How to Execute Stock Actions Recommendations

When a new Stock Actions Aggressive recommendation is ready, you'll get a notification — by email, push, or text. That notification is a signal: it tells you a recommendation is waiting, but it doesn't carry the numbers itself. To act, open the investment.tips app or website and view the recommendation, where you'll find the ticker symbol, the Buy Stop price, and the Sell Stop price. From there, your job is to place two orders at your brokerage — a Buy Stop at the entry price, and a Sell Stop to protect your position once it fills.

Stock Actions Aggressive strategy: The Aggressive strategy may include leveraged exchange-traded funds (at 2x leverage or higher, depending on market availability). Leveraged ETFs are designed to achieve their stated objective on a single trading day; performance over longer holding periods can diverge substantially from the underlying index due to daily compounding effects. In volatile or choppy markets, daily rebalancing can cause a leveraged ETF to lose value even when the underlying index is flat or positive over the same period — performance over holding periods longer than one trading session may differ from the benchmark in both magnitude and direction. Some leveraged ETFs in this strategy's universe may track single underlying stocks rather than diversified indexes; these single-stock leveraged ETFs concentrate exposure in one issuer and carry the further risk that company-specific events can amplify losses beyond the leverage factor. Leveraged ETFs carry the potential for amplified losses, including loss of principal, and are generally appropriate only for active investors who monitor positions daily. They are not suitable for buy-and-hold strategies or for retirement accounts, IRAs, or other tax-advantaged accounts. Subscribers concentrating in a small number of these recommendations forgo the diversification benefits that would partially offset issuer- and sector-specific drawdowns. As with all recommendations on the investment.tips platform, all investment decisions are your sole responsibility. Subscribers should consider whether leveraged ETFs are appropriate for their individual risk tolerance and timeline, and may wish to consult a financial professional. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

What each field means.

• Ticker: the stock symbol for the recommended position (such as NVDA or SPY)
• Buy Stop price: the entry trigger. The order executes only if the stock reaches this price — confirming upward momentum before you commit capital
• Sell Stop price: the exit floor. If the position fills and then falls to this price, the stock sells automatically

Active positions vs. new entries. When you already hold a position, a recommendation update may carry a revised Sell Stop price rather than a new entry. Check whether the recommendation is a new Buy Stop or an update to an existing position's protection.

Why Buy Stops and not Market orders. A Market order fills immediately at whatever price the stock is currently trading. A Buy Stop waits. You set the stop above the current price, and the order only triggers if the stock moves up through that level — confirming momentum before you enter and avoiding buying into a declining move.

After you've opened the recommendation, one action. Open your brokerage, navigate to the order entry screen for the ticker, place a Buy Stop at the specified price, then immediately place a Sell Stop at the specified exit price. The guides below walk through each step.

The Stock Actions track page covers how recommendations are generated; this page is about how to execute them.

A Buy Stop order triggers only when a stock reaches or exceeds the price you set. Because Stock Actions Aggressive uses momentum signals, this acts as a gate: if the stock never reaches the recommended price, you don't enter the position. If it does, the order fills automatically.

Stock Actions Aggressive strategy: The Aggressive strategy may include leveraged exchange-traded funds (at 2x leverage or higher, depending on market availability). Leveraged ETFs are designed to achieve their stated objective on a single trading day; performance over longer holding periods can diverge substantially from the underlying index due to daily compounding effects. In volatile or choppy markets, daily rebalancing can cause a leveraged ETF to lose value even when the underlying index is flat or positive over the same period — performance over holding periods longer than one trading session may differ from the benchmark in both magnitude and direction. Some leveraged ETFs in this strategy's universe may track single underlying stocks rather than diversified indexes; these single-stock leveraged ETFs concentrate exposure in one issuer and carry the further risk that company-specific events can amplify losses beyond the leverage factor. Leveraged ETFs carry the potential for amplified losses, including loss of principal, and are generally appropriate only for active investors who monitor positions daily. They are not suitable for buy-and-hold strategies or for retirement accounts, IRAs, or other tax-advantaged accounts. Subscribers concentrating in a small number of these recommendations forgo the diversification benefits that would partially offset issuer- and sector-specific drawdowns. As with all recommendations on the investment.tips platform, all investment decisions are your sole responsibility. Subscribers should consider whether leveraged ETFs are appropriate for their individual risk tolerance and timeline, and may wish to consult a financial professional. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

