for centuries. The wooden wall built around the northern border of the town was not only a defense against raids, but also a symbol. A symbol of the border between order and chaos, between the ambitions of European settlers and the freedom of these lands. Over the years, the fortification evolved into a real fortification: by 1653, Peter Stuyvesant, appointed governor of New Netherland by the West India Company, ordered the wall to be reinforced with a palisade. It was now twelve feet high, and armed sentries stood on guard towers. But even the strongest walls do not last forever. Half a century after their construction, in 1685, a road was built along the powerful palisade. The street received a simple and logical name - Wall Street. It soon became a bustling commercial artery for the growing city. In 1699, when the English authorities had already established themselves here finally, the wall was dismantled. She disappeared, but Wall Street remained. A century has passed Now, at the end of the 18th century, there were no walls or guard towers on this street. Instead, a plane tree grew here - a large, spreading one, the only witness to the times when the Dutch still owned this city. Traders, dealers, and sea captains met under its shadow. Opposite the buttonwood tree stood the Tontine Coffee House, a place where not just respectable people gathered, but those who understood that money makes this world go round. They exchanged securities right on the pavement, negotiated over a cup of steaming coffee, and discussed deals that could change someone's fate. Decisions were made quickly - a word, backed up by a handshake, was enough. It was a time when honor was worth more than gold. But the world was changing. The volume of trades grew, and chaos demanded rules. May 17, 1792 That spring day turned out to be decisive. Under the branches of an old buttonwood tree, 24 New York brokers gathered to start a new order. The paper they signed contained only two points: trades are made only between their own, without auctioneers, and the commission is fixed at 0.25%. The document was short but historic. It was called the Buttonwood Agreement, after the tree under which it was signed. Here, amid the smell of fresh coffee and ink, the New York Stock Exchange was born. Soon, deals were being concluded under the new rules. The first papers to be traded were those of The Bank of New York , whose headquarters were just a few steps away at 1 Wall Street. Thus, under the shade of an old tree, the history of Wall Street began. A story that will one day change the whole world. Buttonwood Agreement. A fresco by an unknown artist who adorns the walls of the New York Stock Exchange.
NYSE:BACEducation
by Be_Capy
Effective inefficiencyStop-Loss. This combination of words sounds like a magic spell for impatient investors. It's really challenging to watch your account get smaller and smaller. That's why people came up with this magic amulet. Go to the market, don't be afraid, just put it on. Let your profits run, but limit your losses - place a Stop-Loss order. Its design is simple: when the paper loss reaches the amount agreed upon with you in advance, your position will be closed. The paper loss will become real. And here I have a question: “ Does this invention stop the loss? ” It seems that on the contrary - you take it with you. Then it is not a Stop-Loss, but a Take-Loss. This will be more honest, but let's continue with the classic name. Another thing that always bothered me was that everyone has their own Stop-Loss. For example, if a company shows a loss, I can find out about it from the reports. Its meaning is the same for everyone and does not depend on those who look at it. With Stop-Loss, it's different. As many people as there are Stop-Losses. There is a lot of subjectivity in it. For adherents of fundamental analysis, all this looks very strange. I cannot agree that I spent time researching a company, became convinced of the strength of its business, and then simply quoted a price at which I would lock in my loss. I don't think Benjamin Graham would approve either. He knew better than anyone that the market loved to show off its madness when it came to stock prices. So Stop-Loss is part of this madness? Not quite so. There are many strategies that do not rely on fundamental analysis. They live by their own principles, where Stop-Loss plays a key role. Based on its size relative to the expected profit, these strategies can be divided into three types. Stop-Loss is approximately equal to the expected profit size This includes high-frequency strategies of traders who make numerous trades during the day. These can be manual or automated operations. Here we are talking about the advantages that a trader seeks to gain, thanks to modern technical means, complex calculations or simply intuition. In such strategies, it is critical to have favorable commission conditions so as not to give up all the profits to maintaining the infrastructure. The size of profit and loss per trade is approximately equal and insignificant in relation to the size of the account. The main expectation of a trader is to make more positive trades than negative ones. Stop-Loss is several times less than the expected profit The second type includes strategies based on technical analysis. The number of transactions here is significantly less than in the strategies of the first type. The idea is to open an interesting position that will show enough profit to cover several losses. This could be trading using chart patterns, wave analysis, candlestick analysis. You can also add buyers of classic options here. Stop-Loss is an order of magnitude greater than the expected profit The third type includes arbitrage strategies, selling volatility. The idea behind such strategies is to generate a constant, close to fixed, income due to statistically stable patterns or extreme price differences. But there is also a downside to the coin - a significant Stop-Loss size. If the system breaks down, the resulting loss can cover all the earned profit at once. It's like a deposit in a dodgy bank - the interest rate is great, but there's also a risk of bankruptcy. Reflecting on these three groups, I formulated the following postulate: “ In an efficient market, the most efficient strategies will show a zero financial result with a pre-determined profit to loss ratio ”. Let's take this postulate apart piece by piece. What does efficient market mean? It is a stock market where most participants instantly receive information about the assets in question and immediately decide to place, cancel or modify their order. In other words, in such a market, there is no lag between the appearance of information and the reaction to it. It should be said that thanks to the development of telecommunications and information technologies, modern stock markets have significantly improved their efficiency and continue to do so. What is an effective strategy ? This is a strategy that does not bring losses. Profit to loss ratio is the result of profitable trades divided by the result of losing trades in the chosen strategy, considering commissions. So, according to the postulate, one can know in advance what this ratio will be for the most effective strategy in an effective market. In this case, the financial result for any such strategy will be zero. The formula for calculating the profit to loss ratio according to the postulate: Profit : Loss ratio = %L / (100% - %L) Where %L is the percentage of losing trades in the strategy. Below is a graph of the different ratios of the most efficient strategy in an efficient market. For example, if your strategy has 60% losing trades, then with a profit to loss ratio of 1.5:1, your financial result will be zero. In this example, to start making money, you need to either reduce the percentage of losing trades (<60%) with a ratio of 1.5:1, or increase the ratio (>1.5), while maintaining the percentage of losing trades (60%). With such improvements, your point will be below the orange line - this is the inefficient market space. In this zone, it is not about your strategy becoming more efficient, you have simply found inefficiencies in the market itself. Any point above the efficient market line is an inefficient strategy . It is the opposite of an effective strategy, meaning it results in an overall loss. Moreover, an inefficient strategy in an efficient market makes the market itself inefficient , which creates profitable opportunities for efficient strategies in an inefficient market. It sounds complicated, but these words contain an important meaning - if someone loses, then someone will definitely find. Thus, there is an efficient market line, a zone of efficient strategies in an inefficient market, and a zone of inefficient strategies. In reality, if we mark a point on this chart at a certain time interval, we will get rather a cloud of points, which can be located anywhere and, for example, cross the efficient market line and both zones at the same time. This is due to the constant changes that occur in the market. It is an entity that evolves together with all participants. What was effective suddenly becomes ineffective and vice versa. For this reason, I formulated another postulate: “ Any market participant strives for the effectiveness of his strategy, and the market strives for its own effectiveness, and when this is achieved, the financial result of the strategy will become zero ”. In other words, the efficient market line has a strong gravity that, like a magnet, attracts everything that is above and below it. However, I doubt that absolute efficiency will be achieved in the near future. This requires that all market participants have equally fast access to information and respond to it effectively. Moreover, many traders and investors, including myself, have a strong interest in the market being inefficient. Just like we want gravity to be strong enough that we don't fly off into space from our couches, but gentle enough that we can visit the refrigerator. This limits or delays the transfer of information to each other. Returning to the topic of Stop-Loss, one should pay attention to another pattern that follows from the postulates of market efficiency. Below, on the graph (red line), you can see how much the loss to profit ratio changes depending on the percentage of losing trades in the strategy. For me, the values located on the red line are the mathematical expectation associated with the size of the loss in an effective strategy in an effective market. In other words, those who have a small percentage of losing trades in their strategy should be on guard. The potential loss in such strategies can be several times higher than the accumulated profit. In the case of strategies with a high percentage of losing trades, most of the risk has already been realized, so the potential loss relative to the profit is small. As for my attitude towards Stop-Loss, I do not use it in my stock market investing strategy. That is, I don’t know in advance at what price I will close the position. This is because I treat buying shares as participating in a business. I cannot accept that when crazy Mr. Market knocks on my door and offers a strange price, I will immediately sell him my shares. Rather, I would ask myself, “ How efficient is the market right now and should I buy more shares at this price? ” My decision to sell should be motivated not only by the price but also by the fundamental reasons for the decline. For me, the main criterion for closing a position is the company's profitability - a metric that is the same for everyone who looks at it. If a business stops being profitable, that's a red flag. In this case, the time the company has been in a loss-making state and the size of the losses are considered. Even a great company can have a bad quarter for one reason or another. In my opinion, the main work with risks should take place before the company gets into the portfolio, and not after the position is opened. Often it doesn't even involve fundamental business analysis. Here are four things I'm talking about: - Diversification. Distribution of investments among many companies. - Gradually gaining position. Buying stocks within a range of prices, rather than at one desired price. - Prioritization of sectors. For me, sectors of stable consumer demand always have a higher priority than others. - No leverage. I propose to examine the last point separately. The thing is that the broker who lends you money is absolutely right to be afraid that you won’t pay it back. For this reason, each time he calculates how much his loan is secured by your money and the current value of the shares (that is, the value that is currently on the market). Once this collateral is not enough, you will receive a so-called margin call . This is a requirement to fund an account to secure a loan. If you fail to do this, part of your position will be forcibly closed. Unfortunately, no one will listen to the excuse that this company is making a profit and the market is insane. The broker will simply give you a Stop-Loss. Therefore, leverage, by its definition, cannot be used in my investment strategy. In conclusion of this article, I would like to say that the market, as a social phenomenon, contains a great paradox. On the one hand, we have a natural desire for it to be ineffective, on the other hand, we are all working on its effectiveness. It turns out that the income we take from the market is payment for this work. At the same time, our loss can be represented as the salary that we personally pay to other market participants for their efficiency. I don't know about you, but this understanding seems beautiful to me.
