How do you guys prepare for you intraday trading ?

learner2007 · Jul 14, 2015

People are telling you what they do. I'll tell you what not to do.

1. Never take a laxative just before the market opens.

2. Never take Viagra just before the market opens.

3. Never take Viagra and a laxative together. You won't
know if you're coming or going.

cashclay · Jul 14, 2015

onemoreshot said:
My style is very short term so no I don't look at anything older than the prior few hours.

See thats where im confused. I was doing that myself and then started watching videos on youtube and they all said to look at other time frames to get a better understnading. Do you trade patterns and trends? Or do you mostly just look at candlestick markings? And how reliable are they because ive tried that apporach and so far nothing.

cashclay · Jul 14, 2015

NoDoji said:
I look at the latest valid signal that matches my trading plan (usually this has occurred within the last couple of 5-min price bars) and see if there's an opportunity to get in on it. If there is, I look at five or six other charts (1-min, 15-min, 30-min, 60-min, daily, weekly) and tally up all the reasons the trade I'm contemplating will fail and all the reasons it will succeed. This usually confuses the heck out of me and wastes valuable time, causing me to miss the proper entry because I didn't place an order as soon as I saw the valid signal. Then as price immediately makes a quick, strong favorable excursion right after moving through where my order would have been filled, I emerge from my analytical reverie, shout "Doh!", and chase price right into where my profit-taking order would have been filled, then watch as price stalls, and then turns the other way right through my stop loss.

This generally wakes me right up and I'm ready to start my trading day.

LOL same here!! Whew im glad im not the only one. I thought that i had the worst luck in the world AND THAT THIS WAS A SIGN FROM GOD TELLING ME THE QUIT. the pic down below was one example of todays trade that i missed out on.

cashclay · Jul 14, 2015

Im just curious just by looking at this chart would you have gotten in at the top or not. I was about but then i saw how small the candlestick at the top was and thought this was def losing momentum.

cashclay · Jul 14, 2015

lawrence-lugar said:
PreMarket trend...generally indicates the longer day's trend. that has been my experience with broad-based general market ETF's

THis something i dont understnad how can there be a premarket trend if the markets are closed? My broker doesnt show any of that, instead it takes off right where it left to the other day

wrbtrader · Jul 14, 2015

Cashclay,

The questions you're asking so far implies you should not be trading right now.
Also, you're now starting to ask more specific trade method questions without revealing anything about what you're trading, your trading instruments, your trade strategy, your trading plan and so on.

Do not trade until you have a trading plan that includes having a morning routine to prepare you for trading, backtested trade strategy(s), proper capitalization, money management (risk management) rules, proper trade environment and so on.

JTrades · Jul 14, 2015

people sit there and think they're gonna make it on a bagel or something, it just doesn't work that way

NoDoji · Jul 14, 2015

cashclay said:
Im just curious just by looking at this chart would you have gotten in at the top or not. I was about but then i saw how small the candlestick at the top was and thought this was def losing momentum.

That's a nice gap and go setup. I probably wouldn't have gotten in at all because there wasn't a certain movement I look for prior to the run, but treating the break of the initial bar (little red bar) high as a pure breakout long entry is a worthy entry idea.

londonkid · Jul 14, 2015

cashclay said:
Do you guys look at weekly, monthly and yearly chart to get a better feel of the days trading?

Here is my quick routine.

1. Coffee machine on and primed.
2. Check news schedule for session.
3. Check yday's trades cleared ok and account all good.
4. Run through position sizing and game plan if I lose/win first few trades.
5. Monthly/Weekly/Daily levels - draw all the obvious ones into a chart.
6. Note 5 day ADR
7. Check overnight news/volatility
8. Oatmeal
9. Run through various what if scenarios
10. Trade
11. Close platform forget about it - win/lose/draw.

ALEXGOLD · Jul 14, 2015

I make a chart for a trading day (before the bell), but for stocks I prefer 3 day chart. This gives me confidence what to expect and what to do and when to trade. Here are examples (of course you need to pick up stocks with the best and the clearest pattern, DO NOT TRADE TRASH as a day trader, respect yourself: