As the owner of a thriving and successful window cleaning business, Mike Simonato doesn’t have as much time as he would sometimes like to dedicate to his investing. “I have to keep things simple,” he says. “I can’t do day trading or swing trading, so I look for quality companies with very low risk. Something that I can manage with my busy schedule and sleep well at night.”

Mike, a VectorVest subscriber for four years, shared his My Three Friends system with our VectorVest Community during Saturday’s International Online Forum. You can click here to view the replay of this outstanding presentation.

“Brian D’Amico brought out this past week in an online webinar that your system determines your success,” Mike told Forum attendees.  “I believe it’s very important that we have system that we can understand and one that works for our particular situation. And it’s very important to stick to that system as well, because just as Brian said, Your System Determines Your Success.”

Mike shared his system for analyzing stocks and managing his portfolio and thanked the ‘wonderful members’ of our VectorVest Community for their help and guidance. Mike’s My Three Friends systems refers to a graph set-up that he uses. It completes the total portfolio management system which he uses that also includes WatchLists as he explained in a Forum presentation last December. Click here to view the Dec 2015 Forum replay.

Below are the key pillars of Mike’s My Three Friends system:

  1. Value must be rising.
  2. Price must be rising, determined by 3 and 8 EMA and 20 MA.
  3. EPS must be rising.
His system’s criteria and basic routine is simple:
  • use the Confirmed Up signal for when to buy.
  • use your Three Friends graph system for when to sell.
  • start with a weekly graph to study the long term trend.
  • drill down to a daily graph to determine precise entry and exits.
  • make sure at least two of my Three Friends agree before you BUY.
  • if two of my Three Friends say get out, then you have to SELL and get out.
Do yourself a favour. Watch the video reply to get a full grasp of how simple and valuable Mike’s trading system can be. Here’s a delightful story he told that helps explain the system.
“Three friends decide to go out for dinner. Two friends want Chinese food but the third wants Sushi. When the two friends head off in the direction of the Chinese Restaurant, the third friend eventually decides to join them for Chinese. I find it’s like that with My Three Friends, Value, Price and Earnings. If two are going in the same direction, usually the third one will eventually follow along.”
As an example, Mike showed how he managed his New Flyer (NFI) trade earlier this year. In February NFI dropped in price and received a SELL rating from VectorVest. “I was down about $500 on a $10,000 investment, but two of my Three Friends, Value and EPS, told me to stay in the trade. In late February Price decided to join Value and EPS and the stock went from a SELL to a HOLD and then to a BUY in early March. I could have sold and taken a loss, but My Three Friends system allowed me stay in the stock and eventually sell with a very nice gain.”
dec-4-nfi
A LOOK AT A FEW TRADING OPPORTUNITIES. In the final segment of Saturday’s Forum, Stan Heller led members through an exercise of looking at graph set-ups and trade analysis of a few Top VST stocks, Top Midas Touch stocks and stocks in Top Industry Movers and Shakers. Then we had a vote for the top WatchList candidate in both CA and US. The top choice in Canada was TCK.B and in US was AKS. Members were reminded to proceed with caution especially in consideration of the Italian vote today and make sure the markets are rising before investing in any stock. Below is the analysis using VectorVest’s Trade Analysis Spreadsheet created by Jamin Heller.
dec-4-trade-analysis
dec-4-gold-sotwWHERE’S GOLD GOING? On Nov. 11 in the Views, Dr. DiLiddo wrote, “Don’t give up on gold and silver. There are plenty of geo-political risks ahead and gold prices will rise again. View Cathy O’Nan’s excellent Special Presentation on buying gold ETFs and then join us Tuesday, Dec. 6 at 12:30 pm Eastern / 9:30 am Pacific for our weekly SOTW Q&A. We’ll discuss Cathy’s presentation, answer your questions, and reveal what’s been working well in our mining rich market in Canada. Click Here To Register. Register in advance to receive the recording.
Not a VectorVest Member? Get complete access to the VectorVest System including advanced search engine, stock analysis tools and training webinars videos. Try it out for five weeks for just $9.95 USD. Call 1-888-658-7638 to start your trial. Here’s what one long time members chatted in about Mike’s presentation and our VectorVest Community:
Mike has a very realistic, feasible strategy for those of us too busy to check the market regularly.  His friendliness and generous nature is a fantastic example of one of the hidden strengths of VV in Canada, that being the exceptional people in the user group system, coordinated by Stan.  Great to be a part of it! – Irwin B.
Posted by Stan Heller, Consultant, VectorVest Canada

DISCLAIMER: The information contained in this Blog is for education and information purposes only. Example trades must not be considered as recommendations. You should always do your own analysis and invest based on your own risk tolerance, investment style, goals and time horizon. There are risks involved in investing and only you know your financial situation, risk tolerance, financial goals and time horizon.