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SIMPLE SCAN FOR ETF’S:FINDING BUY AND SELL SIGNALS

The Simple Scan is The Wizard’s easiest tool for investing in ETF’s. If you’re new to investing or only have a little experience, the Simple Scan is ideal for you. This tutorial will cover how to find Buy and Sell Signals using the Simple Scan for ETF’s.

The Simple Scan also allows you to view current, open positions. This feature is covered in the tutorial, Simple Scan for ETF’s: Viewing Open Positions.

This tutorial contains the essential information for using either of our ETF Scans, so please read it before viewing any of our other ETF tutorials.

This guide is broken into 3 parts:

Part 1: Investing Made SimpleWhat is the Simple Scan for ETF’s?

Part 2: Looking for Buy and Sell SignalsHow to find ETF’s to buy and sell.

Part 3: Putting it All TogetherSelecting ETF’s, structuring your portfolio and placing orders with your broker.

SIMPLE SCAN FOR ETF’SFINDING BUY AND SELL SIGNALSUniversityWizardThe

Part 1: Investing Made SimpleWhat is the Simple Scan for ETF’s?


Simple but SophisticatedDon’t let the name fool you: the scan may be simple, but behind the curtain is a very sophisticated process designed to bring you the ETF’s with the very best chances of making money.

Each day, before you even press a button, The Wizard combs through over 700 ETF’s. Using a proprietary algorithm and several powerful filters, The Wizard narrows this list to only a basket of the best ones. The Wizard follows a top-down approach that does the following:

1. Looks for the big money: An ETF can only move if there is a lot of money behind it. If a lot of investors are buying it, this will create upward pressure, and the ETF will move up. If a lot of investors are selling it, however, this will create downward pressure, and the ETF will drop in price. The telltale sign of this pressure is called Volume. Volume is simply the number of shares that are both bought and sold during a given day. High volume indicates that there is big money - a lot of investors - behind an ETF. The Wizard only looks for ETF’s that exhibit high volume over a 50-day period.

2. Matches the Trend of the ETF: The Wizard will only issue Buy Signals on ETF’s whose Trend is also a Buy. Conversely, The Wizard will only issue a Short Sell Signal on ETF’s whose Trend is also a Sell.

And the best part? You don’t have to do any of this, because The Wizard does it all for you. All you do is choose a few simple options, run your scan and The Wizard will give you that day’s list of the very best ETF’s.

If that sounds easy, wait to you see how easy it is to actually run your own Simple Scan.


Part 2: Looking for Buy and Sell SignalsHow to find ETF’s to buy and sell.


The 2 Steps to Finding Buy or Sell SignalsFinding Buy or Sell signals for ETF’s requires only 2 easy steps. You’ll find they’re easy to learn and even easier to follow. Successful investing is about being consistent, so make sure you follow these 2 steps each and every time you run a Simple Scan.

Step 1: SELECT YOUR OPTIONS

Step 2: VIEW BUY OR SELL SIGNALS


To start a new Simple Scan, click on the “ETF’s” button at the top of the page...

Then click on the “Simple Scan” button


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The first screen you’ll see is the Buy/Sell Options. You only have to choose 3 options. They are:

Your Time Horizon

Your ETF Category

Your Investment Size

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Once you’ve chosen your options, simply click the button to look for Buy or Sell Signals. 4

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Your Time HorizonThe Wizard gives you two options for choosing your Time Horizon.

1. Short-term (daily signals)

If you prefer to invest for the shorter-term, choose this option.

Choosing this option means that you’ll be checking The Wizard at the end of every day for Buy or Sell Signals.

It also means that you’ll be monitoring your actual, live-money investment portfolio on a daily basis.

Each investment for this Time Horizon typically lasts between a few weeks and a few months.

2. Long-term (weekly signals)

If you prefer to invest for the longer-term, choose this option.

Choosing this option means you’ll be checking The Wizard once a week - at the end of every week or on the weekend - for Buy or Sell Signals.

It also means that you’ll be monitoring you actual investments on a weekly basis.

Each investment for this Time Horizon typically lasts from a few months to well over a year.



