Cut the C@P, Alternative Day-Trading Tickers

Alright, today seems like the perfect day to come out with this idea.

As a true and blue day trader, I am in and out of the market every day. I have tended to lean towards the indices as my primary trading candidate, being SPY and QQQ, ES1! and NQ1! futures version.

This is true for many, but, arguably, not for the smart ones. In fact, my unofficial mentor, the person who really helped me when I started day trading, stays far away from trading the indices. When I told him I predominately trade SPY now, he responded something along the lines of "You're nuts, you realize you are trading the entire U.S. economy in the span of 6 hours". And this is actually true.

When you trade SPY or QQQ or ES1, you are trading the product of an entire nation's economy, as well as its international relationships. As such, we can get days like today where it can be quite hostile to even the most experience traders.

That is why I have an arsenal of "Plan Bs". So I am going to give you the deets on some tickers that I like as "Plan Bs". These tickers make fine "Plan As" for most. I know of another trader who only trades about 2 of the stocks on this list, and that is her go to every day, all day.

Let me preface this with, these stocks are stocks that are friendly for traders of all experiential levels. They are also well positioned in their liquidity and affordability for both shares and/or options. So no matter what kind of trader you are, novice or experienced, options or shares, these stocks are things to probably check out!

Let me also preface this with, no stock is a sure thing. Trading, in any capacity, is quite challenging. But these tickers tend to be a little more friendly. Okay, let's get into the list!

#7: BA



BA is a great stock. I really love it. It does its own thing and is very unphased by any drama the market wants to lament on the day. In the world of BA, all that matters is BA.

While the shares can be a little on the pricey side for small accounts, the options are reasonably priced and have very decent liquidity. BA is a popular day trading candidate for many and you will not have an issue in getting in or out of options or shares; however, the options can be a little on the spready side.

Looking over the past year, we can see that BA's relationship to SPY is moderately significant, but not very, with an R of 0.58.


This means that you can expect BA to act independently of SPY and be a bit more stable.

#6 AMD



AMD used to be my go to towards the beginning of this year. It's a great stock, highly affordable for shares and options.
The option liquidity is excellent and so is the share liquidity. If you trade shares, it is generally very easy to borrow with most brokers.

AMD has a slightly more significant correlation to the broader market than BA with an R of 0.78 with SPY, but it doesn't translate as such. AMD tends to be quite transparent with its intentions, responds very well to TA strategies and is generally very friendly to novice traders.



#5 JNJ


Johnson and Johnson is a company that has been around since the 1800s. They are the inventors of many of our commonly used medical supplies today, most notably the Band-Aid.

As an "old reliable" company, it trades as such, reliably. J&J has a normal distribution trading history which makes its response to most strategies effective, especially if you trade Bollinger Bands.

It has fine liquidity for both options and shares and is easy to borrow. The options are very reasonably priced and move well, but not too aggressively. JNJ is highly day traded as well, so you shouldn't run into execution or liquidity issues.

Like BA, JNJ moves at a slower pace, you won't generally get hugely fast moves, but you will get stable and reliable moves. Its great for those who are starting out and for those who are working on their patience skills :-).

JNJ has an extremely weak relationship to SPY, with an R of 0.29. So, no SPY drama here.



#4 IWM


While it is an index, IWM does not behave as erratically or starkly as SPY or QQQ. It is an extremely stable index that moves deliberately and with purpose.

It is very highly day traded and as such has fantastic liquidity and very minimal option spreads. The options are very reasonably priced and have great liquidity.

IWM responds well to technical analysis strategies, as, for the most part, it is normally distributed. It is also forgiving when the trade goes against you as it doesn't move overly quick. It shares a lot of the same perks and benefits of JNJ; however, the liquidity is even more present on IWM.

IWM, as an index, is fairly independent of others, with an R correlation of 0.5 to SPY.



#3: XOM


This actually used to be my favourite stock :-).

XOM trades really nicely. It doesn't play games and its really transparent with what it wants. It responds very well to technical analysis and is normally distributed over the past 1.5 years worth of data. This makes most modern strategies appropriate (such as BB strategies).

It does not follow the market but it does follow energy. The option liquidity is fantastic, but the real perk is for share traders who can either trade XOM directly, or trade its leveraged share counterpart ERX (Energy x 2 bull shares) or ERY (Energy x 2 Bear Shares) which follow XOM exactly:



XOM does not have a significant relationship to SPY at all, which means it could care less what SPY is doing:



#2: MMM



I saved the best 2 for last :-).
I don't talk about this stock like ever, but I actually really love it.

MMM is the best stock for novice traders. I have had great success with this in the past.
It is very friendly to technical analysis, it respects most strategies and has an extensive history of being normally distributed.

The option liquidity and spreads are fantastic for option traders, for share trades it is affordable and easy to borrow if you want to short it.

It doesn't follow the market, with a Pearson R of -0.38 when compared against SPY:



It moves a bit quicker than say JNJ, but it is a bit slower than XOM or IWM (sometimes). Thus, it does provide you time to assess and determine whether this is a trade you want to take.

#1 GE


And last but certainly not least is $GE.
Another old timer company that has done a lot for us. Chances are, you have some GE stuff chillin around your house.

GE ticks all of MMMs boxes. Great liquidity for options and shares, highly day traded and responds well to TA based strategies. Very affordable shares and options as well, with decent spreads.

It does have a slightly high correlation to SPY at 0.89, but it doesn't translate in the same way as you'd expect. I can honestly and truthfully say I have never had severe whipsaw drama with GE in the least. It tends to be transparent and upfront about its intentions and can honestly be a great barometer for what the market may be looking to do.



Some Honourable mentions that didn't quite make the list:

#1 GM Moves well, good options, just tends to be a bit slower and more laggy than the rest.

#2 F Ford is great but it does its move right off open and then its done for the day. It will just chop around and do a whole lotta nothing, so I don't recommend it as a day trading candidate, but it does have fantastic liquidity.

#3 TSLA Tesla is fine, it does its own thing and doesn't follow the market most times. However, it is prone to its own whipsaw and its highly susceptible to whatever its CEO feels like tweeting that day.

#4 AAPL : Believe it or not, I view AAPL as a little bit more independent of the market. The reason being is that AAPL tends to do its own thing and most people are under the impression that the market follows AAPL or "AAPL IS the market". I don't know about any of that, but I do know that AAPL many times will act independently of the market. AAPL tends to be transparent in its intentions and I actually don't see AAPL whipsaw to the extent that I see QQQ or even MSFT whipsaw. It does happen, but not as often as you get with trading QQQ directly.

#5 AMZN : Amazon is actually a fantastic stock with great liquidity and mostly does its own thing. However, as with TSLA, AMZN can have its own whipsaw. That said, AMZN can be traded independently of the market and it is actually quite a viable alternative.

#6 ADBE: ADBE fits in the same category as AMZN. The reason it wasn't included on the list is its price point. It tends to be unaffordable for small accounts for both the shares and options. However, it does its own thing and it actually trades really nicely!


Those are my thoughts. I have traded each and everyone of these stocks at some point in my trading career and have had both success and losses with them. But more success. Personally, my go to when I am really just not having it and want to be as far removed from the market as possible, is MMM, GE and $XOM. XOM still has its own set of dramas (i.e. the oil world), but for the most part MMM and GE are just little angels haha.

Remember, no stock is a sure thing. All trading is really risky, no matter what ticker you choose! So exercise due diligence!

Alright that's it! Hopefully you found this helpful and check out some of these tickers.

Safe trading!