Is there an effective technique to monitor the stock market without having to continually check it?
You don’t need to check the “stock market” at all. Check your investments or deals.
The “stock market” is represented by the Dow, which includes 30 stocks, the NASDAQ 100, which has 100 stocks, and the S&P 500, which has 500 components, including Dow and NASDAQ components. As a result, the total number of stocks in the indexes is 500.
There are over 6455 US equities, 390 ADRs (international firms approved to be listed on the US stock exchange), 3324 ETFs (exchange-traded funds) that can be traded like stocks, and 3700 OTCBB stocks that are not listed on the stock exchange but are included in the US stock market.
That is, the indexes represent a subset of the total number of equities and derivatives that you may purchase and then watch.
The indexes are promoted as representing the most important corporations, however, this is not necessarily the case. Amazon is not on the Dow 30, yet no one can deny that it is a highly important corporation for the US economy. That is only one example of a corporation that is not adequately reflected in the indices.
Instead of monitoring or reviewing the indices, simply keep an eye on your holdings or the equities you are trading on the exchanges, that are part of the US stock market.
That is, the indexes represent a subset of the total number of stocks and derivatives available for purchase, as well as stocks and derivatives for monthly income or both.
Long-term investors should only review their stock holdings once a quarter, right before the company’s earnings report is due. As a shareholder, you have access to this data.
For swing, momentum, and velocity trading, traders should review their open trades once a day after the market closes. For Platform Position Trading, you only need to verify your open orders once a week because your trading profit stops will be in place, and You don’t have to check every day.
Day traders typically buy and sell on the same day, or EOD to FOD orders, which are also less than 24 hours apart. So you trade actively during the day and monitor using the minute scale.