Trading starts with the market, not the ticker

Many trading days start at the wrong end. A ticker catches your eye, the chart looks strong and only then do you ask whether the market, the group and volume actually support it.

That is why we built the Guided flow into WickedDesk. It is not a list of features. It is a routine you can work through in the same order every day. Market context comes first. Catalysts, leaders, scanner, chart, watchlist and review follow.

The guides at wickeddesk.com/en/guides explain each part of that routine. They are meant to make WickedDesk easier to enter and show when a feature matters.

Do not start with the ticker

A single chart can look good and still be the wrong starting point. If indices are weak, breadth is deteriorating or the group is not leading, a scanner result needs more confirmation.

That is why the review runs from the top down. First decide whether new long setups have market support. Then look at sectors, themes and industries. Individual stocks come after that.

Scanners return candidates, not signals

A scanner result is a name for the next check. It becomes interesting only when several criteria come together: relative strength, volume, distance from the high, ADR or ATR, a catalyst and the group context.

For long setups there is one rule worth repeating: price should be above the 200 day simple moving average. In the default WickedDesk chart the red line is the 200 day average. I normally do not spend more time on long ideas below it.

Leaders, earnings pivots, breakouts, pullbacks and tight ranges are not buy signals. They are sorted, checked in the chart and only then moved to the watchlist or rejected.

The idea must be visible in the chart

Atlas brings price, volume, moving averages, earnings, events, news, group context and related stocks into one review. That reduces the need to jump between windows. The decision still belongs to you.

I open a chart with a specific question. Is price above the 200 day average? Is the stock near its high or trying to recover from deep weakness? Does volume appear at the right moments? Is there a pivot, a stop and a point where the idea is no longer valid?

A short watchlist is the result

I used to collect interesting stocks. The result was a long list that did not help much the next morning. Today a stock belongs on my watchlist only when I know what I am waiting for.

That includes a possible entry, an alert and a point where the idea stops being valid. The stock also has to look better than the alternatives in its group. If I cannot answer those questions, it stays in the scanner.

A routine becomes a watchlist. That is the value of the Guided flow. It keeps you current without making you start from zero every morning.