NASDAQ:TSLAEducation
by Be_Capy
The Inside Out InvestorThere is a common misconception that investing in stocks is always stressful and emotionally overwhelming. Many people think that this activity is only available to extremely resilient people or crazy people. In fact, if you know the answers to three key questions, investing becomes a rather boring activity. Let me remind you of them below: 1. Which stocks to choose? 2. At what price should the trade be made? 3. In what volume? As for me, most of the time, I'm just in waiting mode. First, I wait for the company's business to start showing sustainable growth dynamics in profits and other fundamental indicators. Then, I wait for a sell-off of strong company shares at unreasonably low prices. Of course, this requires a lot of patience and a positive outlook on the future. That's why I believe that being young is one of the key advantages of being a beginner investor. The younger you are, the more time you have to wait. However, we still have to get to this boring state. And if you've embarked on this long journey, expect to encounter many emotions that will test your strength. To help me understand them, I came up with the following map. Next I will comment on each of its elements from left to right. Free Cash horizontal line (from 0% to 100%) - X axis When you first open and fund a brokerage account, your Free Cash is equal to 100% of the account. Then it will gradually decrease as you buy shares. If Free Cash is 0%, then all your money in the account was invested in shares. In short, it is a scale of how much your portfolio is loaded with stocks. Vertical line Alpha - Y axis Alpha is the ratio of the change in your portfolio to the change in an alternative portfolio that you do not own but use as a reference (in other words, a benchmark). For example, such a benchmark could be an ETF (exchange-traded fund) on the S&P500 index if you invest in wide US market stocks. Buying an ETF does not require any effort on your part as a manager, so it is useful to compare the performance of such an asset with the performance of your portfolio and calculate Alpha. In this example, it is the ratio of your portfolio's return to the return of the S&P 500 ETF. At the level where Alpha is zero, there is a horizontal Free Cash line. Above this line is positive Alpha (in which case you are outperforming the broader market), below zero is negative Alpha (in which case your portfolio is outperforming the benchmark). Let me clarify that the portfolio yield includes the financial result for both open and closed positions. Fear of the button This is the emotion that blocks the sending of an order to buy shares. Being captivated by this emotion, you will be afraid to press this button, realizing that investing in shares does not guarantee a positive result at all. In other words, you may lose some of your money irretrievably. This fear is absolutely justified. If you feel this way, consider the size of your stock investment account and the percentage amount you are willing to lose. Remember to diversify your portfolio. If you can't find a balance between account size, acceptable loss, and diversification, don't press the button. Come back to her when you're ready. Enthusiasm At this stage, you have a high share of Free Cash, and you also have your first open positions in stocks. Your Alpha is positive. You are not afraid to press the button, but there is a certain excitement about the future result. The state of enthusiasm is quite fragile and can quickly turn into a state of FOMO if Alpha moves into the negative zone. Therefore, it is critical to continue learning the chosen strategy at this stage. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. FOMO FOMO is a common acronym used to describe a psychological condition known as fear of missing out. In the stock market, this manifests itself as fear of missing out. This condition is typical for a portfolio with a high proportion of Free Cash and negative Alpha. As the benchmark's return outpaces your portfolio's return, you will be in a nervous state. The main worry will be that you didn't buy the stocks that are currently the growth leaders. You will be tempted to deviate from your chosen strategy and take a chance on buying something on the off chance. To get rid of this condition, you need to understand that the stock market has existed for hundreds of years, and thousands of companies trade on it. Every year, new companies emerge, as well as new investment opportunities. Remind yourself that you are not here for one million dollar deal, but for systematic work with opportunities that will always be there. Zen The most desirable state of an investor is when he understands all the details of the chosen strategy and has effective experience in its application. This is expressed in positive Alpha and excellent mood. Taking the time to manage your portfolio, developing habits and a disciplined approach will bring satisfaction and the feeling that you are on the right track. At this stage, it is important to maintain this state, and not to chase after thrills. Disappointment This stage is a mirror of the Zen state. It can develop from the FOMO stage, especially if you break your own rules and invest on luck. It can also be caused by a sharp deterioration in the condition of a portfolio, which was doing well in the Zen state. If everything is clear in the first case, and you just need to stop acting weird , then in the second situation you should remember why you ended up in a state of Zen. Investments are always a series of profitable and unprofitable trades. However, losing trades cannot be considered a failure if they were made in accordance with the principles of the chosen strategy. Just keep following the accepted rules to win in the long run. Also remember that Mr. Market is crazy enough to offer prices that seem absurd to you. Yes, this can negatively affect your Alpha, but at the same time provide opportunities to open new positions according to the chosen strategy. Euphoria Another way out of the Zen state is called Euphoria. This is typical dizziness from success. At this stage you have little Free Cash, a large share of stocks in your portfolio and phenomenally positive Alpha. You feel like a king and lose your composure. That is why this stage is marked in red. In a state of euphoria, you may feel like everything you touch turns to gold. You feel the desire to take a risk and play for luck. You don't want to close positions with good profits. Furthermore, you think you can close at the highs and make even more money. You are deviating from the chosen strategy, which is fraught with major negative consequences. It only takes a few non-systemic decisions to push your Alpha into the negative zone and find yourself in a state of disappointment. If your ego doesn't stop there, the decline may continue. Tilt A prolonged state of disappointment or a rapid fall of Alpha from the Euphoria stage can lead to the most negative psycho-emotional state called Tilt. This term is widely used in the game of poker, but can also be used in investments. While in this state, the investor does everything out of strategy, his actions are chaotic and in many ways aggressive. He thinks the stock market owes him something. The investor cannot stop his irrational actions, trying to regain his former success or get out of a series of failures in the shortest possible time. This usually ends in big losses. It is better to inform your loved ones in advance that such a condition exists. Don't be embarrassed by this, even if you think you are immune to such situations. A person in a state of tilt withdraws into himself and acts in a state of affect. Therefore, it is significant to bring him out of this state and show that the outside world exists and has its own unique value. Now let's talk about your expectations, as they largely determine your attitude towards investing. Never turn your positive expectations into a benchmark. The stock market is an element that is absolutely indifferent to our forecasts. Even strong companies can fall in price if there is a shortage of liquidity in the market. In times of crisis, everyone suffers, but the most prepared suffer the least. Therefore, the main task of a smart investor is to work on himself until the moment he presses the coveted button. There will always be a chance to do this. As I said, the market will not disappear tomorrow. But to use this chance wisely, you need to be prepared. This means that you should have an answer to all three questions above. Then you will definitely catch your Zen.
AMEX:SPYEducation
by Be_Capy
10 tricks for developing discipline or here was WarrenIf you asked me, what is the most valuable trait an investor should have, I would call it the ability to follow your own rules. In other words, it is discipline. A novice investor can learn quickly, know all the features of the chosen strategy from A to Z, but it is unlikely that he will succeed without this trait. So, Warren Buffett called persistence your engine, and discipline the guarantee of a successful future. Imagine that you have sailed to an unusually beautiful island with the goal of finding a treasure chest. To achieve this, you have a map with a description of all the paths and turns that you need to take to reach your goal. However, after the first 100 meters of the path you understand that this island has a huge number of amazing plants, ripe fruits, and curious animals. All this is very interesting and attractive for you: firstly, you want to take a photo of a beautiful flower, secondly, try a tropical fruit, thirdly, play with a funny monkey. “Why not? This is a great chance!” you think. After a while, having enjoyed the life of the island, you realize that it is already evening, and it is easier to spend the night somewhere under a palm tree and continue the search for treasure tomorrow, during daylight hours. “That’s a smart idea!” you note and begin to prepare a place to sleep. In the morning, you wake up in a good mood, you are greeted by familiar flowers, fruits and a cheerful parrot. Since you already know all this, you decide to continue following the map to find the treasure today and sail on. The path is easy for you: the entire route is marked in advance, you just follow these instructions. So, here you are. At the roots of the largest palm tree, under many branches, there should be a treasure chest hidden. You clear away the branches, and here your expectation collides with a shocking reality. Instead of a chest, you see a hole, where at the bottom, with a wooden stick, is written: “Warren was here”. In this example, Warren had the same map as you. Moreover, he arrived on the island much later. The only difference is his model of achieving the goal. He understood that exploring the island was not a priority for him right now. Warren would be happy to return there, but this time with the goal of relaxing, perhaps on his brand-new ship. And while he came to the island to look for treasure, he is looking for it. Everything else, despite all its attractiveness, is for him a risk of not achieving the goal. I also think of my stock investing strategy as a map that helps me understand where I should turn in any given situation. The only thing that makes me follow the route is discipline. Unfortunately, I can't put the stock market on pause or ignore corporate news - they all require my attention. If I choose this path, I follow it. In other words, if I am not going to follow the recommendations of my map, then why did I choose this path? However, how difficult it is to look calmly at temptations. A man is not a robot. So we need some tricks that can help us with discipline. I think that in this regard, the most brilliant invention of mankind was and remains the alarm clock. No matter how much we sleep, when the alarm rings, we wake up. The most disciplined people even set several alarms to make sure they wake up! On the one hand, it irritates us like crazy, on the other hand, have you ever thought about how well it helps us relax? After all, there is no longer a need to wake up and determine the time by the brightness of the sun from the window - now we have an alarm clock! It turns out that discipline can be associated with pleasant things. By the way, on TradingView, such a brilliant invention is “Alerts”. I wrote about this function in the article: “A pill for missed opportunities” . I will only add that the alert system can be applied not only to the stock price, but also to the indicators that you use on the chart, as well as to a whole watch list. So, make a list of companies you want to keep an eye on. Then set alerts when a certain condition related to price or indicator value is reached. And finally, wait calmly. Yes, this is what will take up all your time - waiting. And believe me, it takes a lot of discipline to just wait. To develop this trait, I recommend creating habits that are organically linked to your strategy. For example, to decide about a deal, I constantly refer to news about the selected companies. It is significant for me to understand whether critical events have arisen that could influence my decision to open or close a position. However, regularly reading corporate news can hardly be called a fascinating activity for everyone. This is not looking at memes at all. Therefore, below I will give a few tricks that will help make this (and not only this) activity systemic: 1. Set your alarm for 1 hour before the stock market opens. Let this signal remind you that it is time to study the news on companies that have already been bought or are very close to being bought. 2. Make access to news as convenient as possible. Install the TradingView app on your phone, tablet, home computer or laptop. Don't have problems accessing information in any situation: if you are lying on the couch, sitting at the table or walking in the park. 3. Start with small steps. For example, start by reading only the headlines of news stories, rather than the entire story at once. Gradually increase the amount of incoming information. In one full hour, you can easily gather all the information you need to get a complete picture before the market opens. 4. Use modern technologies. For example, reading news from your voice assistant. This is convenient if you are on the move. 5. Combine your habit with another direction you are developing. For example, if you are learning a foreign language, practice reading the news in that language. 6. Organize public attention to your habit. For example, agree with your wife that for every time you skip a habit, you take her to a new restaurant (I think the most effective method for married men). Chat with like-minded people and/or post your thoughts on the news on social networks. The extra attention will motivate you to keep doing it. 7. Add a little joy to your news reading habit. If you like freshly squeezed juice, place a glass of it next to you. After the work you've done, be sure to thank yourself. For example, a delicious dessert or watching one episode of your favorite TV series. 8. Formulate your goal as follows: not to be someone who understands everything, but to be someone who never misses a single event. 9. Separately, I would like to draw attention to keeping a diary of your operations. This is an essential document that will help you track your progress - your Track Record. At the same time, it is one of the systemic habits. I recommend adding to Track Record information about cash transactions, trades, taxes, dividends, conditions that prompted you to open or close a position in shares. You can organize such a diary in any spreadsheet to calculate some of the metrics using formulas. Below, I will present the metrics that I use in my Track Record. All data in it will be provided as an example only. 10. And finally, I think it is significant to visualize your achievements not only in electronic form, but also to have a physical embodiment of your results. For example, these can be empty glass flasks where you can put coins or balls corresponding to certain actions: opening a position, closing a position with a profit, closing a position with a loss, paying dividends. One flask - one year. Such an installation will look beautiful in your room or office and will remind you of what you have finally achieved. You might even have some interesting stories to tell to curious guests who notice this piece of furniture.
