Buying opens / gap ups at the open is tough. Always best to wait for a nice pattern to arise first. A gap up and then a nice retracement is good as long as you see a strong upward bias. Lately I have been doing well by waiting a few hours for set ups. Sure I missed some but it’s much safer and you do less churning. Example, TDOC at 25.33 with a stop is a low risk trade. Is it a guarantee? Of course not but it’s low risk with a stop loss and any loss would be small.
It's been in a downtrend since early August. It might be low risk depending on present volatility and where you plan to place your stop.
Maybe This is one of the only stocks I made money with shorts. Been at the bottom ever since. In it's heyday it was running $250 to $270 daily.
I know someone who said they never trade the initial 30 minutes. For me, it depends on the set-up or where the market opens. Often, there's a lot of orders coming in on the Open which ain't necessarily going to give you direction. If you waited 30 minutes today it would have probably done you a world of good. I'm sure many were chopped up before the market marked out a direction.