ATR For Intraday Trading

V

VinMan

For anyone using ATR for intraday trades do you look for a stock with a high ATR so you can capture a small % of the move and have a chance to make money or do you look for a lower ATR to manage risk better.

Im thinking an ATR around 75c is manageable for me and it keeps me away from the huge movers decreasing my risk. I guess those huge movers might be what most look for. Stocks with $3 ATR etc.
 
For intraday, you should be using range, not ATR, which accounts for gaps that may be hard to impossible to capture on a daytrading basis. In other words, if a stock has a high ATR, but its partly/mostly due to overnight gaps, that offers less opportunity than a stock that has a high average range open to close.
 
Arnie--- I did not know that. Thanks I will look into that.

Also, I'm not solely using ATR but it's one thing I'm looking at to create my watchlist.

Example: DOW stocks with ATR between X and Y

Seems everyone trades the high flyers but most traders lose $ so is there a real edge? Or is a traders edge in his strategy, game plan and execution of the plan.

The stocks, Im thinking, are the vehicle to executing the plan.

Of course these are just thoughts.
 
Quote from lwlee:

The bigger the ATR, the better. It implies that the stock is a mover. That's what a daytrader wants.
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It can move towards your target or your stop. You still need some directional edge to trade like that.
 
Of course. OP was only asking whether a large or small range was better.

Market is not gonna give you anything easy. Still have to know how to trade.

But that being said, there's much more opportunities if a stock is moving back and forth with a nice large range. Scalp 1 or 2 points in a 4 move downturn is much easier than trying to squeeze blood out of stone, like trying to take anything out of a 1 point range.

Quote from tim888:

It can move towards your target or your stop. You still need some directional edge to trade like that.
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Yesterday, about 12:04 (PST) I couldn't believe it. First trading day of the year. On a 2 minute timeframe and the atr was 2. Never ever seen it that low. Anything less than 6 and I don't trade. Seriously, a dead person had a better heartbeat. BTW... I also use ATR for targets AND stops.

Today, it's now 10:24 and waiting for 10:30 action from the east coast lunch crowd, those guys are easy targets :}. ATR is 4 . Fishing is more exciting.

--jstox
 
It'll pick up. First week back from major holidays can be slow.

There have been some movers in individual stocks i.e. RL, SODA, NFLX.
 
Quote from jstox:

Yesterday, about 12:04 (PST) I couldn't believe it. First trading day of the year. On a 2 minute timeframe and the atr was 2. Never ever seen it that low. Anything less than 6 and I don't trade. Seriously, a dead person had a better heartbeat.

--jstox
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periods of contraction lead to periods of expansion. as goose would say from top gun, don't get bored or do something stupid during these "boring" times b/c you know a huge move is coming you just have to wait for it.
 
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