Posted by Tom C. I rarely go into the trading day with a bias - and I don't recommend it - but I admit I was looking for shorts from the open and was more aggressive on the short side today. So both of these setups were riskier than my usual trades. I took BA after it formed multiple narrow-ran ... Read more

Posted by Tom C. We discussed this in "Comments" of the previous post, but I thought it deserved a post of its own. And even though we are talking about the opening range high (ORH), it also applies to the ORL. There are two ways you can determine the ORH: 1.) A fixed timeframe - ie, the ORH i ... Read more

Posted by Tom C. It has been a light week posting as I took yesterday off. People often ask what setups I trade on a 5-minute chart. The answer is simple - the same ones I trade on a 10-minute chart. Here is KMX from today. The setup is the same as I referenced a few weeks ago (my "bread and ... Read more

Posted by Tom C. Following my prescient post on the general markets Monday, the markets sold off. : ) You could throw a rock and find good shorts yesterday and today. One of my better trades was RIG. It gapped up and fell to the 50% retracement from the previous day's low to the OR high. It bo ... Read more

Posted by Tom C. I don't use the following data to make any trading decisions, I just like to look at where the markets are since we are approaching the halfway point in 2009. I am framing the price action in terms of last year's high/low (as I do with my swing trades*). Here is a quick summary ... Read more

Posted by Tom C. Here is another example of the type of setup I wrote about last week . It was not perfect, as I prefer price does not break the ORH when it pulls back to re-test. But it formed a compelling bullish pattern with "offsetting bars" at support from a rising 8EMA. I entered on a br ... Read more

Last month I pointed you to some posts on Success and Motivation by Mark Cuban. He made another great post which I am reprinting below; this is not necessarily trading related - it can be, but you can apply it to any aspect of life. From Mark Cuban at Blog Maverick : Success & Motivation ... Read more

Posted by Tom C. I jumped the gun a little on RS. I usually wait for a break of the ORH, but the hammer that formed the signal bar was too compelling. Since the entry was premature, the trade carried more risk than usual - but it worked out perfectly. RS gapped up and made one attempt to break t ... Read more

Posted by Tom C. Someone asked a few weeks ago what is my "bread and butter" setup. I don't know that I have just one, but if I do this is probably it. It is simple, which is always better: 1.) Gap up. 2.) Price breaks the opening range high (ORH). 3.) Price pulls back to the ORH with support ... Read more

Posted by Tom C. This was a higher risk setup, but I liked the movement off the open. I rarely enter before the third bar is complete, but this is the exception. Price gapped above the previous day's high and the first bar printed a lower tail and although it closed red, it was above the halfway p ... Read more