Curious as to why you don't use trendlines in your trading. In both of Amzn and Bidu I would be looking to enter far ahead of where you were entering. If anything I would be selling into those swing highs. In both of those trades there were far better entries coming into breakouts of some wedge type formations. The other thing I watch is volume on a breakout. No volume, no follow through generally. Look at crude oil this past week. It attempted to break above 108 but couldn't sustain because the volume wasn't there. Just some things that came to Mind, since I am looking at Alot of the same stuff you are.
In hind sight it's a perfect world and its easy to see the entries after they become obvious setups. Personally I dont see a trend line on BIDU or AMZN. And you might be selling into those areas like other traders but people following the resistance breaks are looking to buy on the bet that price goes higher..and sometimes it does. This is why I wait for a confirmation candle and don't just buy at market when the stocks breaks resistance. I know all to well that many times it doesn't hold. FRO was a perfect example of what not to do. I broke my own rules, but CVX paid off nicely so far.
If you are waiting for that much confirmation to get into a trade your obviously paying up a ton on that breakout. Here's a chart with the points of reference in AMZN and BIDU. And no i had this same line drawn in AMZN before the breakout happened. If intraday you get a breakout happening on volume above 187 you if have to jump on board. And add if you get an hour above that level. Personally I AMZN is just beginning to breakout. I would look at it as a hold and add more through the swing highs where you entering. So If I took the trade Im already into my second add and will prob be taking alot off into a push higher, while your paying all the way up there. I think if you are looking at plain vanilla breakout you have to anticipate a bit because alot of them will fail or at least whip you around. Now IMO AMZN is different because look at that chart. When is the last time you had a significant breakout in AMZN. Its been a while, If you get a daily close above 200 this is going to catch people off guard and this move can actually have legs. So I would be looking for moves that are going to have juice. Look at the Yen earlier this year, bonds last week, and other moves like that they are the best trades.
How is that "a ton" of confirmation??..I'm waiting for a breakout bar, and 1 more bar to confirm the move.. I hardly pay attention to intraday bars. I have 1hr charts up but they don't really serve much purpose to me. I cant/dont want to stay glued to my screen all day. Trading is hard enough, I don't like to anticipate something will happen unless I'm already in a trade.
AMZN to 120 magnet. Watching MA and V looks like they will confirm if they close above prior highs. Also watching Yelp through 24, that can have legs. Lots of setups coming up!!
Here's Yelp...a fresh breakout. A daily close above 24 would make this officially confirmed. But it if you wait for the close today it could possibly gap up tomorrow and you would pay up more for the confirmation.
Man that thing closed very strong. Even if you didn't catch any from 24, puttin some on at the close is still a good play. This thing could have strong follow through tomorrow given the strong close. High likelihood of tagging 26 in the next week. If you wait for another bar for confirmation you are likely to pay up 6-8% from the initial breakout level!