Position sizing: equal-weight. Before placing the order, decide how much to invest. The practical approach is equal-weight: divide your total account balance by 10 and allocate that amount to each active position. At a $50,000 account, each position gets $5,000. Calculate shares by dividing your allocation by the Buy Stop price, then round down to the nearest whole share.

Entering the order. On your brokerage's order entry screen:

1. Enter the ticker symbol
2. Select the order type as “Buy Stop” — some platforms label this “Stop Market”
3. Set the Stop Price to the Buy Stop price from your recommendation
4. Enter the share quantity based on your equal-weight calculation
5. Set the time-in-force to “Good Till Cancelled” (GTC) — this keeps the order active past a single trading day
6. Review the details and confirm

A note on slippage. A Buy Stop fills at the next available price once the stop triggers. If the stock gaps up rapidly through your stop price, you may fill slightly above it. This is expected with momentum strategies — a small slippage cost is confirmation that the move is real rather than a brief spike.

The video grid below demonstrates the exact Buy Stop entry sequence at Fidelity, Schwab, and Robinhood; other brokerages' mobile apps will be similar.

The moment a Buy Stop fills and you own the position, your next step is placing a matching Sell Stop. This is the “Opposite Order” approach: every buy gets a paired sell immediately — an automatic exit if the position moves against you.

Placing the Sell Stop. Navigate to order entry for the same ticker and enter a Sell Stop at the protection price from your recommendation:

1. Enter the ticker symbol
2. Select the order type as “Sell Stop” — also labeled “Stop Market — Sell” on some platforms
3. Set the Stop Price to the Sell Stop price from your recommendation
4. Enter the number of shares you hold in this position
5. Set time-in-force to GTC
6. Review and confirm

Your position is now protected: if the stock falls to the stop price, it exits automatically.

Ratcheting stops as the position gains. When you receive an updated Sell Stop price in a recommendation, you're not entering a new position — you're tightening protection on an existing one. Cancel the current Sell Stop and place a new one at the updated price. Over time, this ratchets the floor upward as the position rises, locking in gains.

Why GTC matters. A Day-only stop expires at market close. A GTC stop stays active across trading sessions. If the stock drops overnight and gaps down at the open, a Day stop would already be gone — a GTC stop remains in place to catch it.

The video grid below shows the Sell Stop entry steps at Fidelity, Schwab, and Robinhood; other brokerages' mobile apps will be similar.

At any point, some portion of your account may be uninvested — waiting for a Buy Stop to trigger, or sitting in cash after a Sell Stop exited a position. This is your dry powder. How you handle it affects the return on your full account, not just your active positions.

Option 1: Hold cash. Your uninvested balance stays in your brokerage's default cash sweep, earning whatever rate the brokerage pays. No market exposure, no volatility, no execution required. When a new recommendation arrives, the capital is immediately available. The tradeoff: on strong market days, idle cash misses the move.

Option 2: Hold SPY. SPY (SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust) tracks the S&P 500. Parking dry powder in SPY puts idle capital to work without concentrating it in a single stock. SPY is highly liquid — you can generally sell and redirect within the same trading session when a new recommendation arrives. The tradeoff: SPY falls with the market, so you may be selling at a loss to fund a new entry during a downturn.

Which to choose. Cash is simpler and lower-risk; SPY captures more of a rising market. Neither is universally correct — the right choice depends on your risk tolerance and how actively you want to manage idle capital. Many investors start with cash to simplify execution while learning the system, then reassess once they're comfortable with the rhythm.

Whichever you choose, the goal is the same: capital ready to act when the next recommendation arrives, and every open position protected by a live Sell Stop.