in my opinion day trading is the same as investing in the sense you see the trend and try to enter in that. this may seem simplistic and it is because even in one time frame there are many trend and it may not be easy to see them. but rather than get caught I obscure theories about trading, which has happened to me try the simple one. I made the mistake of overthinking markets and lost money for a long time. I can say this not because I am profitable but because I lost money. I know most persons will not trust this advice but that is up to you
i have found that you can wait to identify the trend as you call it i don't believe there are trends i call them momentum moves. once identified you can try and enter on a pullback if you're confident it will continue. or what i have done is found a way to identify exactly what the market is doing in the beginning of momentum move and enter early with as little risk as possible. once i get in so early the pullbacks have no effect on me because i have moved from initial risk to breakeven. where you would be now identifying the momentum move and trying to ride it, i would be evaluating if the pullback is something i would now want to add more contracts onto the current position or just exit everything. i have chased markets before and that is a miserable way to try and make money. what i do involves some confidence in the unapparent. because by the time it becomes apparent it's too late usually. there are many mathematical ways to achieve and edge based on statistics and early detection techniques.
By time you find trend, half of it can be over and you are in wave 3 of Elliott. I prefer to enter on down close bar in uptrend, risk smaller and therefore profit larger providing if we live in a perfect world. Hogs are great for day trading along with Live Cattle, Bund and Copper.
this is advice i gave to a person who has never day traded.....it is only a basic start....once he tries to actually follow this advice....will he learn what is about....most persons give up any activity they are interested in-whether it is golf, guitar, languages, selling something....-very soon once they find out they actually have to do some hard labor. if he believes he can trade trends and make millions ….he will not believe that long. also what is a trend...it is not just a movement in one direction....it is a movement within the right context.... a movement in a range is a trend but it is only good till the extreme of range...
but all the above know ledge about the trend is only necesssary if you are scalping or swing trading... it is possible to trade without knowing any of this and many traders do and ridicule traders like me who want to catch every movement..... since i am in front of computer watching every movement....it is stupid not to want to trade them it is up to you what movements you want to trade but there can be no doubt that trading small fluctuations requires a thorough understanding of markets
every book says markets are either trending or ranging..... what no one says is that there is an in between ...when market is doing both.. or neither....confused ? this is what most traders refer to as noise and everyone is very happy to ignore it! no wonder 90% traders lose. i am a bit surprised that 100% do not lose the change is not abrupt and is very gradual and when the change is happening, if you do not know it is happening...you will be a very confused trader and confusion does not lead to profits.....confusion only leads to emotional trading. there is no book in the world that i have seen that explains this and how to deal with it....100% of traders read books and 90% of them lose money. those who do not lose, know how to manage this change.... i know of no expert, book, teacher, or course, who has even mentioned about this critical aspect of trading, leave alone how to trade during this. if you know please post details here
Everyone starts with books unless your "brother" is a trader. When I started only book I knew bout trading was Edwards and McGee on charting in '78 and now few thousand books cause they "want to help"? It is a starting point, but the answers lay in deep study of charts as there many patterns never written, and why should anyone discuss them- work long hours no one would even pay to get to that stage while others having vacations and doing other activities. And study in my case comes in waves now as when first studying hitting walls everywhere I turned. I read somewhere 96% of day traders lose money, most reading books, I have not read a book other than my John Hill in over a decade I think. I know what retail does and might as well help them lose 3-4 ticks. Trend can be thought of an after thought, @MarkBrown likes "Mo" and I like catching falling boulder within rules of what might be as possible trend. But the really the entering is last part to come up and rest of the risk management gives or takes the money. The Guru's are the billionaire's doing long term.
%% My banker dad liked to hunt hogs; cash hunts. May have to use a mo measure with lean hogs LOL. In TX they use helicopter gunships=its legal there.LOL I like trend studies more than momo; but most of my daytradeing is swing/ position entry +exit
For Day trading,you can refer to some YouTube Channels like Day Trading Zones,Top Dog trading, Markus Heitkoetter etc. ETX eBook Library- It is a broad library of books for traders to use specially for beginners. From technical analysis to global trends these books can help you whether you trade Forex,commodities or Stocks.