Weekly Trading Update #31 (Jul 29)
The only stocks you need to watch this week, hand-picked by my proprietary algorithm
Dear subscribers,
Welcome back to My Weekly Stock, where we blend in-depth market analysis with proven momentum-based trading strategies. My mission? Help you navigate the markets with unbiased, data-driven insights that you can act on.
As we head into a new week, it's time for my Weekly Trading Update! Stay tuned to learn more about how my trading strategies work and my performance.
Remember, until the end of July, you can enjoy a 30% discount on your annual subscription and unlock access to all my trading and investing portfolios!
Let’s get started!
THIS WEEK’S SNAPSHOT
Momentum Outlook: The S&P 500 was down for a second week, and momentum remains negative. We have many catalysts next week, including 4 of the Mag 7 reporting earnings and the FOMC.
Weekly Momentum Pick: Goldman Sachs ($GS) is my stock pick for this week, a leading company within the Financial sector, trading less than 2% from its 1-year high. Since 2019, my momentum picks have returned more than 500%.
Swing Trade Portfolio: 43% of my portfolio is invested across 12 positions. Walmart ($WMT, +15%) and UnitedHealth ($UNH, +12%) are the best 2 performers. Since its inception in October 2023, my Swing Trade Portfolio has returned 28%.
Trading Week Reflection:
Mega caps continued to suffer last week, trading below key short-term trend lines and making lower lows. I have exited all of them in the past two weeks, locking in my gains and protecting myself from further downside.
On the other hand, my biggest concern remains my level of invested cash, which has been stubbornly low for months. If the market recovers quickly, it could put me at risk of underperforming for a time. Given that, I am willing to be more patient with current positions and may also look to increase my position size in new trades.
WEEKLY MOMENTUM PICK
My Approach
I use a proprietary algorithm to collect momentum indicators for each company on my watchlist, such as performance over the last one and three months and the current price vs. their respective 52-week high and low. I then rank the stocks based on each indicator, assigning a score from highest to lowest, and the stock with the highest average score becomes my pick for the week.
From there, I developed a simple trading principle: I buy one stock on Monday at the market open and sell it by Friday's close. I focus on the 30 stocks from the Dow Jones (+ Alphabet). Because the strategy rewards winners, the algorithm usually selects the same stock for multiple weeks in a row.
My Performance
Since 2019, my stock picks have consistently generated strong returns, both in absolute terms and compared to the S&P 500 index. The cumulative return on my weekly momentum picks has been +574% since 2019 (when traded with stop-loss), outperforming the S&P 500 by 4x.
My stock pick was up 0.5% last week, bringing my 2024 performance to 33%.
My Momentum Pick for This Week
My stock pick for week #31 of 2024 is Goldman Sachs ($GS). The stock has risen 9% in the past month and 19% in the past quarter and is now trading less than 1% from its 52-week high. That makes $GS the stock with the best momentum profile on my watchlist.
I use a 2% stop-loss and a 6% profit target. Stop-losses are critical elements of any trading plan, particularly in periods of market volatility. I use stop-losses as price levels of interest to manage my positions, but I don’t set them up as automated orders. As a principle, I never sell on Mondays to give the trade a chance to work out.
Confidence Level: LOW
Momentum Conditions: Medium | Algo Score: 98
The confidence level is a qualitative assessment based on my experience trading these stock picks. Best-performing picks typically involve 1) supportive broader market conditions and 2) an algo score below 94, meaning the stock has room to run further.
That’s it for the free part of my Weekly Trading Update.
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