Ask a struggling trader what they watch and you get one of two answers: “everything” or “whatever moves today.” Both mean the same thing. No plan. Chase whatever already moved and you arrive late to someone else’s trade.
A watchlist fixes that. With one, you execute a plan you wrote while the market was closed. Without one, you hunt for trades at 9:31 with your heart racing. I build mine every week. I publish it every Sunday, free, here and on my YouTube channel. The video above is this week’s edition, so you can see the finished product before we talk process.
Why you need one
The market lists thousands of tickers. You cannot watch them all, and you do not need to. In any given week, a handful sit in setups that match a repeatable edge. The watchlist’s job is brutal filtering: from everything down to the few names where you know in advance what you want to see.
The real output goes beyond a list of tickers. Each name carries a plan: the level that matters, and what you will do if price gets there.
My weekly process
Step 1: Start with the calendar
Charts come second. First I check the schedule: earnings, Fed meetings, inflation data, big product events. These catalysts create movement. They also blow up otherwise good setups. A perfect chart with earnings on Wednesday is a different trade than the same chart in a quiet week.
Step 2: Scan for liquid, moving names
I narrow to stocks and ETFs that trade well: tight options spreads and real volume. They also need to be in play. Near key levels, showing momentum, or sitting on a catalyst. Illiquid names get cut no matter how pretty the chart looks, because bad fills tax every trade.
Step 3: Mark the levels
For each surviving name, I mark the price levels that matter. Support and resistance where buyers or sellers showed up before, plus the bounce levels I care about most. This step is the heart of the list. A ticker without a level is just a symbol. A ticker with a level is a potential trade.
Step 4: Write the “if-then”
For every name: if price does X at my level, then I do Y. If price never gets there, I do nothing. Doing nothing counts as a position too. This step makes the open calm instead of chaotic. The decisions were made on Sunday.
Step 5: Keep it short
If my list grows past a dozen names, I cut it back. A 40-ticker watchlist is a screensaver. Five names you know well beat fifty you skim.
The mistakes that ruin watchlists
- Building it during market hours. You will add whatever looks green and exciting. Build it while the market is closed and your judgment is quiet.
- Never removing anything. A watchlist is a weekly rebuild. If the setup resolved or died, the name comes off.
- Lists without levels. “Watching NVDA” is a mood. “NVDA at 180, watching for a bounce” is a plan.
- Ignoring the calendar. A scheduled event should never blindside you. The schedule is public.
See the finished product every week
Process is easier to copy when you can see the output. Every Sunday I publish my actual watchlist, with the names, the levels, and the reasoning, in two places:
- The free weekly watchlist, delivered to your inbox every Sunday.
- My YouTube channel, where I walk through every chart on video, level by level, like the one above.
Subscribe to both and you start next week the way professionals do: with a plan written before the bell.
Nothing here is financial advice. The watchlist shows setups I track, and none of it is a recommendation. Do your own analysis and manage your own risk.
