Thanks for the feedback! I actually pulled 5% out of it. Got in about an hour after the open, sold at $18 and left a little on the table. I guess you are right about total volume not getting to the SPY and C levels, so it probably isn't the kind of setup that OP is talking about. Thanks again.
I dont think Bbot was talking abt a regular stock getting upto C or SPY levels. I believe he meant that the Unusual Volume is caused by some NEWS that determines a Herd psychology. At such times Everybody's mom and dad is playing one direction UP or Down. That means, if you see something going UP on Unusual volume, mostly in my observation above 5 to 10 times the average, buyrs run the sellers over. These buys mostly comprise of LONGTERM players who do not sell into the UP move (intra-day) as their targets are even higher. They just want to get in. This causes buyer/seller imbalance (Level 2). And therefore create a strong trend/ directional move, IDEAL for INTRA-DAY players only. Key thing here is that If you see the trade going opposite to you position - you should not hesitate to reverse your position as you can trust the Trend and immediately KNOW you were wrong and turn the looser into a winner. OH and YES ... Use leverage in such plays as hey are higher probability setups. and can make-up for 70% or your monthly returns.
It probably fits retrospectively, I didn't look at it, but that's just because I'm more of a conservative trader: I like trading stocks that have very thick inside bids and offers on normal days, and then suddenly explode in volume. The beauty of those is that you can see the bid or offer dwindle down very fast level after level, but slow enough for you to get in aggressively or add to your position. If a stock reaches astronomical levels of volume on some day, I want it's ATR for the previous days be as low as possible so I can leverage aggressively. Just pull up your Level2 on stocks like SIRI, CIM, LVLT, NSM, NOVL, or XLF on a normal day and you'll see what I mean by thick levels. Use that as a benchmark because even when volume kicks in on those stocks, the levels still stay thick. But honestly that's just a personal preference; I'm still a student of the game and I still venture into flimsy-level-type stocks. Just be careful on stuff like AGO because the level2 information isn't as clear as its T&S when volume kicks in: the thinner the levels, the more prone you might be to getting stopped out by market-making intra-minute pullbacks. And like jokepie mentioned above, these account for the majority of my profits in a given month. Sometimes I might not get such a stock, but hey, that's part of the game. Also don't forget to STAY AWAY from these stocks once volume dies down. It's very easy to get addicted when one day you made a couple of hundred bucks. THE PRODUCT CHANGES! That's important even when you trade your bread and butter. Avoid the symbol once circumstances change even the slightest.
You make it sound so simple. As if a dumb newbie could understand all this. Congrats to you man! However you probably have years of experience.