Stock Data Overload? How to Filter the Noise and Find the Best Picks

Most investors listen to analyst or talkshow hosts, but as a 46-year veteran of the business recently told us, most of them don't actually know what they're doing. Today, I'm going to show you how to stop listening to the experts [music] and start looking at the only data that matters, so you know exactly what your stocks are worth and if [music] they're safe to hold. Hey guys, Boston from VectorVest here. One thing Dr. DiLiddo believed in and something he built the VectorVest system around was that every investor should know exactly what their stocks are really worth, how safe they are and when to buy, sell, or hold them. And it wasn't just an idea that he had when he started the company, it was something he taught and believed in every single day. And it's a philosophy that all of us here at VectorVest still stand behind today. So, last week I asked you guys to send me some stocks to use in this video and first off, thank you. You definitely gave me plenty to work with. So, just like I mentioned in the last video, today we're going to analyze some of them together. And my goal is to keep this as simple and straightforward as possible. But, before we jump in, I want you to hear something that one of our long-time members, Fred, shared with us when we were live in Tampa this past winter. I think he explains the value of cutting through all the market noise much better than I ever could. >> The key thing is that having been in the investment business, none of these talk show people or none of these analysts, of which I was one, we didn't really know what the hell we were doing. VectorVest gave me the opportunity, the processes, get rid of the noise, and zero in on data. And this the data was organized in a fashion or in a manner that made sense to me. >> I really like what Fred said there because that's exactly what we're trying to do throughout the series. In the last video, we talked about turning off the market noise. Today, we're going to take the next step by learning how to turn off the stock noise. And just to keep this as simple as possible, we're going to use the same free stock analysis report that you can pull up for your own stocks. That's what I'll be walking you through today. So, if you want to follow along with one of your holdings, you can grab one using the link below. And don't worry if some of these terms are brand new to you. By the end of the video, they will make a lot more sense. So, now we're coming to our viewers tab. Anytime you want to take a look at stock information, this is where we come. After that, we go to the watchlist viewer, and I've already made the watchlist, and I titled it July 2026 just to keep it easy for us. So, looking ahead at the screen here, we're simply going to go over these column headers, and I know it might look a little intimidating right now, but I'm going to break it down and make it nice and simple for you. So, starting with company, that is simply the company's name. That's it. Followed by symbol, this is what the stock ticker is. This is what it's trading under. If you go into any of your brokers and type in these symbols right here, you'll be able to pull up that stock. Next, we have our exchange. You'll notice some of these stocks have a small X before the exchange letter. All that's telling you is that if you're an options trader, these stocks do trade options. It's not going to tell you what the option information is, it's simply letting you know in case you trade them. After that, we have the price column. This is what these stocks are currently trading at. That's it. Followed by our dollar change and percent PRC. The percent PRC stands for percent price change. So, these two columns, the easiest way to explain it's the same information just different format. Some people like to see a dollar value, some people like to see a percentage value. That's all it is. From the previous day's close, how much has the stock gone up or down since then? So, from our percent price change column all the way back to the company column, these are all public information. You can go online and see it anywhere. You can go to Yahoo, you can go to Reuters, you can go to your broker. This is all public knowledge. Everything from the value column all the way over to the far right side is going to be information that you can only find here with VectorVest. So, we're going to start with our value column. Simply put, this is what VectorVest feels that stock is currently worth. That's it. Like we had mentioned last week, we always want to promote finding stocks that are undervalued and buying them in rising markets. In order to do that, all you have to do is take a look at the price column and see if the price is under the value. If it is, that is a undervalued stock. Easy right? To see a stock that's overvalued, you would see the price over the value. It's that simple. So, starting with these next columns here from the RV to CI, these are all going to be based on a zero to two scale. So, keep in mind anything one or higher would be considered favorable to us, the higher the better, and anything below one is going to be considered unfavorable. The lower the worse it's doing. So, starting with RV, this is our relative value and it's simply the upside potential the stock has. How likely is a stock going to continue to rise up over the next few years? Above one, it looks good. Below one, not so much. Next, we have RS, which is our relative safety. And the technical definition for the RS is going to state that it's computed from the analysis of the consistency and predictability of a company's financial performance, their debt-to-equity ratio, sales volume, business longevity, price volatility, and more. But, all you have to remember is it's showing us how safe this stock is. The closer to two, the more safe it is. Then we have RT, which stands for relative timing. RT is looking at the trend, and it's looking day over day, week over week, quarter after quarter, year after year, and basically it's taking all that data and putting it into a single number for you to make life easier. We take all the information and make it easier for you. So, all you have to think of is RT being above one means it's in an uptrend, and the higher the number, the better the trend is. RT below one, it's in a downtrend. The closer to zero, the worse that trend is doing for you right now. Next, we have VST, which stands for value, safety, and timing. The VST is going to be our master indicator. It's going to take these three columns here and essentially roll it over into one number to make it easier to look at. We always want to look for the higher VST because it's going to be the best combination stock brought to the top of your listing. And it's always going to have the lowest combination stock down at the bottom. CI is going to be your comfort indicator, and what this is looking at is basically it's reflecting the stock's ability to resist severe and or lengthy price declines. The closer to two, the more likely