please. Many say "go with the trend for day trading" What trend? In what time frame? Some people, tell me to loo kat the weekly trend. Are you serious for day trading? I don'r get why you are looknig at the weekly tredn if you are day trading? Why not trade the weekly charts if you want to go this far out? I thought the whole ploint of day trading was to trade todays trend only? Maybe I am wrong...
Many day traders go into any given day with a bias. That bias is derived from the longer time frame price action. One approach is to look at the weeklies and determine an uptrend/downtred. Then each day, you start out with a bias in that direction. The trend is your friend and all that. So if the weekly is in an uptrend for instance, you only take longs in your day trades. I'm not saying this is the way to do things. But I've seen it mentioned enough times to figure it's a reasonable rule. By taking trades only in the direction of the longer term trend, you're putting the odds more in your favor. And yes, you'll miss out on some good counter-trend trades. Ah well.
For intra-day, I guess you first have to figure out the direction of the trend. What will today bring? If futures are pointing positive, there is a reasonable amount of good news out and you see a steady movement of prices going generally up (higher highs, higher lows and whatnot) then you can assume the trend is up. Then you take long trades.
Trends only exist on charts, not markets. Specifically define "Trend", know that trend is only relative as a directional strength indicator, pick a chart and trade the oscillations as they play out in the direction of your defined trend. Trading is only about price direction and strength on the PARTICULAR chart YOU are trading. Every once else's opinion is worthless . . . as it relates to the chart YOU are trading.
I use 1 minute chart for the TICK indicator-MACD 120,260,90 and 5 minute chart for the VIX indicator- simple 10 ma Reminder that the VIX in an inverted chart, i.e. if the VIX goes down, thats bullish. When the trends on both charts agree, then its a potential trading opportunity.
Its subjective based on your time frame. I am in the camp where if we are obviously rallying or declining for the past few days, I prefer that direction unless a major price level is near. That said, I change my mind several times throughout the day, often just based on time of day. I am more comfy going with the longer term trend, but imo, ya leave too much on the table if that is all you do. For those that make one or two trades per day, this is critical, for those that make 5 to 10 (me), not so critical. For scalpers its a complete non issue.