Posts Tagged ‘Swing Trading Price Action’

Day Trading Strategies – Intraday Swing Trading Strategy

Thursday, June 14th, 2012

Swing Trading Boot Camp – Day Trading the Intraday Swing Trading Strategy

We thought we would take this opportunity to walk you through one of our day trades from this morning.

Our Intraday Swing Trading Strategy is very similar to our overnight swing trading method.

We use relative strength to locate and trade strong stocks (or ETF's) when the overall market is strong.

This morning was a good example of locating a sector ETF ($XLE) that was showing signs of relative strength AND also had a great chart pattern to trade.

Here is the first chart for $XLE

XLE - Day Trading Strategies - Intraday Swing Trading

Notice how on the chart above $XLE broke out to new highs in the early morning and rallied up until a little after 10am.

After a brief pullback $XLE was setting up again for a nice LONG trade. A move to the upside on increased volume was the confirmation we needed (BLUE ARROWS).

Our trend line was drawn in and we let the trade progress.

XLE - Day Trading Strategies - Intraday Swing Trading

On the chart above you can see how $XLE rallied to new highs again putting in 2 channel expansions before the "stall" (equal bar high) marked in orange.

This entire move happened on decreasing volume so we were on high alert looking for the signs of this move reaching its potential.

The"stall" was followed 2 bars later by a new high but this bar quickly reversed course and put in a bullish engulfing candlestick.

This bar combined with the failure to reach the top of the channel is a good sign that the move has come to an end and a good time for us to exit our trade.

The next bar followed through to the downside but we noticed that volume was drying up.

XLE - Day Trading Strategies - Intraday Swing Trading

The bar after the bearish engulfing bar reversed and closed near its high. Two bars later a new breakout was underway.

We didn't want to enter into a new LONG trade at this point since the move in $XLE was already extended a bit.

Below you can see how the new breakout stalled and basically traded sideways for the next 6 bars before finally breaking down and out of the upward trending channel.

XLE - Day Trading Strategies - Intraday Swing Trading

Even if the new breakout would have continued we aren't really concerned about it.

We are NOT trying to catch  every single bit of every move.

For our STS trades we typically set our target at a 2:1 risk/reward ratio and are very happy taking our profits at this level just as we did here.

As day traders our intraday swing trading strategy helps us locate (and hopefully profit from) price "swings" in the market just like you see here.

We hope this sheds some light on the strategies and tactics we use to trade the market day in and day out.

Until next time…Good Trading to YOU!

Swing Trading Week in Review – June 1, 2012

Sunday, June 3rd, 2012

Swing Trading Blog – Swing Trading Boot Camp

After finding some temporary support last week the markets SOLD OFF hard this week.

After being closed on Monday traders watched the market GAP UP on Tuesday.

On Wednesday though all hopes of a meaningful bounce disappeared as the market GAPPED DOWN and the sellers stepped in to drive the market lower.

Another big GAP DOWN on Friday and continued strong selling pushed the market NEW LOWS for the 2012.

It's amazing what can happen in 1 month.

On May 1st we hit NEW HIGHS for 2012 and here, exactly 1 month later, we are looking at NEW LOWS for the year.

Let's take a look at the transition from BULL to BEAR…

In February we traded to NEW HIGHS and then sold off a bit in early March.

Buyers stepped back in and once again brought the market higher (1st Orange Arrow).

After some sideways trading we once again hit NEW HIGHS on April 2nd but once again we couldn't go any higher.

Sellers stepped and drove the market down to the same level it hit in early March (2nd Orange Arrow).

These levels were accompanied by BIG VOLUME which tells us that there is a lot of activity at that level in the market.

The BUYING volume obviously won since we once again drifted higher to close out the month of April.

We opened up the Month of May by hitting NEW HIGHS once again.

We immediately stalled and another sell off began this time on volume.

This sell off took the market right back to the key area in the market that we touched 2 times before (3rd Orange Arrow).

It is around these key levels (of support this time) that we look for the clues the market gives us.

In mid May we finally BROKE DOWN through this support level as volume picked up (Blue arrow).

The mode of the market had now changed. Sentiment was different.

This BREAK DOWN on INCREASED VOLUME is what we needed to see to change from BULLISH to BEARISH.

Once this level was broken it was time for us to aggressively move the the SHORT side of the market.

If you follow the market and analyze PRICE ACTION and VOLUME it can paint a very clear picture for you.

Until next week…Good Trading to YOU!

Intraday Swing Trading Stocks and ETF’s

Tuesday, February 14th, 2012

Swing Trading BLOG – Swing Trading Boot Camp

Today I thought I would take some time to show you some examples of our Intraday Swing Trading strategies.

