This month marks the end of the second year of this blog. Our first post was in December of 2004.

In recognition of this milestone it’s only appropriate that I share with you the details of several new filters that will be operational early next week. After all, these new features and improvements to Trade-Ideas, based solely on the feedback of our subscribers, is one of the common threads of this blog.

Updated: What’s Here!

Min and Max Distance from Inside Market

This filter came from institutional customers using The OddsMaker. The filters compare the last print for this stock to the best bid and offer.

If you set the max to 0, you will only see stocks which were trading at or between the bid or offer at the time of the alert. If you set the max to 0.1 you will only see stocks which were trading no more than one tenth of one percent above the offer and no more than one tenth of one percent below the bid.

This separates legitimate prints from bad prints. The further the print was from the inside market, the less reliable the alert is. This is especially helpful when used with The OddsMaker. The OddsMaker uses the price of the last print as the entry price for the trade. This is only useful if this was a print that you could actually get. The closer the print was to the inside market, the more this is as an entry price.

Min and Max Put/Call Ratio

We’ve long heard the requests from subscribers for optionable stocks. Recent changes to our data vendor and other forces now permit us to deliver the goods.

These filters allow you to select stocks based on the number of puts and calls purchased today. Set the minimum put/call ratio to 3 to see only stocks with at least three times as many puts as calls. Set the maximum put/call ratio to 0.5 to see only stocks with at least twice as many calls as puts.

You can also use these filters to find optionable stocks. If you only trade options, set the minimum put/call ratio to 0. This will show you all stocks which have had any options activity today. If you want to see stocks with no options or illiquid options, leave both of these filters blank.

Min and Max Position in Lifetime Range

I wanted to name these the WallStrip filters but got vetoed (sorry Howard). These filters are indeed evidence that the squeaky wheel gets the oil – one of my personal mantras as a consumer myself.

These filters compare the current price of the stock to the stock’s history. This range is fixed at yesterday’s close. The range goes back 10 years or the lifetime of the stock.

Select a minimum position of 100 to see stocks which are trading higher now than any time in the previous 10 years. Select a minimum position of 95 and a maximum position of 100 to see stocks trading near that level. Select a maximum position of 0 to see only stocks trading for less than any time in the last 10 years.

All these filters are in the testing mode and the finishing touches will be completed by Tuesday or so next.

Footnotes:

• No matter which platform you use (e.g., browser, TI Pro, Scottrade ELITE), you can already access the new items – new alert and filter innovations like these are automatic to subscribers because both applications make a “call” to our servers for the latest list whenever someone interacts with our alert window settings via ‘Configure’. When we add them, you receive them instantly.
• Users of Trade-Ideas Pro are encouraged to download the latest version of the application. This is unrelated to the new alerts or filters. Instead a download of the latest version of the application is necessary to benefit from other aspects of the service, like minor visual enhancements and background “plumbing” maintenance that keeps the service as fast as possible.