NASDAQ:NVDAEducation
by Be_Capy
HOW-TO use the Rainbow Indicator? (full guide)Below is a complete instruction on how to use the Rainbow Indicator along with examples. This indicator is an important facet of my decision-making system because it allows me to answer two important questions: - At what price should I make a trade with the selected shares? - In what volume? Part 1: Darts Set My concept of investing in stocks is buying great companies during a sell-off . Of course, this idea is not unique. One way or another, this was said by the luminaries of value investing – Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffett. However, the implementation of this concept may vary depending on the preferences of each investor.To find great companies, I use the Fundamental strength indicator , and to plan opening and closing positions I use the Rainbow indicator. To begin your acquaintance with the Rainbow Indicator, ⁣ I would like to invite you to take part in a mental experiment. Imagine two small rooms for a game of darts. Each room has a different target hanging in it. It can be anywhere: center, left, right, bottom, or top. Target #1 from the first room looks like a small red circle. Target #2 from the second room looks like a larger red circle. You get a reward for hitting the target, calculated according to the following principle: the smaller the target in relation to the wall surface, the greater the reward you get. You have 100 darts in your hand, that is 100 attempts to hit the target. For each attempt, you pay $10. So to play this unusual game of darts, you take with you $1,000. Now, the most important condition is that you play in absolute darkness . So you don't know exactly what part of the wall the target is hanging in, so all your years of darts practice don't matter here. The question is: Which room will you choose? This is where you begin to think. Since your skills and experience are almost completely untapped in this game, all of your attempts to hit a target will be random. This is a useful observation because it allows you to apply the theory of probability. The password is Jacob Bernoulli. This is the mathematician who derived the formula by which you can calculate the probability of a successful outcome for a limited number of attempts. In our case, a successful outcome is a dart hitting the target as many times as necessary in order to, at least, not lose anything. In the case of Target #1, it is one hit or more. In the case of Target 2, it is 10 hits or more. The probability of hitting Target #1 is 1/100 or 1% (since the target area occupies 1% of the wall area). The probability of hitting Target #2 is 10/100 or 10% (since the target area occupies 10% of the wall area). The number of attempts is equal to the number of darts - 100. Now we have all the data to calculate. So, Bernoulli's formula : According to this formula: - The probability of one or more hits on Target #1 is 63% (out of 100%). - The probability of ten or more hits on Target #2 is 55% (out of 100%). You may say, "I think we should go to the first room". However, take your time with this conclusion because it is interesting to calculate the probability of not hitting the target even once, i.e., losing $1,000. We calculate using the same formula: - The probability of not hitting Target #1 is 37% (out of 100%). - The probability of not hitting Target #2 is 0.0027% (out of 100%). If we calculate the ratio of the probability of a successful outcome to the probability of losing the whole amount, we get: - For the first room = 1.7 - For the second room = 20370 You know, I like the second room better. This mental experiment reflects my approach to investing in stocks. The first room is an example of a strategy where you try to find the perfect entry point - to buy at a price below which the stock will not fall. The second room reflects an approach where you're not chasing a specific price level, but thinking in price ranges. In both cases, you'll have plenty of attempts, but in the first room, the risk of losing everything is much greater than in the second room. Now let me show you my target, ⁣ which is a visual interpretation of the Rainbow Indicator. It also hangs on the wall, in absolute darkness, and only becomes visible after I have used all the darts. Before the game starts, I announce the color where I want to go. The probability of hitting decreases from blue to green, and then to orange and red. That is, the smaller the color area, the less likely it is to successfully hit the selected color. However, the size of the reward also increases according to the same principle - the smaller the area of ​​color, the greater the reward. Throwing a dart is an attempt to close a position with a profit. Hitting the selected color is a position closed with a profit. Missing the selected color means the position is closed at a loss. Now imagine that in the absolutely dark room where I am, I have a flashlight. Thanks to it, I have the opportunity to see in which part of the wall the target is located. This gives me a significant advantage because now I throw darts not blindly, but with a precise understanding of where I am aiming. Light shining on the wall increases the probability of a successful outcome, which can also be estimated using the Bernoulli formula. Let's say I have 100 darts in my hands, that is, one hundred attempts to hit the chosen target. The probability of a dart hitting a red target (without the help of a flashlight) is 10%, and with the help of a flashlight, for example, 15%. That is, my ability to throw darts improves the probability of hitting the target by 5%. For hitting the red target, I get $100, and for each throw I pay $10. In this case, the probability of hitting the red target ten or more times is 94.49% (out of 100%) versus 55% (out of 100%) without a flashlight. In other words, under these game conditions and the assumptions made, if I try all 100 darts, the probability of recouping all my expenses will be 94.49% if I aim only at the red target. In my decision-making system, such a "flashlight" is the Fundamental strength indicator, dynamics of cash flows, the P/E ratio and the absence of critical news. And the darts set (target and darts) is a metaphor for the Rainbow Indicator. However, please note that all probabilities of positive outcomes are assumptions and are provided only for the purpose of example and understanding of the approach I have chosen. Stocks of public companies are not a guaranteed income instrument, nor are any indicators associated with them. Part 2: Margin of safety The idea to create the Rainbow Indicator came to me thanks to the concept of "margin of safety" coined by the father of value investing, Benjamin Graham. According to his idea, it is reasonable to buy shares of a company only when the price offered by the market is lower than the "intrinsic value" calculated based on financial statements. The value of this difference is the "margin of safety". At the same time, the indicator does not copy Graham's idea but develops it relying on my own methodology. So, according to Graham, the "margin of safety" is a good discount to the intrinsic value of the company. That is, if a company's stock is trading at prices that are well below the company's intrinsic value (on a per-share basis), it's a good opportunity to consider buying it. In this case, you will have a certain margin of safety in case the company is in financial distress and its stock price goes down. Accordingly, the greater the discount, the better. When it comes to the intrinsic value of a company, there are many approaches to determining it - from calculating the Price-to-book value financial ratio to the discounted cash flow method. As for my approach, I don’t try to find the coveted intrinsic value/cost, but I try to understand how fundamentally strong the company in front of me is, and how many years it will take to pay off my investment in it. To decide to buy shares, I use the following sequence of actions: - Determining fundamental strength of a company and analysis of cash flows using the Fundamental Strength Indicator. - Analysis of the recoupment period of investments using P/E ratio . - Analysis of critical news . - Analysis of the current price using Rainbow Indicator. To decide to sell shares, I use: - Analysis of the current price using Rainbow Indicator. - Or The Rule of Replacement of Stocks in a Portfolio . - Or Force majeure Position Closing Rule . Thus, the Rainbow indicator is always used in tandem with other indicators and analysis methods when buying stocks. However, in the case of selling previously purchased shares, I can only use the Rainbow indicator or one of the rules that I will discuss below. Next, we will consider the methodology for calculating the Rainbow Indicator. Indicator calculation methodology The Rainbow indicator starts with a simple moving average of one year (this is the thick red line in the center). Hereinafter, a year will mean the last 252 trading days. Applying a moving average of this length - is a good way to smooth out sharp price fluctuations which can happen during a year as much as possible, keeping the trend direction as much as possible. Thus, the moving average becomes for me the center of fluctuations of the imaginary pendulum of the market price. Then the deviations are calculated from the center of fluctuations. To achieve this, a certain number of earnings per share is subtracted from and added to the moving average. This is the diluted EPS of the last year. Deviations with a "-" sign from the Lower Rainbow of four colors: - The Blue Spectrum of the Lower Rainbow begins with a deflection of -4 EPS and ends with a deflection of -8 EPS. - The Green Spectrum of the Lower Rainbow begins with a deflection of -8 EPS and ends with a deflection of -16 EPS. - The Orange Spectrum of the Lower Rainbow begins with a deflection of -16 EPS and ends with a deflection of -32 EPS. - The Red Spectrum of the Lower Rainbow begins with a deflection of -32 EPS and goes to infinity. The Lower Rainbow is used to determine the price ranges that can be considered for buying stocks. It is in the spectra of the Lower Rainbow that the very "margin of safety" according to my methodology is located. The Lower Rainbow has the boundaries between the spectra as a solid line . And only the Red Spectrum of the Lower Rainbow has only one boundary. Deviations with a "+" sign from the Upper Rainbow of four similar colors: - The Red Spectrum of the Upper Rainbow begins with a deflection of 0 EPS and ends with a deflection of +4 EPS. - The Orange Spectrum of the Upper Rainbow begins with a deflection of +4 EPS and ends with a deflection of +8 EPS. - The Green Spectrum top rainbow begins with a deflection of +8 EPS and ends with a deflection of +16 EPS. - The Blue Spectrum of the Upper Rainbow begins with a deflection of +16 EPS and goes to infinity. The Upper Rainbow is used to determine the price ranges that can be considered for selling stocks already purchased. The top rainbow has boundaries between the spectra in the form of crosses . And only the Blue Spectrum of the Upper Rainbow has only one boundary. The presence of the Empty Area (the size of 4 EPS) above the Lower Rainbow creates some asymmetry between the two rainbows - the Lower Rainbow looks wider than the Upper Rainbow. This asymmetry is deliberate because the market tends to fall much faster and deeper than it grows . Therefore, a wider Lower Rainbow is conducive to buying stocks at a good discount during a period of massive "sell-offs". The situation when the Lower Rainbow is below the center of fluctuations (the thick red line) and the Upper Rainbow is above the center of fluctuations is called an Obverse . It is only possible to buy a stock in an Obverse situation. The situation when the Lower Rainbow is above the center of fluctuations and the Upper Rainbow is below the center of fluctuations is called Reverse . In this situation, the stock cannot be considered for purchase , according to my approach. Selling a previously purchased stock is possible in both situations: Reverse and Obverse. After loading the indicator, you can see a hint next to the closing price - Reverse or Obverse now. Because the size of the deviation from the center of fluctuation depends on the size of the diluted EPS, several important conclusions can be made: - The increase in the width of both rainbows in the Obverse situation tells me about the growth of profits in the companies. - The decrease in the width of