Lets first take a look at the Diamonds ($DIA) to see how the market started out this morning.

DIA - Intraday Swing Trading

In the chart above you can see how the market GAPPED DOWN opening well below yesterdays close.

You can then see the two bars after the open are "inside bars" and this gives us a nice pattern to trade once we get a breakout.

We always wait 15 minutes (3 bars) to allow the market to establish itself before we look to enter into a trade so this was a good setup for us.

As volume starts to pick up Bar #4 creates a BREAKOUT to NEW HIGHS.

Both price action (3 bar break) and increasing volume are exactly what we need.

We looked around and there were plenty of stocks with a similar pattern to trade.

Along with $DIA $CREE stood out as a LONG trade to us with a nice pattern and defined risk.

$CREE - Intraday Swing Trading

Again the price action was good and volume was increasing.

The overall market (and $CREE) continued higher but then stalled out bit.

As an Intraday Swing Trader you have to nimble and and react quickly when the market shows signs of changing gears.

This type stalling action we see after a GAP DOWN is a flashing caution sign for us.

At this pivotal point of change you also need to scan the market to locate potential trading opportunities.

When the market "stalled" we began looking for stocks that were weaker than the overall market (relative weakness) and found $PCAR and $PPO.

$PCAR - Intraday Swing Trading $PPO - Intraday Swing Trading

Both stocks GAPPED DOWN with the overall market but never rallied to new highs when the market did.

Both stocks also created a very nice "lower higher" setups after an orderly retrace from their initial low of the day.

As the market begin to fall apart the selling volume started to accelerate in $PPO and $PCAR triggering trades in both stocks.

Our LONG trades were not looking good but we actually got out of $CREE with a profit.

Once the market broke to down to NEW LOWS we were now in SHORT mode.

Both $PPO and $PCAR pushed lower as well before showing signs of a retrace.

$PCAR $PPO

A few bars later and after a retrace off of the lows the $DIA was setting up for a move lower.

$DIA

$CREE eventually sold off with the market pushing down to a new low for the day.

$CREE was also now setting up nicely for a good SHORT trade.

The "lower high" was established and we were now able to draw our DOWN TREND lines to create a nice channel for context.

This is classic PVT trading!

$CREE - Intraday Swing Trading

$CREE followed through nicely to the down side and created a "lower low" as the sellers stepped in.

$CREE - Intraday Swing Trading

$CREE pushed through the bottom of the channel expanding it a bit before showing signs of a retrace.

The price and volume action on the last bar in the chart below shows tell tale signs of the move coming to an end.

$CREE - Intraday Swing Trading

Since we only trade the first two and last tow hours of the day we were now "flat" as the market began to retrace just after 11am.

Here is a summary for our morning.

We went from LONG to SHORT in a few stocks and identified stocks that were weaker than the market.

Once the market "stalled" and began showing signs of breaking down we took trades in these "weaker" stocks.

The market followed through to the down side and these weak stocks sold off nicely.

After making new lows the market setup for another move lower which allowed us to enter into several new trades that worked out as well.

Hopefully this walk through gives you some insight into how we swing trade intraday.

Swing Trading Week in Review – January 20, 2012

Sunday, January 22nd, 2012

Swing Trading Blog – Swing Trading Boot Camp

DIA - Swing Trading

Rally to NEW HIGHS!

After being closed for yet another Monday session the market once again GAPPED UP on Tuesday.

Swing Traders had to wonder if the "GAP UP and trade sideways" pattern would continue.

The rest of the week however brought about good news as the market actually traded higher and closed out the week at new multi month highs!

For the most part the sector action was also very bullish with a few sectors really taking the lead.

The Semiconductor ETF's ($SMH) rallied nicely as did the overall Technology ETF ($XLK).

$SMH - Semiconductor ETF $XLK - Technology ETF

These sectors provided some nice continuation trade setups in stocks that were on our Watchlist.

$ATMI continued to rally after a minor one day pullback last Friday.

$ATMI

$KLAC made a nice move to the up side after breaking out of its triple top resistance.

$KLAC

There were also plenty of other stocks making nice moves.


$WFM, $MWW, $AFL, $ADBE and $GS
were a few more that made our list.

As we move into next week there are tons of stocks to watch. Some of these are setting up nicely for possible LONG trades if the market continues to show strength next week.

Some of those stocks are becoming a bit extended after 3 or 4 days up. Make sure you wait for your setup and don't chase stocks up in an attempt to catch the move.

Lets hope the market continues to advance after this last break out but as always be prepared for anything.

Until next week…Good Trading to YOU!

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