Trading Plan | Week of July 6th
Where the NASDAQ trend stands, plus 11 names on the Focus List.
Welcome back to the Weekly Trading Plan.
This is what we are covering this week.
Market Pulse. A read on the NASDAQ tightening after a month of chop, why the Russell 2000 is the outlier, and what a still-consolidating tape means for how aggressive we get on new buys.
The Focus List. 11 names worth your attention this week. Charts, commentary, and the levels that matter for each one. Current holdings are tagged. The rest are setups we are watching.
Quick reminder before we get into it. Nothing in here is financial advice. This is one trader’s read on the tape and the names worth watching. Do your own research, manage your own risk, and never trade money you cannot afford to lose.
How we trade these names. Every name in here is traded the same way, and you should understand the rules before you act on a single one of them. We use a 5 to 7 percent stop from our entry, no exceptions. We know where we are getting out before we get in, and we set the stop the moment we buy. We manage risk first and chase gains second. Our entire edge is taking losses quickly and letting winners run, which means we are often out of a name fast when it does not work. Do not assume any name listed here is still a position by the time you read this. A stock appearing on the Focus List is not a signal to buy and hold. It is a setup we are watching with a defined risk plan. If you cannot define your risk and honor your stop, do not take the trade.
Market Pulse
The whole story right now is the indexes, so that is where we are spending our time this week. The NASDAQ has been consolidating since the start of June and the swings have been wide, with most of the volatility landing on the AI trade and the old leadership. What matters is the shape of it. The first leg down was violent, high to the 50-day in four or five sessions. The recovery stopped short of the highs. The next leg down did not undercut the prior lows. Each swing has been tighter than the one before it, and last week followed the same script: a rally to start, then two days of selling to close it out.
The QQQ and the S&P are tracing the same tightening pattern. The one outlier is the Russell 2000, which is chopping higher, showing real relative strength and refusing to participate in the squeeze the others are in. That is our secondary traffic light, and it is leaning green even while the big-cap indexes rest.
We do not go all in or all out based on any of this. We check the forecast, then we go looking for boats. Right now the forecast says patience. We want to see a clean break of this range before we press. Until then we keep our stops tight, respect relative strength, and stay ready for a leg either direction.
