Frequently Asked Questions...

What's Pickwize?

Our definition of Pickwize: The process of identifying a stock that when bought near 10am will, when sold, have appreciated in value at least 1%.

When are Today's Picks for our subscribers posted ?

Our picks are posted no later than 9:55am.

Why we buy our stock pick at 10:00 AM ET?

Prices for the S&P Futures and major stocks frequently reverse direction during or near this time period. The basic reason for the reversal is that market price orders have been filled and more realistic prices based on supply and demand commence. Usually, the longer it takes for the first market reversal to occur, the more pre-market orders (and volume) exist. If the market is basically stable, prices typically continue in the reversed direction until about 10:25 AM ET.

In our opinion, the best time to buy the stock pick is at 10:00 AM ET.

Why do we sell our stocks with a limit order?

The simplest explanation here is because the limit order will most likely get us out of our position at the price we want.

Exactly what to do ?

1. Get Today's Primary Pick - if any.

2. Calculate the number of shares to purchase by dividing our cash position by the share price at precisely 10:00* AM ET and place an buy order for the stock. Take care to round off to the nearest 100 shares (a round lot). For example, don't place an order to buy 162 shares. Buy 100.
   
3. Receive a fill report from your broker, immediately place your limit sell order, GTC, for 1% greater than your buy price (1% on the dollar amount of the stock - not including the cents - see our example below) (with a 3% stop-loss). 1% orders fill sooner than higher percentages but you may add a little to cover your trading costs. Verify that your buy and sell orders are for the same number of shares. For example, if you bought a stock that priced at $49.99/share, then you'd place your limit order for $50.48/share. i.e $49.99 + $0.49 = $50.48
   
4. Check your position at day's end to see if your sale was filled. If not, just hold the stock until it does sell or falls to your 3% stop-loss.
   
5. If your stop-loss gets triggered you wait and watch and when the price returns to your 3% exit you get back in and place a 4% limit (3% to cover your loss and 1% for your expected return. Your stop-loss is at your entry here.
   
6. You repeat step 5 as often as necessary as our track record is very, very good. Our process finds fundamentally good companies whose stocks represent real value and are expected to cover the 1% in the near future.

* If you are able to watch the stock price movement on a chart program, and see that the stock price is in a falling price pattern you should wait for the bounce and then buy.

Maximum Loss

•  3% for the first stop, plus:

•  Ticket/commission charges per each step 5 .

What's "near future"?

Most of our stock picks cover the 1% the same day. However, some take longer. (see Archive)

Will there be a "pick" every day?

Alas, no. Sometimes several days will pass no Pick will be posted. We post stock picks only if our minimum criteria is met.

What is an M0 or M1 or M2 Pick?

While we are again tracking M0 picks, as requested, they are NOT our preferred pick.  Our preferred Picks are the M1 and M2 picks.  Last November, 2008 we upgraded our pick process and replaced the then current pick M1 with the new process.  We did this because whenever we encounter a market shift that causes our picks to cover less easily we upgrade the process to get a better quality pick.

A few of our subscribers wanted to be able to trade the ‘Pre-November’ picks so we created the ‘M0’ classification to differentiate them.  If/when the market settles down the M0 picks may become one of our ‘Preferred’ picks again.  For now, we are just tracking their performance at http://www..pickwize.com/archive.html.

How is the “Official” 10am Stock Calculated?

We take the minute of the 10am price quotes – add the high price of that minute to the low price of that minute and divide by 2 to get the average of the 10am prices. We then post the calculated price as the 10am price on our website.

Who is Pickwize?

We are stock traders, but not professionals, we have real other jobs. For years we have been looking for a system that would give consistent results. We've traded options, commodities, foreign currency, one of us was even a broker and after much trial and error we discovered Pickwize - previously we called ourselves 'the1percentsoluton'. Always try to remember, don't get greedy and you'll find it works for you like it always has in the past.

What is 1% Worth? - a Million?

First -- The "Rule of 72" is a rule of thumb that can help us compute when our money will double at a given interest rate. It's called the rule of 72 because at 10% / "period", money will double every 7.2 "period"s.

To use this simple rule, we just divide the interest into 72. In our example, if we average 2% / week from investmenting and that rate stays constant, our money will double in 72 / 2= 36 weeks (less than 1 year!). Of course we can also compute an interest rate if we are told that our money will double in so-and-so many years. For example, if our money has to double in two years so that we can buy our significant other a car, we'll need 72 / 2 = 36% rate of return / year.

Like any rule of thumb, this rule is only good for approximations.

Second, to calculate how many 1% trades you need to have to arrive at a $1,000,000, excluding commissions and taxes, use the following formula:

i.e. (log1,000,000 - log2000)/log(1+0.01) or (6-3.699)/0.00432 = 533 times. Here $5000 is the starting amount and 533 times is the number of 1% trades required to move from $5,000 to $1,000,000 - excluding commissions and taxes.

Notes:

For several months now we have been evaluating methods to improve on stock position entry and exit. Below are our findings and recommendations:

1 - We looked at several 'trend' recognition software packages over the last couple of months. While we did not do an exhaustive test of all possible software products we never the less concluded that most were too expensive, did not deliver much help, were difficult to learn, or were not really much better than a simple charting package.

2 - Several of our subscribers use 'trend' software, are happy with their purchases, and use them to good purpose but we have chosen not recommend any of them. If someone who subscribes to our service wishes to send us their process for using their software and our picks, they may do so and we may, at our discretion, post it on our web site.

3 - Below are charts of Picks. On each 5 minute chart: The Pink shaded line is the initial run up after open. The Blue shaded line is pullback from the initial run up. The Green shaded line is the position entry and 1% area. Remember when looking at these charts, they are shown as examples only.

"Buy Low - Sell High"