both rainbows in the Obverse situation tells me about a decrease in profits in the companies. - The increase in the width of both rainbows in the Reverse situation tells me about the growth of losses in the companies. - The decrease in the width of both rainbows in the Reverse situation tells me about the decrease in losses in the companies. - The higher the company's level of profit, the larger my "margin of safety" should be. This will provide the necessary margin of safety in the event of a transition to a cycle of declining financial results. The corresponding width of the Lower Rainbow will just create this "reserve". - The growth in profit in the company (after buying its shares) will allow me to stay in the position longer due to the expansion of the Upper Rainbow. - A decrease in profit in the company (after buying its shares) will allow me to close the position faster due to the narrowing of the Upper Rainbow. So the Rainbow indicator shows me a price range that can be considered for purchase if all the necessary conditions are met. By being in this price range, my investment will have a certain margin of safety or "margin of safety." It will also tell me when to exit a stock position based on the company's earnings analysis. Part 3: Crazy Mr. Market The Fundamental strength of a company influences the long-term price performance of its shares. This is a thesis that I believe in and use in my work. A company that does not live in debt and quickly converts its goods or services into money will be appreciated by the market. This all sounds good, you say, but what should an investor do who needs to decide here and now? Moreover, one has to act in conditions of constant changes in market sentiment. Current talk about the company's excellent prospects can be replaced by a pessimistic view of it literally the next day. Therefore, the stock price chart of any companies, regardless of its fundamental strength, can resemble the chaotic drawings of preschool children. Working with such uncertainty required me to develop my own attitude towards it. Benjamin Graham's idea of market madness was of invaluable help to me in this. Imagine that the market is your business partner, "Mr. Market". Every day, he comes to your office to check in and offer you a deal with shares of your mutual companies. Sometimes he wants to buy your share, sometimes he intends to sell his. And each time he offers a price at random, relying only on his intuition. When he is in a panic and afraid of everything, he wants to get rid of his shares. When he feels euphoria and blind faith in the future, he wants to buy your share. This is how crazy your partner is. Why is he acting like this? According to Graham, this is how all investors behave who do not understand the real value/cost of what they own. They jump from side to side and do it with the regularity of a "maniac" every day. The smart investor's job is to understand the fundamental value of your business and just wait for the next visit from crazy Mr. Market. If he panics and offers to buy his stocks at a surprisingly low price, take them and wish him luck. If he begs you to sell him stocks and quotes an unusually high price, sell them and wish him luck. The Rainbow indicator is used to evaluate these two poles. Now let's look at the conditions of opening and closing a position according to the indicator. So, the Lower Rainbow has four differently colored spectra: blue, green, orange, and red. Each one highlights the desired range of prices acceptable for buying in an Obverse situation. The Blue Spectrum is upper regarding the Green Spectrum, and the Green Spectrum is lower regarding the Blue Spectrum, etc. - If the current price is in the Blue Spectrum of the Lower Rainbow, that is a reason to consider that company for buying the first portion (*) of the stock. - If the current price has fallen below (into the Green Spectrum of the Lower Rainbow), that is a reason to consider this company to buy a second portion of the stock. - If the current price has fallen below (into the Orange Spectrum of the Lower Rainbow), it is a reason to consider this company to buy a third portion of the stock. - If the current price has fallen below (into the Red Spectrum of the Lower Rainbow), that is a reason to consider that company to buy a fourth portion of the stock. (*) The logic of the Rainbow Indicator implies that no more than 4 portions of one company's stock can be purchased. One portion refers to the number of shares you can consider buying at the current price (depending on your account size and personal diversification ratio - see information below). The Upper Rainbow also has four differently colored spectra: blue, green, orange, and red. Each of them highlights the appropriate range of prices acceptable for closing an open position. - If the current price is in the Red Spectrum of the Upper Rainbow, I close one portion of an open position bought in the Red Spectrum of the Lower Rainbow. - If the current price is in the Orange Spectrum of the Upper Rainbow, I close one portion of an open position bought in the Orange Spectrum of the Lower Rainbow. - If the current price is in the Green Spectrum of the Upper Rainbow, I close one portion of an open position bought in the Green Spectrum of the Lower Rainbow. - If the current price is in the Blue Spectrum of the Upper Rainbow, I close one portion of an open position bought in the Blue Spectrum of the Lower Rainbow. This position-closing logic applies to both the Obverse and Reverse situations. In both cases, the position is closed in portions in four steps. However, there are 3 exceptions to this rule when it is possible to close an entire position in whole rather than in parts: 1. If there is a Reverse situation and the current price is above the thick red line. 2.if I decide to invest in another company and I do not have enough free finances to purchase the required number of shares (Portfolio Replacement Rule). 3. If I learn of events that pose a real threat to the continued existence of the companies (for example, filing for bankruptcy), I can close the position earlier, without waiting for the price to fall into the corresponding Upper Rainbow spectrum (Force majeure Position Closing Rule). So, the basic scenario of opening and closing a position assumes the gradual purchase of shares in 4 stages and their gradual sale in 4 stages. However, there is a situation where one of the stages is skipped in the case of buying shares and in the case of selling them. For example, because the Fundamental Strength Indicator and the P/E ratio became acceptable for me only at a certain stage (spectrum) or the moment was missed for a transaction due to technical reasons. In such cases, I buy or sell more than one portion of a stock in the spectrum I am in. The number of additional portions will depend on the number of missed spectra. For example, if I have no position in the stock of the company in question, all conditions for buying the stock have been met, and the current price is in the Orange Spectrum of the Lower Rainbow, I can buy three portions of the stock at once (for the Blue, Green, and Orange Spectrum). I will sell these three portions in the corresponding Upper Rainbow spectra (orange, green, and blue). However, if, for some reason, the Orange Spectrum of the Upper Rainbow was missed, and the current price is in the Green Spectrum - I will sell two portions of the three (in the Green Spectrum). I will sell the last, third portion only when the price reaches the Blue Spectrum of the Upper Rainbow. The table also contains additional information in the form of the current value of the company's market capitalization and P/E ratio. This allows me to use these two indicators within one indicator. Returning to the madness of the market, I would like to mention that this is a reality that cannot be fought, but can be used to achieve results. To get a sense of this, I will give an example of one of the stereotypes of an investor who uses fundamental analysis in his work.His thinking might be: If I valued a company on its financial performance and bought it, then I should stay in the position long enough to justify my expenses of analysis. In this way, the investor deliberately deprives himself of flexibility in decision-making. He will be completely at a loss if the financial performance starts to deteriorate rapidly and the stock price starts to decline rapidly. It is surprising that the same condition will occur in the case of a rapid upward price movement. The investor will torment himself with the question "what to do?" because I just bought stocks of this company, expecting to hold them for the long term. It is at moments like these that I'm aware of the value of the Rainbow Indicator. If it is not a force majeure or a Reverse situation, I just wait until the price reaches the Upper Rainbow. Thus, I can close the position in a year, in a month or in a few weeks. I don't have a goal to hold an open position for a long time, but I do have a goal to constantly adhere to the chosen investment strategy. Part 4: Diversification Ratio If the price is in the Lower Rainbow range and all other criteria are met, it is a good time to ask yourself, "How many shares to buy?" To answer this question, I need to understand how many companies I plan to invest in. Here I adhere to the principle of diversification - that is, distributing investments between the shares of several companies. What is this for? To reduce the impact of any company on the portfolio as a whole. Remember the old saying: don't put all your eggs in one basket. Like baskets, stocks can fall and companies can file for bankruptcy and leave the exchange. In this regard, diversification is a way to avoid losing capital due to investing in only one company. How do I determine the minimum number of companies for a portfolio? This amount depends on my attitude towards the capital that I will use to invest in stocks. If I accept the risk of losing 100% of my capital, then I can only invest in one company. It can be said that in this case there is no diversification. If I accept the risk of losing 50% of my capital, then I should invest in at least two companies, and so on. I just divide 100% by the percentage of capital that I can safely lose. The resulting number, rounded to the nearest whole number, is the minimum number of companies for my portfolio. As for the maximum value, it is also easy to determine. To achieve this, you need to multiply the minimum number of companies by four (this is how many spectra the Lower or Upper Rainbow of the indicator contains). How many companies I end up with in my portfolio will depend on from this set of factors. However, this amount will always fluctuate between the minimum and maximum, calculated according to the principle described above. I call the maximum possible number of companies in a portfolio the diversification coefficient. It is this coefficient that is involved in calculating the number of shares needed to be purchased in a particular spectrum of the Lower Rainbow. How does this work? Let's go to the indicator settings and fill in the necessary fields for the calculation. + Cash in - Cash out +/- Closed Profit/Loss + Dividends - Fees - Taxes +Cash in - the number of finances deposited into my account -Cash out - the number of finances withdrawn from my account +/-Closed Profit/Loss - profit or loss on closed positions +Dividends - dividends received on the account -Fees - broker and exchange commission -Taxes - taxes debited from the account Diversification coefficient The diversification coefficient determines how diversified I want my portfolio to be. For example, a diversification coefficient of 20 means that I plan to buy 20 share portions of different companies, but no more than 4 portions per company (based on the number of Lower Rainbow spectra). The cost of purchased shares of this company (fees excluded) Here, I specify the amount of already purchased shares of the company in question in the currency of my portfolio. For example, if at this point, I have purchased 1000 shares at $300 per share, and my portfolio is expressed in $, I enter - $300,000. The cost of all purchased shares in the portfolio (fees excluded) Here, I enter the amount of all purchased shares for all companies in the currency of my portfolio (without commissions spent on the purchase). This is necessary to determine the amount of available funds available to purchase shares. After entering all the necessary data, I move on to the