Today we’re diving headfirst into one of the most underappreciated — but absolutely essential — habits of successful traders: building your stock watchlist.  

I’m not talking about scribbling down tickers on a napkin or blindly copying someone’s list off Facebook, X, or Instagram. I’m talking about developing a real, battle-tested process. One that keeps you laser-focused, on top of the market’s pulse, and ready to strike when the time is right. I’ll walk you through how I do it and more importantly — why I do it that way. But – this isn’t about copying my method either. It’s about finding the rhythm that works for you. Something you can do every single day without flinching. 

Because here’s the deal — if your watchlist isn’t current, your edge is dull. The market moves fast. Stocks rotate in and out of favor like TikTok trends, and if you’re not keeping pace, you’re just guessing. Worse yet, without a reliable process, you’ll find yourself second-guessing every move, especially when the financial media clowns start chirping about some “hot tip” or doom-and-gloom headline. But when you’ve done the homework — when your list is built with intention and updated with purpose — you get something most traders never find: the courage of your own convictions. That’s the real power.  

Building a watchlist isn’t just some checklist exercise. It’s a mirror. It reflects your philosophy, your purpose, and most importantly, your intent in the market. And if you don’t get that right from the start, you’re screwed before you even place your first trade. See, investors and traders live in two different universes. Investors are like farmers — they plant seeds, sit back, and pray for sunshine over the next ten years. That’s fine for them. Let them chase dividend yields and price-to-book ratios. But traders? We’re different animals. We’re in the now business. We’re hunters. And a proper trader’s watchlist is a weapon — sharp, focused, and ready to strike. 

I don’t care about balance sheets or long-term projections. I care about movement. Volatility is my oxygen. I want stocks that are exploding out of ranges, shattering resistance, and throwing off enough momentum to fry the circuits on a CNBC soundboard. That’s why my watchlist is tight, lean, and filled with names that are doing something — not just sitting there like a sleepy REIT. I build my list to find action, to time entries, and to ride waves before the herd even knows they’re forming. That’s the whole point. A trader’s watchlist isn’t a collection — it’s a mission briefing. Anything less, and you’re just playing investor dress-up while the real pros feast on your hesitation. 

Every trader knows that finding the right stock to trade is like hunting for gold — except the river’s full of mud and noise. That’s where stock screeners come in. Think of them as your pan and sieve. You load them up with criteria — volume, float, RSI, sector heat — and they filter the garbage out so you can spot the nuggets.  

Now here’s the part the rookies miss: almost every major brokerage platform — TD Ameritrade, Schwab, E*TRADE — has some kind of built-in screener. They’ll let you slice and dice the market by fundamentals, technicals, and sectors. But here’s the kicker — they all stop short when it comes to predictive edge. That’s where VantagePoint A.I. crushes the field. Our VantagePoint family of software users doesn’t waste time digging for setups in the dark. They use IntelliScan, a next-level engine that scours thousands of permutations — technical, intermarket, and seasonal — based on predictive neural networks. It doesn’t just tell you what happened — it highlights what’s likely to happen. That’s the unfair advantage. While everyone else is playing catch-up, our traders are already locked in and executing. If you want to stop reacting and start dominating, this is where the game changes. 

Most traders build watchlists like hoarders build garages — just stuffing ticker after ticker into a bloated mess until there’s no room left to think straight. That’s not trading, that’s chaos with a keyboard. You need a process, not a pile.  

Look, if you roll into the market every morning like it’s some kind of guessing game, you’re toast. You wouldn’t walk into a job interview unprepared, right? Or take a test without studying? Same deal here. The market is a shapeshifting beast — no two days are the same. And if you’re not armed with a killer list of stocks to focus on… you’re basically bringing a butter knife to a gunfight. 

Now, every single day I get asked: “What’s on your watchlist?” And here’s my answer — doesn’t matter. What matters is what’s on your watchlist. The pros? They don’t scan 9,000 tickers. They zero in on a tight list of assets they know inside and out. That’s what separates the weekend dabblers from the full-time ninjas. 

Here’s how I do it. I look for fire. I want stocks making noise — the kind of names traders are whispering about and institutions are piling into. You know, hot stocks. 

Let me make something crystal clear: I don’t start my watchlist by throwing darts at tickers or “diversifying” across sectors like some MBA professor told me to. 

I start with one question — who’s winning? 

I laser-focus on the sectors that are beating the S&P 500 Index.  

Why? Simple. That’s where the money is going. That’s where the whales are swimming. That’s where the heat is. 

Don’t overthink it. Don’t try to rationalize it. Don’t ask why financials are flat but semis are ripping — it doesn’t matter. You don’t have to understand it. You don’t have to agree with it. You just have to ride the wave. 

You want to learn how to win? Focus on what’s already winning. Momentum is real. Trends matter. And the fastest way to get crushed in this game is trying to be a hero calling tops and bottoms. That’s amateur hour. 

So, here’s my process: 

Step one — Which sectors are outperforming the S&P 500? That’s the battlefield. 

Step two — Within those sectors, which stocks are leading the charge? Those are the weapons. 

