its been my experience that the easy money is always made between pre-mkt and 10:30. thats obnviously because the emotional buying happens at the open.think about how many traders are pumped up at 9:29 and have their fingers on the trigger;that said,this is also the time of day where most money can be lost if not careful..some traders say buying the open is for amateurs..it usually is as traders buy gap ups and watch the gap sell off.but adept traders can take advantage of quick swings and make some fast money.thats why its important to know why a gap up is happening and is it sustainable?does the stock have a history of gapping on good news and selling off ect.....USUALLY,after the quick swing at the open,i walk away for the day because further trades usually wind up in losses.i strategically pick my buys usually by 8:30 am;i am at my computer at 7:00-7;30 am..today i was looking at LYTS,FTEK,and GTLS.i picked GTLS because i was able to grab shares at 25.55 which i thought was a great price given the fact that morgan upgraded shares to outperform and raised their target to 38..brieifng.com erroniously said CTLS was upgraded so some guy started selling GTLS cheaply in my opinion.i had a target of 26.50 but put in a sell at 26.40 and was filled rather quickly at the open..it bothered me that it went over 27 but it was a good swing and i immediately turned off my platform.also,i will not look at the markets until 4:00 SO I AM NOT TEMPTED(suckered) into buying anything else..had I not found anything compelling at the open,i would have waited patiently for a good set up or did a few scalps..however,after a nice swing i try to never go back in and give back a penny..i have done that once too many times..i always say I have no problem making money,my problem is keeping it..calculate how much all of you would be up this year if you simply walked away immediately following a successful trade..its all about discipline and its tough to walk away especially if the market is on fire..the trick is training your mind to think like that and never deviating from your discipline and making exceptions because old habits die hard.
or just develop a succesful exit strategy and can take the guessing out of it so you are not trading based on emotion.