On the long side, many people buy a stock when it opens, trades down or gap down, then trades back up to the opening price. Many buy the stock at that opening price. Assuming the market is trending up as well, what other criteria would you look for besides just the price? Other technical indicators...like today's volume vs avg. daily volume...perhaps last must be greater than yesterday's high, whatever......?
Read The Market Makers Edge by Josh Lukeman. There is an excellent section on the importance of the opening price and respective strategies.
This is probably too simple for most people, but in an uptrending market such as the one we are currently in, pay close attention to stocks which open down on negative/neutral news. NVDA, ADSK, UAL are recent examples. If after trading in small opening range and breaking to the upside, the potential is there for a strong move. The inverse is true in downtrending markets, short stocks which break down on good news. I am sure this is concept is not new to most people on this board, but new traders tend to focus too much on the news itself rather than playing the direction of the stock.
Does anyone know of books or articles (preferrably web articles) on technical analysis for pure intraday trading? Something that could be used for above situation?
fwiw, try the "education" link at http://www.daytradingstocks.com/ The thread summary of the day trading fundamentals thread on siliconinvestor.com is old, but still useful stuff. Go to SI.com, then "stocktalk" then "short-term traders" then "dtf" and there is a link to the thread summary there in the thread intro. Also, Alan has some good free articles at his site: http://www.hardrightedge.com/ (plus he's a nice guy whom I trust)