it's going to resist or try to, and the closer to zero, the less likely it's going to. It's going to kind of follow suit more. After that, we have our REC, which stands for recommendation column. Every single stock and ETF in VectorVest gets a buy, hold, or sell recommendation, and that is strictly based on how the stock is performing. And I say it that way because even if you have stocks with buy recommendations, like we do right here, you never want to just go go and buy. Always, always, always check the homepage to make sure that the market is actually there for you to purchase because if the VectorVest homepage is not saying that we advocate buying, the market's not going to be there to support your purchase and anything that you buy has the potential to go down as soon as you purchase it. So, always make sure when you're ready to buy, you check that homepage to make sure it's safe to do so. After this, we have our stop column, s t o p, stop. This is going to be the final line in the sand for VectorVest. If you have no other reason to get out of a stock, this should be it. When the price of our stock falls below the stop price, it is time to be done. As you'll notice, these stocks down here that have sell recommendations, their price is below the stop price. Just like this one right here, it is below our stop price. That is the only way for a stock to get a sell recommendation. All right, let's go ahead and analyze a couple of these. Let's start with this one, Par Pacific Holdings, p a r r. Currently, the price is $79.80. The value is $113.10. The price is under the value, so it's an undervalued stock. So far, so good. We have the RV well above one, which is good. We've got the upside potential beating up corporate bond over the next few years. It's definitely considered safe with a relative safety rating of 1.27. The RT is sitting at 1.59, which is really good. This is in an uptrend right now. It's doing very well. The VST is at 1.52, overall combination of the previous three indicators, looking very strong. Our CI is 1.68. It's trying to withstand and keep going no matter what the market's doing, it definitely has a buy recommendation based off of all of this information here. So, when it's a good day to buy, this may not be a bad idea. And we mentioned the stock price at $79.80, which is well above the stop price of 64.87. This is looking like a good one, guys. Next, let's take a look down at FSEL. The price is currently at $22.03. The value is at $10.65. So, the price is over the value, so currently it's considered an overvalued stock. When we look at the RV, the potential for the stock to grow over the next 1 to 3 years compared to a bond, it's below one. It's at a 0.80. Not the best right there. After that, our safety rating is at a 1.0. It's flat right now. So, technically it's considered favorable, but I'd be wary that it could go either direction. The RT is sitting at 0.83. That tells us that the stock is currently in a downtrend. We don't know how long it's been, but it's definitely heading downwards. Not a great idea if you're looking for something to move. The VST, our overall combination indicator, is showing us a 0.88. Definitely below one. Not something that's going to be the best idea for right now. But the CI is showing a 1.38, which is really nice to see. It's going to try to withstand and keep growing. So, not a bad idea. Keep an eye on the CI and wait and see if these other indicators are maybe able to pull themselves up. When we look at our recommendation column, we have it sitting at a hold. Treat it like a yellow flag. Use caution when you see a hold. If it's something you're holding on to, keep an eye on it. If you haven't bought it, keep it in the back pocket. I wouldn't say go out and buy today, but wait for some of these indicators to improve before you go ahead and start purchasing. And if we didn't look at your stock today, that's okay. Use the link below in the description box to get your very own personal report on your stock. Go ahead and go through it and let us know what it says and let us know what you think. Now, just to show you guys, if you're interested in the stock analysis report, this is what it's going to look like. And you can go ahead and like I mentioned, use the link below to get one. Or if you're in VectorVest, you can do a simple right click any stock, hit view full stock analysis report, and you will get this to pop up. And this is going to explain in more detail what we just covered. MU is our symbol, Micron Technology is the company's name, that's our current price, that is how much the stock has changed since the previous day's closing, the dollar amount and the percentage amount. When we scroll down, our recommendation is a buy, which we see here. It covers the value, relative value, upside potential, relative safety is our safety, and so forth. I always recommend to someone when we're doing this training together, go ahead and print one of these out, keep it by your computer, so that way you have it for next time. You don't have to try to memorize all of these definitions, you can just have a little cheat sheet right next to your desk. By default, VectorVest has these stocks sorted by VST, which is exactly how I like to see them when I'm looking for opportunities. The strongest overall stocks are sitting right at the very top of the list, but let's pretend that we already own some of these. Once you've bought a stock, your question is no longer, "Should I buy this stock?" Instead, you're asking, "Is this stock still doing what I bought it to do?" So, instead of sorting by VST, I'm going to resort by the RT. Remember, RT measures the stock's price trend. So, when I do that, the strongest trending stock moves to the very top of the list with the weakest trending down below at the bottom. And that's usually where I want to start when I'm deciding which holdings deserve a place in my portfolio and which ones might need a closer look. And by the way, if you're thinking I'd like to see this with one of my own stocks, that's exactly what the report is for. Every stock gets its own analysis with these same sections and ratings. I'm simplifying them today, but once you know what you're looking at, it becomes a really handy way to evaluate any stock that you're researching. In the next video, we'll continue to cut through the noise and I'll walk you through some of the ways that VectorVest helps take the guesswork out of selling by showing you the signals to watch for. Then you can use that information to make more confident investing decisions. Before we finish up, I want your help with my next video. >> [music] >> So, if you've got a system you like for knowing when it's time to sell, let me know what it is down in the comments below. And if you don't, trust me, you are not alone. Tell me what frustrates you most about selling a stock. Is it holding on for too long, selling too early, or never really knowing when enough is enough? Thank you for joining me today and I can't wait to see you in the next video. Bye for now. >> [music] [music]