checkbox, by checking which I confirm that the company in question has successfully passed all preliminary stages of analysis (Fundamental strength indicator, P/E ratio, critical news). Without the check, the calculation is not performed. This is done intentionally because the use of the Rainbow Indicator for the purpose of purchasing shares is possible only after passing all the preliminary stages. Next, I click "Ok" and get the calculation in the form of a table on the left. Market Capitalization The value of a company's market capitalization, expressed in the currency of its stock price. Price / EPS Diluted Current value of the P/E ratio. Free cash in portfolio This is the amount of free cash available to purchase stocks. Please note that the price of the stock and the funds in your portfolio must be denominated in the same currency. On TradingView, you can choose which currency to display the stock price in. Cash amount for one portion The amount of cash needed to buy one portion of a stock. This depends on the diversification ratio entered. If you divide this value + Cash in - Cash out +/- Closed Profit/Loss + Dividends - Fees - Taxes by the diversification coefficient, you get Cash amount for one portion . Potential portions amount Number of portions, available for purchase at the current price. It can be a fractional number. Cash amount to buy The amount of cash needed to buy portions available for purchase at the current price. Shares amount to buy Number of shares in portions available for purchase at the current price. Thus, the diversification ratio is a significant parameter of my stocks' investment strategy. It shows both the limit on the number of companies and the limit on the number of portions for the portfolio. It also participates in calculating the number of finances and shares to purchase at the current price level. Changing the diversification coefficient is possible already during the process of investing in stocks. If my capital ( + Cash in - Cash out +/- Closed Profit/Loss + Dividends - Fees - Taxes ) has changed significantly (by more than Cash amount for one portion ), I always ask myself the same question: "What risk (as a percentage of capital) is acceptable for me now?" If the answer involves a change in the minimum number of companies in the portfolio, then the diversification ratio will also be recalculated. Therefore, the number of finances needed to purchase one portion will also change. We can say that the diversification ratio controls the distribution of finances among my investments. Part 5: Prioritization and Exceptions to the Rainbow Indicator Rules When analyzing a company and its stock price using the Fundamental Strength Indicator and the Rainbow Indicator, a situation may arise where all the conditions for buying are met in two or more companies. At the same time, ⁣ Free cash in the portfolio does not allow me to purchase the required number of portions from different companies. In that case, I need to decide which companies I will give priority to. To decide, I follow the following rules: 1. Priority is given to companies from the top-tier sector group (how these groups are defined is explained in this article ). That is, the first group prevails over the second, and the second over the third. These companies must also meet the purchase criteria described in Part 2. 2. If after applying the first rule, two or more companies have received priority, I look at the value of the Fundamental Strength Indicator. Priority is given to companies that have a fundamental strength of 8 points or higher. They must also be within two points of the leader in terms of fundamental strength. For example, if a leader has a fundamental strength of 12 points, then the range under consideration will be from 12 to 10 points. 3. If, after applying the second rule, two or more companies received priority, I look at which spectrum of the Lower Rainbow the current price of these companies is in. If a company's stock price is on the lower end of the spectrum, I give it priority. 4. If, after applying the third rule, two or more companies have received priority, I look at the P/E ratio. The Company with the lower P/E ratio gets priority. After applying these four rules, I get the company with the highest priority. This is the company that wins the fight for my investment. To figure out the next priority to buy, I repeat this process over and over again to use up all the money I have allocated for investing in stocks. The second part of the guide mentioned two rules that I use when deciding whether to close positions: - The Rule for replacing shares in a portfolio. - Force majeure position closure Rule. They take priority over the Rainbow Indicator. This means that the position may be closed even if the Rainbow indicator does not signal this. Let's consider each rule separately. Portfolio stock replacement Rule Since company stocks are not an asset with a guaranteed return, I can get into a situation where the position is open for a long time without an acceptable financial result. That is, the price of the company's shares is not growing, and the Rainbow indicator does not signal the need to sell shares. In this case, I can replace the problematic companies with a new one. The criteria for a problem company are: - 3 months have passed since the position was opened. - Fundamental strength below 5 points. - The width of both rainbows decreased during the period of holding the position. To identify a new company that will take the place of the problematic one, I use the prioritization principle from this section. At the same time, I always consider this possibility as an option. The thing is that frequently replacing stocks in my portfolio is not a priority for me and is seen as a negative action. A new company would have to have really outstanding parameters for me to take advantage of this option. Force majeure position closure Rule If my portfolio contains stocks of a company that has critical news, then I can close the position without using the Rainbow Indicator. How to determine whether this news is critical or not is described in this article . Part 6: Examples of using the indicator Let’s consider the situation with NVIDIA Corporation stock (ticker - NVDA). September 02, 2022: Fundamental Strength Indicator - 11.46 (fundamentally strong company). P/E - 39.58 (acceptable to me). Current price - $136.47 (is in the Orange Spectrum of the Lower Rainbow). Situation - Obverse. There is no critical news for the company. The basic conditions for buying this company's stock are met. The Rainbow Indicator settings are filled out as follows: The table to the left of the Rainbow Indicator shows how many shares are possible to buy in the Orange Spectrum of Lower Rainbow at the current price = 10 shares. This corresponds to 2.73 portions. To give you an example, I buy 10 shares of NVDA at $136.47 per share. October 14, 2022: NVDA's stock price has moved into the Red Spectrum of the Lower Rainbow. The Fundamental Strength Indicator is 10.81 (fundamentally strong company). P/E is 35.80 (an acceptable level for me). Current price - $112.27 (is in the Red Spectrum of the Lower Rainbow). Situation - Obverse. There is no critical news for the company. The basic conditions for buying this company's stock are still met. The Rainbow Indicator settings are populated as follows: The table to the left of the Rainbow Indicator shows how many shares are possible to buy in the Lower Rainbow Red Spectrum at the current price (5 shares). This corresponds to 1.12 portions. To give you an example, I buy 5 shares of NVDA at $112.27 per share. A total of 3.85 portions were purchased, which is the maximum possible number of portions at the current price level. The remainder in the form of 0.15 portions can be purchased only at a price level below $75 per share. January 23, 2023: The price of NVDA stock passes through the Red Spectrum of the Upper Rainbow and stops in the Orange Spectrum. As an example, I sell 5 shares bought in the Red Spectrum of the Lower Rainbow, for example at $180 per share (+60%). And also a third of the shares bought in the Orange Spectrum, 3 shares out of 10, for example at $190 a share (+39%). That leaves me with 7 shares. January 27, 2023: NVDA's stock price has continued to rise and has moved into the Green Spectrum of the Upper Rainbow. This is a reason to close some of the remaining 7 shares. I divide the 7 shares by 2 and round up to a whole number - that's 4 shares. For my example, I sell 4 shares at $199 a share (+46%). Now I am left with 3 shares of stock. February 02, 2023: The price of NVDA stock moves into the Blue Spectrum of the Upper Rainbow, and I close the remaining 3 shares, for example, at $216 per share (+58%). The entire position in NVDA stock is closed. As you can see, the Fundamental Strength Indicator and the P/E ratio were not used in the process of closing the position. Decisions were made only based on the Rainbow Indicator. As another example, let's look at the situation with the shares of Papa Johns International, Inc. (ticker PZZA). November 01, 2017: Fundamental Strength Indicator - 13.22 points (fundamentally strong company). P/E - 21.64 (acceptable to me). Current price - $62.26 (is in the Blue Spectrum of the Lower Rainbow). Situation - Obverse. There is no critical news for the company. The basic conditions for buying shares of this company are met. The settings of the Rainbow Indicator are filled as follows: The table to the left of the Rainbow Indicator shows how many shares are possible to buy in the Lower Rainbow Blue Spectrum at the current price - 8 shares. This corresponds to 1 portion. To give you an example, I buy 8 shares of PZZA at a price of $62.26. August 8, 2018: PZZA's share price has moved into the Green Spectrum of the Lower Rainbow. The Fundamental Strength Indicator is a 9.83 (fundamentally strong company). P/E is 16.07 (an acceptable level for me). Current price - $38.94 (is in the Green Spectrum of the Lower Rainbow). Situation - Obverse. There is no critical news for the company. The basic conditions for buying shares of this company are still met. The Rainbow Indicator settings are populated as follows: The table to the left of the Rainbow Indicator shows how many shares are possible to buy in the Lower Rainbow Green Spectrum at the current price - 12 shares. This corresponds to 0.93 portions. To give you an example, I buy 12 shares of PZZA at a price of $38.94. A total of 1.93 portions were purchased. October 31, 2018: PZZA's stock price moves into the Upper Rainbow Red Spectrum and is $54.54 per share. Since I did not have any portions purchased in the Lower Rainbow Red Spectrum, there is no closing part of the position. February 01, 2019: After a significant decline, PZZA's stock price moves into the Orange Spectrum of the Lower Rainbow at $38.51 per share. However, I am not taking any action because the company's Fundamental Strength on this day is 5.02 (a fundamentally mediocre company). March 27, 2019: PZZA's stock price passes the green and Blue Spectrum of the Upper Rainbow. This allowed to close the previously purchased 12 shares, for example, at $50 a share (+28%) and 8 shares at $50.38 a share (-19%). Closing the entire position at once was facilitated by a significant narrowing in both rainbows. As we now know, this indicates a decline in earnings at the company. In conclusion of this instruction, I would like to remind you once again that any investment is associated with risk. Therefore, make sure that you understand all the nuances of the indicators before using them. Mandatory requirements for using the indicator: - Works only on a daily timeframe. - The indicator is only applicable to shares of public companies. - Quarterly income statements for the last year are required. - An acceptable for your P/E ratio is required to consider the company's stock for purchase. - The Rainbow Indicator only applies in tandem with the Fundamental Strength Indicator. To consider a company's stock for purchase, you need confirmation that the company is fundamentally strong. What is the value of the Rainbow Indicator? - Clearly demonstrates a company's profit and loss dynamics. - Shows the price ranges that can be used to open and close a position. - Considers the principle of gradual increase and decrease in a position. - Allows calculating the number of shares to be purchased. - Shows the current value of the P/E ratio. - Shows the current capitalization of the company. Risk disclaimer When working with the Rainbow Indicator, keep in mind that the release of the Income statement (from which diluted EPS is derived) occurs some time after the end of the fiscal quarter. This means that the new relevant data for the calculation will only appear after the publication of the new statement. In this regard, there may be a significant change in the Rainbow Indicator after the publication of the new statement. The magnitude of this change will depend on both the content of the new statement and the number of days between the end of the financial quarter and the publication date of the statement. Before the publication date of the new statement, the latest actual data will be used for the calculations. Also, once again, please note that the Rainbow Indicator can only be used in tandem with the Fundamental Strength Indicator and the P/E ratio. Without these additional filters, the Rainbow Indicator loses its intended meaning. The Rainbow Indicator allows you to determine the price ranges for opening and closing a position gradually, based on available data and the methodology I created. You can also use it to calculate the number of shares you can consider buying, considering the position you already have. However, this Indicator and/or its description and examples cannot be used as the sole reason for buying or selling stocks or for any other action or inaction related to stocks.
NASDAQ:NVDAEducation
by Be_Capy
HOW-TO use the Fundamental Strength Indicator? (full guide)Below is the complete instruction on how to use the Fundamental Strength Indicator . Part 1: The Fundamental Strength of the Company To understand what it is for, let's imagine that you manage a long-distance running team, and you need to recruit a team of excellent athletes. However, you don’t even know the names of these athletes or their contract amounts. You only have information about their health and athletic performance: hemoglobin and iron content in the blood, maximal oxygen consumption, steps-per-minute rate, speed, age, etc. Each player has their own large table with different parameters. And you have, let’s say, a thousand tables like that. If you spend 3 minutes studying one table, it will take you 50 hours to analyze all the tables, which is just over 2 days of continuous work. And how long would it take to compare each athlete with the rest? Approximately 2 years of continuous work. This is obviously no good, that is why you take a computer, enter all the data from the tables and start thinking about how you can reduce the time to compare one athlete with another. As a result of your brainstorming, you come to the following conclusions: — Each parameter has its range of values, which can give you an idea of whether an athlete is suitable or not suitable for a marathon. — The parameter may have its dynamics: it may increase from month to month, stay the same, or decrease. — Each parameter can be assigned a score. For example, the step-per-minute rate can be: — 175 and above (+1 point) — 165–174 (0 points) — 164 and below (-1 point) And you do that with each parameter. What are these points for? To convert indicators that use different units into one measurement system. Thanks to this method, you can now compare apples to oranges. Then, you sum up all the points per month and get one single number — let's call it athletic strength. You like your thought process, and you apply this algorithm to every athlete’s table. Now, instead of dozens of parameters per month, you have one number (athletic strength) for each athlete. It looks like your task has been dramatically simplified. Next, to study the dynamics of athletic strength from month to month, you “ask” your computer to create a plot for each of the athletes. This chart shows that Athlete #1's athletic strength has fluctuated chaotically in the first three quarters of 2022, possibly due to the lack of regular training. But then you observe a positive trend, where athletic strength has grown from month to month. It seems like the athlete has taken up training. Then, to compare one athlete with another, you “ask” your computer to add the average value of athletic strength over the past six months (average pre-competition training period) to the existing plot. Now, you can use the most average recent value as a weighted score of athletic strength and compare athletes with each other based on this value. Thanks to this solution, you accelerate the analysis process by a magnitude: one athlete – one number. It appears that you can then simply sort the table by the highest athletic strength weighted score and consider the best athletes. However, not wanting to sort the table every time the data is updated or when you get new athletes, you make a better decision. The logic behind the points system implies that there is a maximum and a minimum possible number of points that one athlete can get. This allows you to create ranges of scores for athletes with excellent, mediocre, and poor training. For example, let’s say the maximum is 15 and the minimum is -15. Athletes with a score of 8 to 15 will be considered as strong, 1 to 7 – mediocre, and 0 to -15 – weak. That’s it! Now, thanks to this gradation, you can simply check which range the weighted athletic strength falls within, and decide whether each athlete will be admitted to the team. I believe that now your primary selection will take no more than one working day (including a lunch break). Now let's mentally replace athletes with public companies. Instead of data on health and athletic performance, we will have data from the companies’ financial statements and financial ratios. Applying a similar algorithm, we will get the fundamental strength of the company instead of athletic strength. I think it's time to show the Fundamental Strength Indicator . Let's launch! What do we see? — First, it is a Histogram with bars of three colors: green, orange, and red. The width of the histogram depends on the depth of data from the company statements. The more historical data, the wider the histogram over time. The green color of the bars means that the company has been showing excellent financial results by the sum of the factors in that period. According to my terminology, the company has a “strong foundation” during this period. Green corresponds to values between 8 and 15 (where 15 is the maximum possible positive value on the sum of the factors). The orange color of the bars means that according to the sum of factors during this period the company demonstrated mediocre financial results, i.e., it has a “mediocre foundation” . Orange color corresponds to values from 1 to 7. The red color of the bars means that according to the sum of factors in this period of time, the company demonstrated weak financial results, i.e., it has a “weak foundation” . The red color corresponds to values from -15 to 0 (where -15 is the maximum possible negative value on the sum of factors). — Second, this is the Blue Line , which is the moving average of the Histogram bars over the last year (*). Averaging over the year is necessary to obtain a weighted estimate that is not subject to medium-term fluctuations. It is by the last value of the blue line that the actual Fundamental Strength of the company is determined. (*) The last year means the last 252 trading days, including the current trading day. — Third, these are operating, investing, and financing Cash Flows expressed in Diluted net income. These flows look like thick green, orange, and red lines, respectively. — Fourth, this is the Table on the left, which shows the latest actual value of the Fundamental Strength and Cash Flows. Indicator settings: In the indicator settings, I can disable the visibility of the Histogram, Blue Line, Cash Flows (each separately), and Table. It helps to study each of the parameters separately. It is also possible to change the color, transparency, and thickness of lines. The movie Moneyball was released in 2011, where Brad Pitt plays the role of Billy Bean, the sports manager of the Oakland Athletics baseball team. With a small budget, he managed to assemble a high-scoring team based on the analysis of player performance. As a result, this approach was applied by other teams in the league, and Billy Bean received massive recognition from the professional community. Part 2: Benchmark Business Model One day, when I had already grasped the concept of the Fundamental Strength of a company, I was returning home from vacation. I was in a taxi and the driver was listening to an audiobook. As the drive took longer than an hour, I had nothing to do but listen to the story. I liked the content. It was a fictional novel with a plot centered around the main character named Alex Rogo. He is a manager of one of the three enterprises of the UniCo corporation. Even though Alex spends all his time and energy on work, things are not going very well for the company: over the past six months, the company has only had losses. This leaves Alex's executives no choice but to give him an ultimatum: if he can’t radically improve the situation in three months, the enterprise will be shut down, and he will be left without a job. At the same time, Alex's wife is tired of her husband’s absence in her personal life, so she decides to leave him. Anyway, the story's beginning turned out to be very dramatic, and I wondered how Alex would cope with all this. Luckily, in this stressful time, he meets his former physics teacher Jonah, who now consults companies regarding efficient production. Alex tells his old acquaintance about what’s going on and how he managed to increase labor productivity at the enterprise after purchasing new robots. However, the losses continue to hang over his head like the sword of Damocles. After listening to Alex's story, Jonah wisely suggests that the problem with his enterprise lies in the management is concerned about anything but the main goal of their business, which is creating money or profit. Jonah explains to Alex that all management ideas related to expanding the sales market, using new technologies, or improving product quality can lead the company to a disaster if fundamental things are not considered. In his opinion, management should only focus on three indicators: — Throughput , which is the rate at which a company makes money through sales. — Inventory , which is all the money invested by the company in assets: premises, equipment, patents, raw materials, etc.: that is, in something that can then be sold. — Operational expenses , which are all the money a company spends turning investments into cash, or something that can’t be sold, such as the salary of employees, the cost of rent, payment for delivery services, etc. Thus, the management’s job is to make improvements that will ultimately lead to an increase in Throughput and a decrease in Inventory and Operational expenses. For example, Alex’s purchase of robots to increase the number of products produced has led to an increase in production. However, suppose you look at it through the prism proposed by Jonah. In that case, we actually have the following picture: Inventory has increased, Operational expenses have not decreased (no one has been fired), and the robots can’t contribute to sales growth in any way (the Throughput is not increasing). As a result, this was not an improvement, but a deterioration. The accumulation of such bad decisions eventually leads to the unprofitability of the company. Conversely, continuous improvements that will increase the Throughput and reduce Inventory and Operational expenses will inevitably lead to achieving the main goal – making money. After I got home, I tried to find this book on the Internet. It turned out that it was written by physicist and philosopher Eliyahu M. Goldratt back in 1984. The novel is called The Goal . That’s when I realized that if the company's management adheres to the approach described by Goldratt, then after a while, we will most likely see a fundamentally strong company. And the Fundamental Strength Indicator clearly shows how much the management has succeeded along this path. For example, according to Goldratt, an increase in Throughput should lead to an increase in Earnings per share (EPS) and Total revenue . The reduction in Inventory may be linked with a decrease in Inventory to revenue ratio . Optimization of Operational expenses will definitely reduce the Operating expense ratio . All these parameters are considered when calculating the Fundamental Strength of the company. So, let's move on to the methodology for calculating