Quote from kowboy:
I find the hardest part of trading breakouts is to find enough stocks (based on the daily charts) to put on the watch list as potential breakouts. Most of the time, with only a handful of candidates, the trader ends up spending all day or several days waiting for one of these to breakout and confirm. I've not found a good scanning method for my own use and only several websites to get more than a handful of candidates at any one time.
Thanks [/B]
Yeah, thats why you need to switch to trading emini futures. Listen I have been swing trading stocks for over seven years now. And I know exactly what you mean by waiting days on days in looking for potential stocks and breakouts. It really drags on you after a while. Like looking for a needle in a haystack. And then the fact that every night going thru hundrends of stock charts and reading fundamentals about a stock til your face turns blue.
At first its exciting to try to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Spending so much time gives you a feeling that you are a detective doing your DD and realizing it will payoff. But once you investigate other financial instruments your eyes get open and you realize their are better and more appealing ways to make money.
Thats why in the last month I have found the emini futures and am trading the YM on a intra day basis.
Trust me once you try it you will NEVER want to go back to trading stocks. IMHO
Sure there is risk involved with futures but in my experience swing trading stocks with overnight exposure is soooooooooooooooooooooo much more riskier. I can attest to this just last month when I stupidly held NTRI after the Bell closed. The thing is I thought my risk was mitigated because they werent going to CC their earnings report until 2 weeks away.
But they decided to prewarn guidance that day out of nowhere. And BOOM, I was down 8 points at 4:05 pm.
I know there is alot of competition in eminis but if you are patient enough and start out very small I believe it can be the way to go for many traders !!
Right now I am trading 1 contract of YM for at least 3 months. I may add another one by Summer. Mainly using three strategies that have been working pretty good.
I fad the premarket Gaps.
I also use candlesstick charting on the 1 minute and five minute charts trading Hammers, Dojis, and engulfing patterns, (with stochastics at bottom to confirm entry points),
And finally I trade using a 9day ema and 18day ema crossover with OBV used to make entry points clearer. And BB which is used as an exit tool indicator. This strategy is more for following the basic Trend of the YM for the day than the other two above.
Anyway, I wish I had been more involved with futures earlier. And learned more about them before now.