EquityFeed Review

Starting Up!

To start EquityFeed, you go to www.equityfeed.com and enter your login information at the bottom left. Clicking 'login' downloads a small Java launch file, your browser may or may not ask you whether you'd like to open the file, if so click yes. This begins the launch of the Java application. On the first run it may ask you whether you'd really like to run it. Click yes after checking the "don't ask me again" checkbox.. Soon you will see the application load, with a % indicator as it loads its necessary data. Depending on your internet connection this can take a minute or two, so don't start loading at 9:29AM if you have a critical trade to make... When this is complete the dialog will go away and you will be left with the EquityFeed "LaunchPad". The LaunchPad is your menu to get to all of the tools it has to offer. Go ahead and explore the options and menu structure, and "Launch" some tools!

Tips:

-You can orient the LaunchPad either vertically or horizontally. Just click the little rotating circle button. We prefer to have it horizontal as it takes up a little less room.

-If you've lost your LaunchPad in a sea of level 2 quotes, news, etc, etc.. and need it quickly. You can right click on the upper "menu bar" area (in an open space) on pretty much any tool and a menu will come up, including an option to "show launchpad".

-After you've run EquityFeed for the first time, you should have a shortcut to EquityFeed on your desktop. This will make launching the application faster, as you won't have to load up your browser and log in.

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Level 2 Quotes

One of the biggest reasons to have a real-time streaming provider is for access to Level 2 Quotes. EquityFeed gives you two ways to monitor Level 2's depending on your preference and/or trading style.

Basic Level 2:

This tool is what you see with most of the "other" level 2 providers. It shows the level 2 quotes, time and sales, basic trade data, and market maker activity updates.

Tips:

-We prefer to use the Chart Montage because of its multitude of extra features, but if we're low on screen space or wanting to closely track market maker changes, we'll use this. If you are new to Level 2 quotes this is a great way to start learning as well.

 

Chart Montage:

The chart montage is a 'one stop' source for several avenues of stock information. It neatly combines level 2 quotes, news, time and sales, a customizable chart, basic trade data, pivot points, price and volume averages, and the ability to make a trade in your TD Ameritrade account with a few clicks. We use this tool almost exclusively over the basic level 2 tool, besides the situations mentioned above.

Tips:

-This is the window that pops up whenever you click on a stock in any watchlist, feed, filter/alert, or news list. This allows you to quickly asses the action on a stock. Taking a quick glance you can check the dollar volume, recent trades, level 2, news, chart, etc... to decide whether to pull the trigger and buy, or pass and look for the next opportunity. If you're not using EquityFeed to do this, you're wasting valuable time. We believe there is no other way to get this information in one place this quickly.

-For an easy way to determine a stock's market type, go to you LaunchPad and click Settings - Colors/Fonts, then click on the Chart Montage tab on the window that pops up. Check the box "Use market color", and press Submit. This will color the border of the chart area depending on the market. PinkSheets are pink, OTC BB is blue, NASDAQ is green, and AMEX and NYSE are gray.

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Charting Tools

Again there are two methods for charting with EquityFeed, the Chart Montage tool mentioned above, as well as Advanced Charts.

Chart Montage:

We covered this one above in the level 2 section, but left out the details about the charting options. The chart in the montage is somewhat limited compared to advanced charting tools, but for its purpose in this tool, we think it's perfect. If you want to do serious charting, you'll need to follow up with a service like StockCharts.com, but this is simple chart tool that is easy and fast to use.

Tips:

-You can quickly select the timeframe (30 min - 1 year), period (1, 2, 5, 15, 30 min, 1 day), and chart type (Candle, Line, Bar). You can also add various technical indicators such as bollinger bands, moving averages, MACD, RSI, momentum, stochastics and more. You can also add annotations such as trendlines, support/resistance, and Fibonacci retrace levels. After customizing your chart to your liking you can then save a preset(s), and set one of your preset configurations as the default.

-Like most tools you can quickly take a screenshot of the tool for your own records, or to post it on a message board or forum. To take a screenshot of the chart, click the camera button (top right). You'll have to move the dialog box that pops up off to the side of the montage window before clicking "just this window", or the dialog box will become part of the screenshot.

-We like to use the chart tool in the montage to quickly check historical price ranges, trends, and likely levels of support and resistance. We use this information to determine if stock that is breaking out is likely to push to profitable levels should we buy. If the stock has a history of huge moves and it looks like one is just starting, we'll consider getting in. If the move is already approaching historic highs (resistance levels), we'll probably stay clear.

-If we're checking the stock when news hits, we click the "news on chart" checkbox on the news tab. As shown in the image above, this plots recent news releases on the chart and gives us an idea how the stock reacts to news. Some run, some sell off, and some pop and drop on news, so this is important to know. Of course you'll need to gauge how good, or bad, the news is by giving it a quick read.