the Fundamental Strength Indicator. The main idea that inspired me to create this indicator is: "Even if you buy just 1 share of a company, treat it like buying the whole business" . Guided by this approach, you can imagine what kind of business an investor is interested in owning and simultaneously determine the input parameters for calculating the indicator. For me, a benchmark business is: — A business that operates efficiently without diminishing the return on shareholders' investment. To assess the efficiency and profitability of a business, I use the following financial ratios(*): Diluted EPS and Return on Equity (ROE). The first two parameters for calculating the indicator are there. — A business that scales sales and optimizes its costs. From this perspective, the following financial ratios are suitable: Gross margin, Operating expense ratio, and Total revenue. Plus three other metrics. — A business that turns goods/services into cash quickly and does not fall behind on payments to suppliers. The following financial ratios will fit here: Days payable, Days sales outstanding, and Inventory to revenue ratio. These are three more metrics. — A business that does not resort to significant accounts payable and shows financial strength. Here I use the following financial ratios: Current ratio, Interest coverage, and Debt to revenue ratio. These are the last three parameters. (*) If you are keen to learn more about these financial ratios, I suggest reading my two articles on TradingView: Financial ratios: digesting them together What can financial ratios tell us? Next, each of the parameters is assigned a certain number of points based on its last value or the position of that value relative to the annual maximum and minimum. For example, if the Current ratio: — greater than or equal to 2 (+1 point); — less than or equal to 1 (-1 point); — more than 1 but less than 2 (0 points). Or for example, if Diluted EPS: — near or above the annual high (+2 points); — near the annual minimum and below (-2 points); — between the annual maximum and minimum (0 points). And so on with each of the parameters. As a result, the maximum number of points a company can score is 15 points. The minimum number of points a company can score is -15 points. These levels are marked with horizontal dotted lines: the green line is for the maximum value, and the red line is for the minimum. I track the number of points for each day of a company's life on a three-color Histogram. The resulting average value for the last year is on the Blue Line. For me, it is the last value of the Blue Line that determines: this is the actual Fundamental Strength of the company. As an additional filter, for example, when comparing two companies where all other conditions are equal: I use the dynamics of Cash Flows expressed in Diluted net income. These are the thick green, orange, and red lines over the Histogram. Examples: Below, I will evaluate various companies using the Fundamental Strength Indicator. Tesla, Inc. The indicator shows that since 2020, Tesla Inc. has been steadily increasing its Fundamental Strength (from 3.27 in Q1 2020 to 12.79 in Q1 2023). This is noticeable both by the color change of the Histogram from orange to green and by the rising Blue Line. If you look in detail at what has been happening with the financials during this time, it's clear what meaningful work the company has done. Revenues have almost quadrupled. Earnings per share have increased 134 times. At the same time, Total debt to revenue fell almost 10 times. Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. The company, formed in 2018 by the merger of Keurig Green Mountain and Dr Pepper Snapple Group, has failed to deliver outstanding financial results, causing its Fundamental Strength to fall from 4.63 in Q1 2018 to -0.53 in Q1 2023. During this period, the decline in diluted earnings per share was accompanied by higher debt and deteriorating liquidity. Costco Wholesale Corporation Wholesaler Costco has been surprisingly stable in its financial performance and with steady growth in both earnings and revenue. This is the reason the Histogram bars are exceptionally green throughout the calculation of the indicator. The Fundamental Strength has not changed in three years and is high at 11 points. Part 3: Company Cash Flow Dynamics The other day I came across an interesting article about the work of the Swiss company Glencore International AG in the 1990s. This company specializes in trading raw materials, and at that time it was actively trading with the countries that had left the USSR. None of those countries had foreign currency, and trust in local currencies had not yet appeared, so it was necessary to exchange commodities for commodities like in the Middle Ages. For example, to sell copper in Kazakhstan, a Swiss company bought raw sugar in Brazil, then took it to Ukraine for refining, then the refined sugar was exchanged for Siberian oil in Russia, then the oil was exchanged for copper ore in Mongolia, which was then sent to a plant in Kazakhstan to create copper suitable for sale on the world market. As we can see, money was used here only at the moment of purchase of raw sugar and sale of copper, the rest of the chain of transactions was an exchange of goods for goods. It turns out the following scheme: Money - Raw sugar - Refined sugar - Oil - Copper ore - Copper - Money' Of course, all of this made sense when Money' (with a stroke) equaled big money. Otherwise, the cost of preparing and executing such a complex transaction simply wouldn't have paid off. This example once again convinced me how significant a role money plays in any company's operations. Can you imagine the chaos that a business can become without money and having to make up similar supply chains? Money simplifies and accelerates all processes in a company, so competent management of these flows is the basis of an effective business. If you compare a company to a living organism, Cash Flow(*) is its circulatory system. It is thanks to this system that the company is supplied with everything it needs to produce goods or services. (*) If you are keen to learn more about Cash Flows, I suggest reading my two articles on TradingView: Cash flow statement or Three great rivers Cash flow vibrations Considering that cash flows play a fundamental role in the activity of any company, it is reasonable to assume that their analysis will give us the necessary information to decide. For this reason, an additional parameter was added to the Fundamental Strength Indicator : the dynamics of Cash Flows expressed in Diluted net income(*). (*) Since the value of income can be negative, the Diluted net income module is taken, that is, without the "minus" sign. Why do I use income as a unit of measure of Cash Flows? Because it is a good way to make the scale of indicator values the same for companies from different countries, with different currencies. It also allows you to use a single value scale for both Cash Flows and Fundamental Strength. So, let's take a look at how the dynamics of Cash Flows look like in the Fundamental Strength Indicator. These are three lines of different colors, which are located over the Histogram. Each of the flows corresponds to a specific color: — Operating cash flow: green line; — Investing cash flow: orange line; — Financing cash flow: red line. In this way, I can track the dynamics of the company's Cash Flow over time. To interpret the dynamics of Cash Flows, I pay attention to the following patterns: — How the cash flows are positioned in relation to each other; — In which zone each of the cash flows is located: in the positive or negative; — What is the trend of each of the cash flows; — How volatile each of the cash flows is. As an example, let's look at several companies to interpret the dynamics of their Cash Flows. John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc. This is the most ideal situation for me: operating cash flow (green line) is above the other cash flows, investment cash flow (orange line) is near zero and practically unchanged, and financial cash flow (red line) is consistently below zero. This picture shows that the company lives off its operating cash flow, does not increase its debt, does not spend a substantial amount of money on expensive purchases, and retains (does not sell off) assets. Parker Hannifin Corporation With stable operating cash flow (green line), the company implements investment programs by raising additional funding. This is noticeable due to an increase in financial cash flow (red line) and a simultaneous decrease in investment cash flow (orange line) with a significant deepening into negative areas. Apparently, there is not enough operating cash flow to realize the planned investments. One has to wonder how sustainable a company can be if it invests in its development using borrowed funds. Schlumberger N. V. The chaotic intertwining of cash flows outside the Fundamental Strength range (-15 to 15) is indicative of the company's rich life, but to me, it is an indicator of high riskiness of its actions. And as we can see, Fundamental Strength has only begun to strengthen in the last year, when the external appearance of cash flow has normalized. Thus, when the Fundamental Strength of two companies is equally good, I use an additional filter in the form of Cash Flow dynamics. This helps me to clarify my interest in this or that company. What is the value of the Fundamental Strength Indicator: — allows for a quantitative assessment of a company's financial performance in points (from -15 to 15 points); — allows you to visually track how the company's financial performance has changed (positively/negatively) over time; — allows to visually trace the movement of main cash flows over time; — accelerates the process of selecting companies for your shortlist (if you are focused on financial results when selecting companies); — allows you to protect yourself from investing in companies with weak and mediocre fundamentals. Mandatory requirements for using the indicator: — works only on a daily timeframe; — only applies to shares of public companies; — company financial statements for the last 4 quarters and more are required; — it is necessary to have the data from the Balance sheet, Income statement, and Cash flow statement, required for the calculation. If at least one component required for calculating the Fundamental Strength is missing, the message "no data to calculate the Fundamental Strength correctly" is displayed. In the same case, but for the operating cash flow, the message "no data to calculate the Operating Cash Flow correctly" is shown, and similarly for other flows. Risk disclaimer: When working with the Fundamental Strength Indicator and the additional filter in the form of Cash Flows, you should understand that the publication of the Balance sheet, Income statement, and Cash flow statement takes place sometime after the end of the financial quarter. This means that new relevant data for the calculation will only appear after the publication of the new statements. In this regard, there may be a significant change in the values of the Indicator after the publication of new statements. The magnitude of this change will depend both on the content of the new statements and on the number of days between the end of the financial quarter and the publication date of the statements. Until the date of publication of the new statements, the latest relevant data will be used for calculations. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the calculation of Fundamental Strength and Cash Flows requires the availability of data for all parameters of the valuation model . It uses data that is exclusively available on TradingView (there is no reconciliation with other sources). If at least one parameter is missing, I switch to another company's analysis to continue using the indicator. Thus, the Fundamental Strength Indicator and an additional filter in the form of Cash Flows make it possible to evaluate the financial results of the company based on the available data and the methodology I created. A simple visualization in the form of a three-color Histogram, a Blue line, and three thick Cash Flow lines significantly reduces the time for selecting fundamentally strong companies that fit the criteria of the selected model. However, this Indicator and/or its description and/or examples cannot be used as the sole reason for buying or selling stocks or for any other action or inaction related to stocks.
