How many stocks are on your watchlist right now?
Ten? Twenty? Thirty?
How many tabs do you have open? How many alerts have you set? How many tickers are sitting on your watchlist that you haven’t looked at in three days?
I want you to really think about that…
You’re probably watching everything (and winning on almost nothing).
That endless loop won’t grow your account.
But this could…
The Focus Rule
I only watch one, two, maybe three stocks at a time.
I know what you’re thinking. With more stocks, there’s more opportunity, right? More chances to catch a big move. More ways to make money.
I’ve learned it doesn’t work that way.
When you’re trying to track twenty companies at once, you end up doing okay on some of them. Maybe even good on a few. But you never do great on any of them.
Why?
Simple math.
With so many, it’s almost impossible to know each one well enough. You don’t know how they move. You haven’t put in enough screen time to recognize the exact moment the setup is there.
You’re spreading your attention across too many names and leaving your best opportunities half-covered.
The Duck Hunter Analogy
My mentor and fellow trader, Tim Bohen, once told me about his son who spends months preparing for hunting season. He scouts the land, learns the patterns, and puts in the time before the shot ever gets taken.
And when the moment comes, he’s ready. He’s not guessing. He’s not rushing. He knows exactly when to pull the trigger because he’s done all the work ahead of time.
That’s a great analogy for my trading approach.
I pick one, two, or three stocks, and I watch them every single day.
I track the price action. I follow the news. I learn how they react to volume and to headlines. I build a picture of the stock in my head that you can only build through sustained, focused attention.
And then, when the moment comes, I know it. Not because of some indicator or alert…
It’s because I’ve been watching long enough that the right entry almost announces itself.
That’s the edge, and you can’t build it across twenty names.
And the process works…
For example, recently I bought over 350,000 shares of a single $2 stock.
And cashed out with a $1.6 million gain.
Now I’m preparing my next move.
Find out what I’m targeting next.
What Spreading Too Thin Actually Costs You
Say you have a portfolio of twenty stocks. You’re fairly confident on one of them, really confident, the kind of conviction that comes from deep research and time spent watching it move.
But because you have nineteen other positions open, you put maybe 20% of your capital into that high-conviction trade.
The other 19 positions? You put a little here, a little there. “I’ll just put some money into that.” Half-committed, not really sure, just filling space for the heck of it.
Those half-committed positions aren’t just dead weight. They’re actively hurting you. They’re draining your capital, splitting your attention, and most importantly, they’re stealing alpha from the one trade you actually believed in.
I’ve been there. I know exactly what it feels like to watch your best idea go on a massive run while you’re only halfway in because you spread yourself too thin everywhere else.
That’s a painful lesson. And an expensive one.
How I Actually Do It
When I find a stock I want to trade, I do my homework. Deep homework.
I’m reading everything I can about the company. I’m studying the chart across multiple time frames. I’m tracking how it responds to news, how it behaves at different times of day, and where the key support and resistance levels are.
I write it all down. I build a thesis. I know my entry, my target, and my exit before I ever put a dollar in.
And then I wait patiently without forcing the trade.
When the setup is there, when everything lines up with what I’ve been watching and studying, I go in with real size. Not a toe in the water. A real position, backed by real conviction, built on real preparation.
That’s when accounts grow. Not from being in everything. From being all-in on the right thing at the right time.
Narrow your focus.
Know your stocks deeply.
Wait for the moment.
Then make it count.
– Jack Kellogg
*Past performance does not indicate future results, Not typical.