That’s it. That’s the whole game. Winners find winners. I don’t chase fairytales — I chase flow. Because where the money’s moving, the trades are blooming. 

And if you’re serious about stacking real trades — perhaps do something similar. 

Here’s the next piece most traders miss — and it’s a big one: 

You’ve got to understand what you’re watching. 

I don’t care if the MACD crossed, if earnings were a “beat and raise,” or if the CEO just lit a cigar with a $100 bill on CNBC. That’s noise. That’s window dressing for people who like to sound smart and stay broke. 

What I care about — the only thing I care about — is performance. Cold, hard performance. Because that’s what pays the bills. That’s what puts steak on the table and keeps the lights on. 

But let me give you the flip side… 

When you zero in on the top performers — the cream-of-the-crop stocks leading the charge — you’re also stepping into the lion’s den of volatility. 

These stocks move fast. They whipsaw. They spike. They puke. And that’s exactly why most traders run the other way. They want safety. They want slow. They want boring. 

Me? I want volatility. Because inside that chaos is opportunity. 

And with A.I. in my corner, I don’t fear it — I embrace it. I tame it. I ride it like a rodeo bull until it pays me to get off. 

Volatility isn’t the enemy — confusion is. The crowd fears the chop. I use machine learning and predictive analytics to slice through it like a razor. 

That’s the edge. That’s the weapon. And that’s the win. 

Let me demonstrate how I do this real time. Here is the current listing of the top performing stock sectors. I ALWAYS start with this at the beginning of my watchlist process. 

What does this tell me? 

The bulls are back — and they’re not tiptoeing. They’re stampeding through the high-growth corners of the market, and the scoreboard tells the story. 

Over the past month, Information Technology has surged 9%, leading the charge with A.I. momentum, semiconductor strength, and relentless institutional buying. Not far behind, Consumer Discretionary posted a 7.28% gain — proof that the American consumer, while cautious, is still spending where it counts. Communication Services followed closely with a 6.8% jump, fueled by big tech’s advertising rebound and streaming power plays. Even the Industrials, often seen as the heartbeat of the real economy, clocked in a solid 6.6%, signaling that infrastructure, defense, and logistics are firing on all cylinders. 

Compare that to the S&P 500’s 5% move and you see the real message: this isn’t a broad-market melt-up — it’s a sector-specific sprint. The rotation is deliberate, and the smart money is crowding into strength. For traders, this is the market handing you a roadmap, follow the outperformance, focus on relative strength, and ride the wave while it’s building. Because when sectors move like this in unison, it’s rarely random — it’s the market signaling what’s next. 

I personally avoid anything underperforming the S&P 500 Index.  Why?  I can always buy an S&P 500 ETF and just do what the market is doing.  If you want to outperform you need to know what is outperforming. 

So, I will only focus my energy on the top 4 performing sectors and if truth be told, the majority of the time, the majority of my focus is in the top 2 performing sectors. 

Step #2. Next I carefully look at the top 3-5 top performing stocks in each sector and place those winners on my watchlist. You can accomplish this very easily by simply digging through the sector based ETF’s which will allow you to see how each stock within the sector has performed. 

For purposes of space and brevity, for example, I dig through the Information Technology sector and discover the following top performers: 

Look, I’ve seen just about every trading setup under the sun. Breakouts, breakdowns, reversals, mean reversion — blah blah blah. 

But let me tell you what gets my blood pumping and my trigger finger twitching… 

Stocks that are making new 10-year highs and new 52-week highs – both at the same time. 

That’s the holy grail. That’s my all-time favorite setup. Why? Because those stocks aren’t just “doing well.” They’re smashing records. They’re breaking through resistance that’s been holding strong for a decade. They’re ripping past every psychological barrier, every macro headwind, every Wall Street excuse. 

These are the outliers. The monsters. The freaks of performance nature. 

They don’t just “bounce” — they bulldoze. They don’t flinch when the market wobbles — they accelerate. These are the stocks that chew through bad news and come out stronger. The kind of stocks that don’t care about your valuation spreadsheet or CNBC’s fear-of-the-week headline. 

Are they rare? Sure they are. That’s why I hunt them. 

Because when you find one of these beasts — a stock making fresh decade highs and dominating the 52-week scoreboard — you’re not dealing with some average setup. 

You’re staring at raw, unapologetic strength. 

And strength is everything. 

So yeah, I obsess over these setups. Because these are the trades that punch through ceilings, melt doubters, and hand out real profits while the rest of the market’s still stuck in neutral. 

Anyway, I look through the top performing sectors and I note the top performers in each sector and ignore everything else.  These are the winners.  My conclusion is that if the future is like the recent past most of these stocks should continue to do well.  If something changes, these too will change dramatically. 

I trade volatility.  It is a high-octane ride.   

