Welcome to Sage Trading Suite
Sage Trading Suite is designed to help investors organize the investment-research process.
Rather than beginning with the question, “What stock should I buy?”, Sage Trading Suite encourages investors to work through a series of research questions:
- What investment opportunities deserve further research?
- Is the company fundamentally sound?
- How is the investment currently valued?
- What does the price history tell us?
- Is the investment worth monitoring?
- If options are being considered, what type of strategy may fit the circumstances?
No single number, indicator, scan result, or Sage tool should make an investment decision for the investor. The different parts of Sage Trading Suite are intended to provide information that can be considered together.
The Sage Trading Suite Research Process
- 1
Discovery
- 2
Research
- 3
Evaluation
- 4
Monitoring
- 5
Strategy
1. Discovery
The first step is finding investments that may deserve additional research. Sage Trading Suite provides different discovery tools depending upon what the investor is researching.
- Stock Sage helps identify fundamentally qualified companies trading near their own 52-week lows.
- ETF Sage helps investors research exchange-traded funds and compare potential ETF opportunities.
- Power Moves helps identify notable price movements that may warrant additional investigation.
Discovery does not mean an investment should automatically be purchased. It simply gives the investor a more focused group of opportunities to research.
2. Research
Once an opportunity has been identified, the next step is understanding the investment. For an individual company, this can include examining:
- Earnings history
- Assets and liabilities
- Profitability
- Valuation
- Historical P/E information
- Price history
- 52-week highs and lows
- Analyst estimates when available
- Other financial information provided by the platform
The purpose is to move beyond the stock price and examine the business behind the stock.
3. Evaluation
Research produces information. Evaluation means putting that information into context.
A stock trading near a 52-week low, for example, is not automatically inexpensive or attractive. Its price may have declined for a legitimate business reason.
Likewise, a company with strong historical fundamentals may still be trading at a valuation an investor considers unattractive.
Sage Trading Suite is designed to help investors consider multiple pieces of information rather than relying upon a single measurement.
4. Monitoring
Not every investment that deserves research needs to be acted upon immediately.
Watchlists allow investors to keep interesting companies organized while continuing to monitor their prices and research.
Sage Trading Suite provides access to both the investor's Personal Watchlist and the Stock Sage Watchlist. Later lessons will explain how these watchlists work and how they can be incorporated into a regular research routine.
5. Strategy
After researching an investment, an investor may decide to do nothing, continue monitoring it, purchase or sell an investment through their brokerage account, or investigate an options strategy.
Options Sage is designed to assist with the options-research portion of this process. Depending upon the available data and circumstances, Options Sage can analyze strategies such as:
- Buy Calls
- Buy Puts
- Sell Calls
- Sell Puts
Options Sage is a research and analysis tool, not a guarantee that a particular trade will be profitable.
An Example Research Journey
An investor runs Stock Sage and discovers hypothetical Company ABC trading near its 52-week low.
The investor does not immediately buy ABC. Instead, the investor:
- 1Reviews why ABC qualified for Stock Sage.
- 2Examines the company's earnings and balance-sheet history.
- 3Reviews valuation information and historical P/E levels.
- 4Looks at ABC's chart for additional price context.
- 5Adds ABC to a watchlist if further monitoring is appropriate.
- 6If options are appropriate for the investor's objectives and risk tolerance, uses Options Sage for additional strategy research.
The final decision remains with the investor.
What You Will Learn Next
The remaining lessons in Using Sage Trading Suite will walk through the platform practically, including Stock Sage, researching an individual company, the 52-week-low process, watchlists, charts, Power Moves, ETF Sage, Options Sage, and finally a complete start-to-finish Sage Trading Suite research example.
Knowledge Check
Choose an answer for each question, then check your response.