"I will have a profit by 11:30 but then trade most of it away later in the day."
At the risk of sounding trite: don't trade after 11:30!
"Doctor, doctor, it hurts when I do this..."
Quit while you are ahead. (SOUNDS easy! :) )
Also, I've adopted a "don't go back to the well" philosophy. I used to go back to the same stock several times the same day. It's pretty easy to take a nice profit and fritter it away and even turn it to a loss that way. Particularly if you caught a nice move that caught other traders unaware. Problem is, more and more traders are focusing on that stock, and as the day wears on it will get more difficut to trade.
I will still go back to a winner (say I make a "perfect" sale at the top of a rally, and then it pulls back), but with the first subsequent loss, (which I will limit to a very small loss), I will walk away from the stock. Move on to another one, or quit for the day.
Now, I know others here will probably say that you can trade any stock, any time. It just takes practice.
I'm more pragmatic. If you KNOW that a certain pattern doesn't work for you, DON'T DO IT! |