Your ETF CategoryTo make it easier to find ETF’s, we’ve grouped them into categories. Select as many categories as you’d like.



1. General ETF’s: Similar to Sectors in stocks, each category refers to a general industry.

2. Inverse ETF’s: ETF’s that move in the inverse - or opposite - direction as the stocks, bonds or market indexes they track.

3. Commodities ETF’s: ETF’s which track the performance of various commodities.

4. Financial ETF’s: ETF’s which track a variety of international currencies as well as bonds, including U.S. Treasurys and corporate bonds.

5. Global ETF’s: ETF’s which track the performance of markets outside of the United States.

Your Investment SizeNext, choose your Investment Size. Choosing your Investment Size is a critical piece to managing your risk. We’ll explain this in more detail on the next page.



The size of your investment portfolio: Enter the dollar amount of your investment or retirement portfolio.

Select an amount for each investment: This is the percentage of your overall portfolio that you’ll dedicate to each investment. Select from 1% - 5%, and The Wizard will automatically show you the dollar amount you’ll have for each investment.

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Why should I choose an Investment Size?One of the enduring truths of investing is that you can’t win ‘em all. In other words, not every investment you make will be profitable. Some will lose money. Because of this, it’s critical that we manage our risk, so that if any of our investments do lose money, they don’t significantly effect our portfolio and we can preserve our capital.

One of the ways The Wizard can help you avoid significant losses is to put a limit on the amount of money you invest in any one ETF. The way The Wizard sets this limit is to cap it as a percentage of your overall portfolio. (As you’ll see in a bit, The Wizard will then show you how many shares of each stock you can buy based on your investment size.)

It is ultimately up to you to decide how much money you want to invest in any one ETF, but please bear in mind that taking an excessively large position will significantly increase your risks of losing a lot of your money. It is far more prudent to preserve your capital so that if your investments do lose money, you still have plenty of capital left to live on and play another day.

You only have to choose your Investment Size once.

Once you’ve chosen your Investment Size, The Wizard will remember it, and you’ll never have to choose it again - unless you want to change it.



Look for Buy Signals

Once you’ve selected your options, click the “Find Buy Signals” button



Look for Sell Signals

Once you’ve selected your options, click the “Find Sell Signals” button



Once you’ve run your scan, The Wizard shows you a list of ETF’s. Here’s an overview of what you’ll see.

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ETF Symbol and Description

Price to buy or sell short

Price to get out

Price to take your profits

How many shares to buy(Based on your investment size)

Trend of that ETF

Ranking, from strongest to weakest

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You can click on any of the column headers and the list of ETF’s will sort according to that column. Clicking on the same column header again, and the list will re-sort in the opposite direction.



Symbol / Description

The Wizard shows you the ticker symbol and the description for each ETF in the list.

When you place your order to buy or sell short an ETF, you will use its ticker symbol.When you roll you cursor over the box containing any symbol, a box will pop up, showing you the Category for that ETF. You can also view a detailed quote for that ETF.

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Buy Price / Sell Price

Buy PriceWhen you look for Buy Signals, The Wizard will show you the exact price - down to the penny - at which to buy each ETF.

Sell PriceWhen you look for Sell Signals, The Wizard will show you the exact price at which to sell short each ETF.

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The Wizard’s Buy and Sell Prices are what you’ll use when you place your orders with your broker. To learn how to place orders with your broker, please see our Placing Orders tutorial.

Stop Price

The Stop Price is the price at which you will get out - exit your investment.

The Wizard’s Stop Price acts like an insurance policy. In the event that your investment loses money, the Stop Price is where you will exit in order to avoid a large loss.

Because some of your investments will inevitably lose money, it is critical that any losses you do have are kept to a minimum.

The Wizard’s Stop is known as a trailing stop. This means that if you buy an ETF and its price goes up, the Stop Price will follow up behind it, locking in your profit along the way. This way, if the ETF does reverse and go back down, you will not give back your profit.

Exit your entire position at the Stop Price: Whether you have taken profits or not, you will exit your entire position at the Stop Price. For Buy Signals, if your ETF’s price drops to the Stop Price or below, you will exit immediately. For Short-Sell Signals, if your ETF’s price rises to the Stop Price or above, you will also exit immediately.