-We generally leave our default preset to a 2 month timeframe, candles, with default bollinger bands. Often times we will add the RSI indicator to check its proximity to the "power zone", but leave it off normally to save space. If we decide to take a short term position in the stock we'll then shorten the timeframe to 2 or 5 days and the period to 5 or 15 minutes. This allows us to do the short term technical analysis to determine the best entry and exit prices. If we're interested in seeing any other indicators we'll usually load up the Advanced Chart tool, which we'll talk about below.

Advanced Charts:

The advanced charts tool gives you everything from the chart portion of the "Chart Montage" tool and then adds a few features. First it is just a chart window, so you will get a bigger and more precise look at the chart. There are more gridlines and finer price points on the y-axis. Also available is pre and post-market data. Annotations are also easier to make. Again, if you need to do more advanced charting you probably already know of and use StockCharts.com, or something equivalent.

Tips:

-To toggle on or off the pre/post-market data, click the wrench button at the top left of the window, go to "show/hide" and make your selections.

-To take a screenshot of the chart, click the wrench button and select "snapshot". You'll have to move the dialog box off to the side of the chart window before clicking "just this window", or the dialog box will become part of the screenshot.

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Watchlists

EquityFeed has an easy to use watchlist tool that allows multiple watchlists, easy addition and removal of symbols, column sorting, and an overview of news/filings applicable to any stock in the list.

Tips:

-To open up a Chart Montage window for any of the stocks just click the stock symbol. Sometimes you'll have to click twice..

-To open up the news listed below for your watchlist stocks, click the news headline under the "Subject" column. News will load up in a small scrolling window. Filings will load up in your browser via 10KWizard.com

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Filters and Alerts

Two of the most powerful features of EquityFeed are the filters and alerts. Use the "Streaming Algorithmic Filter" to create a custom real-time scanner that finds stocks that meet your criteria. Use the "Pattern Recognition Alerts" to find stocks that are breaking out, breaking down, have above average volume, block trades, etc.

Streaming Algorithmic Filter:

The streaming filter gives you the means to discover stocks that meet just about any technical criteria you can imagine.. From price, volume and % gain to tick, rebound/pullback, or day range action, this filter has it all. The easiest way to understand the options is to play with it yourself, which you can do by signing up for a trial. Or, next best, check out our screen shot of the filter criteria tool.

Tips:

-When you have everything the way you want it, you can save the filter for future use, and then click "Get Results". When you come back the next day, click the "My Saved Filters" toggle, select the desired filter from the list, and click "Get Results".

-The criteria in the sample filter screenshot is something we made called "Mega Runners". This catches low priced penny stocks that are starting to move up quickly on above average volume.

-If you find that your filter is catching too many stocks for you to handle, try making your criteria stricter by adding parameters or tightening up what you have already. You can also use the column sorting in the results to sort through them. We often use this to see the stocks with the most $Volume or % Change. Remember you can add columns to the result window by right clicking on one of the column titles. Generally we leave the window filtered by time so the most recent stocks that meet our criteria are at the top. This way you see them as soon as they meet your parameters.

-If you are getting too few results, you can do the opposite. It is important to remember that this is real-time filtering so with strict parameters selected you may not see any stocks until one meets them. This is not always a bad thing, however, if you want to narrow the list of stocks down to the few that are performing exactly as you wish.

Pattern Recognition Alerts:

The Pattern Recognition Alert tool does much of the same things the Streaming Algorithmic Filter, but allows you to essentially combine several filters into one alert area. It allows you to find stocks that are setting new highs, new lows, price average breakouts, volume average breakouts, and those printing block trades, all over specified time periods. The easiest way to explain it is to simply look at our screenshot showing the possible alert types and timeframes available. It is up to you to decide what alerts and timeframes to check off. You also have control of what markets are included (NASDAQ, NYSE, AMEX, OTC BB, Pinks), what stock types (regular, foreign, ADR's, bankrupt, delinquent, etc), and a final filtering based on price, volume, trades and much more. To understand the possibilities here please check out all the screenshots to see each menu.

Tips:

-This tool can be used in several ways. You can find stocks having huge breakout runs by selecting long term new high alerts, such as 40 day, 26 and 52 weeks. For a stock to push new highs like this there is often something big behind it like news, a rumor, a promo, etc.. and sometimes you can hop in and enjoy a profitable ride to an even higher price. When a new long term high is triggered we pull up a Level 2 Montage by clicking on the symbol in the list. We check the chart both short and long term, the news, the level 2, and the recent trade activity to decide whether the stock may have continued legs, if its going to fizzle out, or if it's simply a low volume "paint job" that's causing the trigger.