NASDAQ:NVDAEducation
by Be_Capy
The most subjective facet of my decision-making systemIn the previous publication I started talking about my decision-making system. I use it when investing in stocks. This system allows me to answer three questions: - which stocks to choose? - at what price to make a trade? - and in what quantity? In this post, I will continue to answer the question Which stocks to pick? and tell you about another facet of my crystal. As you can see, my decision-making system is quite formalized. What do I mean? It has clear criteria for which a company must be checked before investing in its stocks. If we go deeper into this idea, we can say that the state of affairs in any public company can be assessed using numbers from its statements and stock exchange prices for its stocks. All this can be visualized, put into a form that is readable for the investor, and accelerate the decision-making process many times over. However, there is an area with information that hovers around the companies, directly or indirectly influences it, but is poorly formalized: this is News . News can be called a message related to a company and distributed through its website, media, and social networks. This message triggers an almost knee-jerk reaction among stock investors (and traders). They will try to interpret the information received, make a forecast, and in some cases even make a trade. It is for this reason that the moment the news is published is often accompanied by a sharp movement in the stock price and an increase in trading volume. The order book now has a lot more players than before. These are traders excited by the news, confident of what will happen next. Here I can’t help but recall the allegory about Crazy Mister Market from Benjamin Graham. It presents the market as a partner who is constantly knocking on your door and offering you crazy ideas (stock prices). Where does this mister get his madness from? My answer is simple — from the news. Despite this, I cannot help but pay attention to the news, I cannot help but interpret it, to build predictions in my head. This happens reflexively, as a reaction to boiling water hitting my skin. However, will I make a trade under the influence of this information? We'll talk about this at the end of the post. Let's find out what news is available and where to find it. In this publication, I will only consider matters relevant to the stock market. That is information that can directly or indirectly affect the state of affairs in the companies. As I work, I divide the news flow into two categories: macro-event and corp-event . A macro-event is something that can indirectly impact the state of affairs in a company since it impacts the external environment in which it lives. For example: 1. In the third quarter, US GDP grew by 4.9% year-on-year, which was better than expected (*). GDP Dynamics are a general economic indicator of economic growth in a particular country. This event only indirectly affects the business of the US companies. In other words, a company can be unprofitable even if the GDP in the country of its business is growing. (*) In the news, you will often see the following wording: - better than expected - worse than expected - as expected These are significant clarifications since it is believed that the exchange price already considers expectations for future events. Therefore, the coincidence with expectations will most likely be perceived calmly by market participants. Conversely, price fluctuations can be significant if the news can be qualified as a “surprise”. 2. The EPA is setting rules for a proposed “methane fee” on waste generated by oil and gas companies. This news also refers to macro events, as it impacts an entire industry: the oil and gas business. Moreover, please note that methane fee is only suggested. That is, it is not at all a fact that it will ultimately be implemented. Unlike macro events, a corp-event directly affects the state of affairs in the companies. Let's look at some of them. For example: 3. Hilton's (HLT) 3rd quarter Profit was in line with revenue forecasts. The news contains information about Hilton's financial results for the 3rd quarter. Of course, this directly impacts investors’ assessment of the company's prospects, and therefore the volume of investment in it. 4. Devastating wildfires have forced California's largest utility, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, to plan the sale of gas assets. Based on the news headline, we can conclude that the company is considering selling a significant part of its business (since the word “gas” even appears in the company name) to compensate for the damage from the devastating fires. Of course, this directly points to the difficult situation in the companies. Well, we figured out which news is considered a macro-event and which is a corporate event. Now let's find them where we need to. First, let's look at the event calendars that are available on TradingView. They are convenient because they inform us in advance what event to expect on the date in question. Let's start with the ⁣Economic calendar . You can find it in the main TradingView Products menu (Products -> Economic calendar ). This calendar shows upcoming publications of key macroeconomic indicators such as GDP, ⁣ interest rate, unemployment, and inflation. It will also reflect national events — for example, presidential elections. Thus, you will only see macro events in it. Click on globe and select the country you are interested in, a group of countries, or the whole world: this way you will filter events by geography. If you are interested in tracking only important events, there is a special button for this High importance . There is also a three-column importance indicator next to each event. If all are shaded, the event is of maximum importance. You can expand any event, read information about it, view statistics, and even add it to your personal calendar. In terms of importance, the higher the importance of the event, the stronger the market reaction may be after the information is released. Furthermore, the strength of the reaction will depend on how much reality diverges from expectations for this event (with the forecast). Please note that the current value published is published to the left of the forecast, and the value for the previous period is published to the right. This allows you to evaluate the released metric over time. So, my standard set of filters for the economic calendar is: - Geography: all over the world; - High importance; - This week; - All categories. The economic calendar has been set up. There is another calendar on TradingView: this is Earnings calendar . It is located in the interface for working with Supercharts and, of course, is intended for analyzing corporate events. Once you go to the chart, click on the calendar icon in the menu on the right, and the events panel will open in front of you. The Earnings calendar will contain the names of the companies, their next reporting date, and analysts' estimates of earnings per share: EPS. In its meaning, this estimate is an average expectation or forecast. Therefore, any strong discrepancy between current data and the forecast value can greatly change the value of the company's stocks. By the way, you can check this simply by clicking on the company's name in the calendar: the window with the stock price chart will update instantly. The released earnings per share value can be viewed both on the chart itself and in the company's information (the top menu button on the right). The current value will be marked with either a red circle (below the forecast) or a green circle (above the forecast). The gray circle indicates the forecast itself. Calendars are convenient because they present us with the main essence of the news in a compressed, digitized form. The description of such news is not as important as the value of the key indicator. However, if you want to read classic text news about a related company, simply click on the lightning bolt icon on your chart. You can also find news grouped by asset class, region, news agency, etc. in the main menu of the TradingView site's root page. Of the groups presented, I most often use News Flow to get a general context of what is happening. Returning to my decision-making system, there is news (let's call it critical ) that can trigger the closure of a position or non-opening of a position in the shares of a particular company, even though the main indicators do not suggest this. To determine such news, I ask myself three questions: 1. Do I trust this news source? We are surrounded by many sources of news: social networks, news sites, television, etc. It’s easy to check everyone’s reputation on the Internet. Therefore, to take the news into account, you must trust its source. If you see significant news about a company, but it is not in reputable media resources and/or on the company's website, this is a reason to think whether the source is trying to increase its popularity through a loud headline and unverified content. 2. Does this news describe an accomplished fact? Even in reputable publications, you can find publications with versions of events, forecasts, and opinions. This is good food for thought. However, when deciding, I constantly try to separate the standpoint from the fact confirmed by a reliable source. Only facts can be considered when deciding. 3. Is an accomplished fact capable of leading the company to bankruptcy? This is a difficult question that requires an assessment of the company's economic damage, and its comparison with the level of total debt to creditors and current assets. Even if a company is facing bankruptcy, it can be saved by providing assistance from the government or other businesses. Answering this question, I can listen to the opinions of analysts and my intuition. Therefore, this is the most subjective facet of my decision-making system. I just have to tell myself: “Yes, this fact can lead the company to bankruptcy” or vice versa: “No, this news is bad, but it does not pose a critical threat to the business.” So, if I answer “yes” to all three questions, then I can close a position in the shares of a particular company or not open it, guided simply by my “yes, this should be done.” The fact is that critical news comes out now, and reporting on a specific date in the future: there is a time gap between these events. Therefore, I find myself in a situation where I just need to decide and evaluate it later, in the future, based on published reports. It is similar to flying an airplane that fails during transit. The pilot may not fully understand what happened, but the choice must be made right now. If I answer “no” to any of the three questions, then I continue to use other facets of my “crystal” in standard mode, and leave the news “just for my information.” In future publications, I will continue to elaborate on my decision-making system and share my approach to choosing the price and quantity of a stock trade.
SP:SPXEducation
by Be_Capy