After going through each sector here is my current watchlist: 

Information Technology 

Ticker	Company Name	YTD Performance
PLTR	Palantir Technologies	74.2%
CRWD	CrowdStrike Holdings	37.8%
STX	Seagate Technology	36.6%
VRSN	Verisign	31.7%
SMCI	Super Micro Computer	43.3%

Communication Services 

Ticker	Company Name	YTD Performance
META	Meta Platforms	15%
NFLX	Netflix	41%
TMUS	T-Mobile US	11.8%

Industrials 

Ticker	Company Name	YTD Performance
GE	GE Aerospace	49%
BA	Boeing Co.	22%

Step #3 – Next, I allow VantagePoint’s artificial intelligence to provide the guidance moving forward. 

Here are the charts of the top performers in the INFO Tech sector. 

Observe how effectively the A.I. harnessed the trend. 

Here’s Palantir ($PLTR):

Here’s Crowdstrike ($CRWD)

Here’s Seagate Technology ($STX)

Let me spell it out for you — I don’t marry stocks. I date them. And the minute they stop performing? Gone. Cut. No second chances. 

I constantly drop and add names to my watchlist, because I’ve got one rule: I want winners. Not “maybe next quarter” hopefuls. Not “it’s undervalued” fairy tales. I’m not running a rehab clinic for broken tickers. 

I want stocks that start moving the minute I commit to them. I know — sounds like a fantasy. But that’s the game I play. That’s the expectation. Because if I’m not aiming for immediate traction, I might as well go buy bonds and take a nap. 

You want to know how I sniff out tomorrow’s monsters? I don’t guess. I don’t pray. I track what’s winning today — religiously. 

And here’s the part that most traders sleep on: they think knowing what’s hot today is “obvious.” They scroll right past the top performers like it’s background noise. But me? I treat that info like gold. Because it is. 

Winners keep on winning. That’s not a slogan. That’s the market’s dirty little secret. 

So yeah, I’ve got no problem axing a stock that’s lost its mojo. I’m not looking to be loyal — I’m looking for wins. My watchlist is a war room, not a retirement home. 

Only the strong stay. The rest? Out with the trash. 

Look, this method works for me. Period. 

I’m not here to sugarcoat anything or make it sound easy. It’s not. I’ve learned to live with volatility. I’ve made peace with the big swings — the kind that’ll make your stomach flip if you’re not ready for it. You may not be built for that. And that’s fine. 

But for me, this is what can build wealth. 

In this article, I’ve handed you my process. Step-by-step. No fluff. This is how I build a dynamic watchlist that works for me. Not for likes. Not for theory. 

Because here’s the cold truth most traders don’t want to hear: people get seduced by stories. “Oh, the CEO’s a genius.” “Oh, they’ve got a new product.” “Oh, the chart looks like a coiled spring or a marsupial or a teacup.” 

Please. 

That story might sell you the stock — it might even get a segment on CNBC or a slick write-up on Bloomberg or Fox Business. But if the stock isn’t performing, if the price action’s dead, if the momentum’s flatlined… then why the are you still holding it? 

I’ve learned this the hard way — and I’ve got the scars (and tax returns) to prove it: stories don’t pay. Performance pays. 

You want to master this game? The cornerstone of real trading is market selection. It’s the most important skill there is. 

Pick the right battlefield, with the right weapons, and you don’t need to be perfect. You just need to ride the trend. 

That’s how pros trade. 

If what you’ve just read resonates with you — if the idea of following what’s actually winning instead of chasing Wall Street fairytales makes sense — then I invite you to go one step further. You can now see this artificial intelligence in action by attending a FREE online master class called “Learn How to Trade with A.I.” 

During this exclusive session, you’ll learn how traders are using this breakthrough predictive technology to spot tomorrow’s top stocks today. You’ll also receive a curated list of tickers that the A.I. is actively monitoring — high-probability trades pulled from the strongest sectors, the way pros build their edge. 

Now, imagine for a moment what it would feel like to trade with clarity instead of confusion. To wake up each morning knowing exactly which stocks the smart money is flowing into — and why. This is not theory. It’s not guesswork. It’s the future of trading, delivered by a machine that never sleeps, never tires, and never trades on emotion. 

If you’ve ever felt like the market is rigged against you… maybe that’s because, until now, you’ve been flying blind. Let VantagePoint’s A.I. be your radar. Join us, and you’ll discover how to harness the same intelligence that’s helping traders around the world make smarter, faster, and more confident decisions — every single day. That’s exactly what VantagePoint’s A.I. offers — not hype, not guesswork, but a clear, data-driven edge in the market. 

Think of it as your personal navigator… quietly scanning the financial skies to show you where the smart money is heading — often before the rest of the world even catches a hint. It’s the same kind of breakthrough that’s allowed machines to outplay world champions in chess, poker, and Go. And now, it’s doing something even more valuable — helping traders cut through noise, emotion, and outdated indicators to see what really matters. 

With VantagePoint, you gain what I like to call the unfair advantage. It doesn’t just help you trade — it helps you trade with clarity, confidence, and control. Thousands of traders have experienced that moment where the lightbulb goes on… where the fog lifts… and the market, for the first time, begins to make sense. 

If you’d like to see it in action, we’d be honored to show you.  

It’s not magic. 

It’s machine learning. 

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