-This also turns out to be a good tool for spotting Q (bankrupt) stock plays that are taking off. Q stocks are often beaten down to very low prices by the very nature that the company is in bankruptcy. When they take off due to news or rumors they will set new long term highs quickly and could potentially run much higher. For example we caught CGMCQ as it passed through its 40 day, 26 and 52 week highs.. We were late to the party by the time we got in because it moved so quickly, but not too late. We got shares at .16 and sold them at an average in the .30s just later that day. Of course, not all Q's are going to run like this, and you still have to do some quick homework and evaluation.. BUT, without EquityFeed we wouldn't have seen CGMCQ until it was .30+, if at all... This one trade paid for a full year subscription to EquityFeed!

-If you want to buy stocks cheap, search for stocks hitting new lows. Do a similar evaluation to the above, and decide whether to play or not. We don't tend to do this much because we prefer to trade the trend rather than catching falling knives.

-By using the price and volume average breakouts you can sometimes catch big moves earlier than with new highs. Like they say, volume before price.. Stocks breaking average price and/or volume levels have a good chance of continuing higher.

-Be sure to use the filter to find stocks within your desired price range. Also, setting bottom limits for $ Volume helps weed out those low volume paint jobs. Just remember if you set the bar too high you might miss the very start of a big move. We typically set $ Volume minimum to $5000. If you're searching for liquid stocks only you might wish to raise this minimum, especially as the trading day goes on.

Custom Limit Alerts:

The Custom Limit Alert tool is a simple, yet useful tool that monitors your specified stocks and triggers alerts when your defined criteria is met. You can set the alert to pick up on a certain value for last price, bid, ask, gain/loss, % gain/loss, volume, $ volume, and trades. You can add comments if desired to remind yourself why you set the alert. If an alert is triggered you can select whether you want to be alerted by a flashing popup, an email to your specified address, or both.

Tips:

-Use this tool for long term holdings that you don't necessarily desire to watch closely, but would like to know if it starts moving one way or the other, or both.

-The email alert can be handy if you are away from your computer but wish to be alerted via your mobile phone. Provided you can get your email on your phone of course...

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News

Streaming News:

The Streaming News tool gives you up to the second news releases for whatever, markets, stock types, and news types you wish, on stocks that meet the filter criteria you desire. Sure, there are plenty of services out there with news streamers, but we believe this is quite simply the best you can get. It allows you to narrow down the news to exactly what kind of news you want, and what kind of stock you want it on, just by making a few clicks to set it up. The options here for setup are very similar to the Pattern Recognition Alerts tool, so if you'd like to see what the option menus look like, just scroll up a bit to check out those screenshots.

Once you have your options selected, you may see some news that was recently released. As 'new' news comes out it will show up on the top line. To load the news in the preview pane below, click on the news headline. To load up a Chart Montage for the stock, just click the stock symbol. If the release is a filing it will load up in your default browser via 10KWizard.

Tips:

-We all know news is often the biggest mover of penny stocks that there is. A decent PR can give a stock a nice boost in price that can make you some quick cash.. A blockbuster PR could earn you a 50, 100% or even bigger gain. What's the catch? Well of course the price is going to start moving quickly just after the news hits the wires. To play news you want to be the first one in, so you can be the first one selling on the way up! To do this you need to see the news as it hits the wire. This will give you about a minute, sometimes more, sometimes less, to evaluate the news, the chart, and possibly scan a message board to see what's going on, before grabbing shares prior to the masses catching on. To check all this information, just click on the stock symbol to bring up your 'one stop' Chart Montage.

-To filter the news even further, you can search headlines by keyword if desired by entering your keyword(s) in the box just above the news preview pane.

DealWire:

DealWire is very similar to the regular Streaming News tool, but it allows you to find news of certain topics, or "deals". You can find merger news, financing news, split news, and much more. Check out our screenshot to see the full list of news topics.

Tips:

-This tool is useful if you're looking to play explosive news types such as FDA news, or merger news. If such news releases are positive they can lead to swift, massive short term gains. Using DealWire you can be among the first traders to see the news, and one of the first to buy shares before the price potentially rockets!

Historical News:

The Historical News tool is a very simple and straightforward utility to check older news on your specified stock. The Chart Montage tool's news pane only shows news from within the last 90 days. To find older news you'll have to use this tool.

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Other Tools

Layout Manager:

The Layout Manager isn't a fancy, powerful tool that's going to make you tons of money... Buttt, it will save you a lot of time and effort every time you load up EquityFeed. After you set up your perfect, custom layout of tools by hand for the first time, go to Launchpad - go to Settings, Layouts. This loads the layout manager where you can then click "Create New Configuration". Enter a name for it, and click save. The next day when you fire up EquityFeed and want all of those tools positioned just how you like them, just open the layout manager again, select your Saved Config, and click Load. Magically all of the tools load up just where you saved them. Voila!

Tips:

-You can set up different layouts for different computers you own, to monitor different stocks, or for a totally different trading strategy.

-Another quick way to open your layout manager is to right click in the upper "menu bar" area of almost any tool.. a menu will pop up with the option to "show layout manager".

Please make any suggestions for additions/changes here.