Managing your Stop Price can be tricky, so for more information on how to place an order for the Stop Price, please see our Placing Orders tutorial.

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Buy Signal Profit Targets

Buy TargetsFor each Buy Signal, the Wizard provides two prices at which to take profits. When your ETF reaches one of The Wizard’s profit targets, you will sell a certain number of shares.

50% Target: At this profit target, you will sell 50% of your shares. If you had bought 100 shares, you will sell 50 shares at this price.

75% Target: At this profit target, you will sell 25% of your original share size. Again, if you had bought 100 shares, you will sell 25 shares at this price. At this point, you will have 25 shares remaining. You will have sold 75% of your position, which is why it’s called the 75% target.

At this point, you will exit the remainder of your position at the Stop Price.

The Wizard’s Profit Targets allow you to take profits as you go along. As the old saying goes, “You can never go broke taking profits.”

To learn how to place orders with your broker to take profits, please see our Placing Orders tutorial.

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Short-Sell Signal Profit Targets

Sell TargetsFor each Sell Signal, the Wizard also provides two prices at which to take profits. When your ETF reaches one of The Wizard’s profit targets, you will buy back a certain number of shares. (To learn what “buy back” means and for more information short-selling, see our Short-Selling tutorial.)

50% Target: At this profit target, you will buy back 50% of your shares. If you had sold short 100 shares, you will buy back 50 shares at this price.

75% Target: At this profit target, you will buy back 25% of your original share size. Again, if you had sold short 100 shares, you will buy back 25 shares at this price. At this point, you will have 25 shares remaining. At this point, you will exit the remainder of your position at the Stop Price.

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Shares per Investment

For each ETF, The Wizard shows you exactly how many shares you can buy, based on the Investment Size you chose when selecting your Simple Scan options.

The Wizard also shows you the dollar amount of those shares.

This makes it very easy for you to place your orders to buy or sell short ETF’s.

This feature is the same for both Buy and Short-Sell Signals.

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Trend / Ranking

The Trend for each ETF. You’ll notice that when you look for Buy Signals, the Trend for each ETF is a Buy. When you look for Sell Signals, the Trend for each ETF is a Sell.You can click on the Trend arrow for any ETF to see a calendar, showing at least several years of how The Wizard has called the Trend for that ETF. For more information on this particular feature, please see our Investing with the Trend tutorial.

The Wizard also ranks each ETF in the list. Why is the ranking important? Because if you are going to buy ETF’s for your portfolio and don’t know which ones to choose, simply pick the highest ranked ones first.

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Part 3: Putting it All TogetherStructuring your portfolio, selecting ETF’s and placing orders with your broker.


Now that you’ve learned how to perform a Simple Scan and how to view a list of Buy or Sell Signals, it’s time to put it all together.

How do I structure my portfolio?If you’ve never invested before - or even if you have - the question of how to structure your portfolio can be daunting. So we’re going to break it down for you and make it simple.

Whether you’re investing for retirement or for any other reason, there are two things to consider when structuring your portfolio:

1. How much capital (money) do I have to invest?

2. How many ETF’s do I want to hold in my portfolio at one time?

How much capital do I have to invest?

Only you can answer this question, of course, but we can help. Remember that when you looked for Buy or Sell signals, you entered the size of your investment portfolio, and you selected a percentage for each investment. This feature has been specifically designed for you to determine how much money you want to invest in each ETF.


How many ETF’s do I want to hold in my portfolio at one time?

This is another question of personal preference. Some investors prefer to hold only a few investments at once, while others are comfortable holding 20 or more ETF’s at once.

There are two things to consider when deciding how many ETF’s you want to hold at one time:

1. Your investment size:

Your investment size will dictate the maximum number of ETF’s you can hold at one time. If you’ve set your investment size to 5% of your portfolio, you will be mathematically limited to 20 ETF’s in your portfolio.

However, if you decide that you’re only comfortable with holding 10 ETF’s in your portfolio at one time, this does not mean you should increase your investment size to 10%. While this choice is ultimately yours, such a large investment size significantly increases your risk of losing a good chunk of your capital. It isn’t necessary to dedicate all of your investment capital at one time. It’s OK to simply keep some in cash or a cash-equivalent.

2. Your time commitment:

A question you’ll want to ask yourself is: “How much time am I willing to spend investing”?

There’s no right or wrong answer. If you decide you want to spend only 30 minutes per week, that’s perfectly fine; The Wizard has been designed so that you can invest using the Long-Term (weekly) Signals and spend about half an hour per week checking for new Signals and managing your orders with your broker. We have some extraordinarily successful customers who do just that. The entire purpose of The Wizard is to take most of the work of investing out of your hands.

Short-Term (daily) Signals: The Wizard updates these Signals every day, after 7pm EST, so you must check our site for new Signals and also monitor any existing investments you have on a daily basis.

Long-Term (weekly) Signals: The Wizard updates these Signals once a week, after 7pm EST on Friday. Using the Long-Term Signals, you must check our site for new Signals and monitor any of your existing investments once a week.

Long-term investors can spend as little as 15-20 minutes per week. Short-term investors will need to commit more time, but will also have more investment opportunities per month and per year.

The one piece of advice we can offer is this: Do what feels right for you.

Also remember that the more ETF’s you have in your portfolio at one time, the more time it will take you to monitor your investments.


How do I know which ETF’s to choose?One of the most common question we’ve gotten is, “Out of this entire list of ETF’s, how do I know which ones to choose?” Since most investors have a limited amount of space in their portfolios, this is a great question. Fortunately, we’ve got a great answer.

Let’s use an example to illustrate:

1. You’ve run a Simple Scan for Buy Signals.

2. The Wizard shows you a list of 30 ETF’s.

3. In your investment portfolio, you’ve decided that you’re willing to hold 10 ETF’s at one time. You are currently holding 7 ETF’s, which means you have 3 open slots.

4. Simply click on the Ranking column header to sort the list of ETF’s by their numerical rank.

5. Then, choose the top 3 ranked ETF’s from the list.


Placing orders with your brokerSo now that you’ve decided how much you have to invest, how much you’re willing to invest in any one stock and how many ETF’s you’re willing to hold at one time, it’s time to place your orders to buy your ETF’s.

To place your orders, you’ll need to know a few things:

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The ticker symbol for the ETF

Price to buy or sell short

Stop Price - the price to get out

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Price to take your profits

How many shares to buy

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Fortunately, The Wizard gives you all of this information! You now have everything you need to place your order with your broker.

This tutorial doesn’t cover the details of how to place an order with your broker. To learn how to place orders for Buying and Selling Short, exiting at the Stop Price and Taking Profits, please see our Placing Orders tutorial. That tutorial will also tell you how to manage your positions once you’ve placed your orders.


To learn more about Portfolios and Watchlists, see our tutorials for My Portfolio and My Watchlist.

Adding ETF’s to a Portfolio or WatchlistThe Wizard also gives you two different ways to track ETF’s.

Add ETF’s to My PortfolioMy Portfolio is a feature that allows you to “paper trade” - to track investments without actually committing any money.

To add ETF’s to a Portfolio, check the box next to their symbol names and click the “Add Selected ETF’s to My Portfolio” button.

Add ETF’s to My WatchlistA Watchlist is simpler than a Portfolio. In it, you can keep a custom of list of ETF’s that you want to follow. To add ETF’s to a Watchlist, check the box next to their symbol names and click the “Add Selected ETF’s to My Watchlist” button.

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What’s Next?Now that you know how to find Buy and Sell Signals for ETF’s, you’re next step is to learn how The Wizard shows how its current signals are doing. This is a great feature, because you’ll see that we’re completely honest about how we’re doing. You’ll gain the confidence that comes not only from knowing that we show both our winners and losers, but also from seeing how great The Wizard really is. (And don’t worry, this next tutorial is much shorter...)

The next tutorial for you to view is:

View the tutorial: Simple Scan for ETF’s: Viewing Open Positions.


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