You do need to do a lot of your own research but .... When markets make big moves they need to digest them (and be sure that the current area is value) before moving on so big big days are usually followed by digestion (but not always). I never have the faintest what the day will bring - I just watch it and trade what it gives me.
I posted specific answers to questions like this before in the past a few times here at EliteTrader.com Simply, no TA stuff and much more in-depth than what's stated in this thread so far. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/search.php?s= You'll know why the market is doing what it is doing on most trading days and some of those trading days you can exploit such. By the way, your also going to need access to historical intraday data going back as many years as you can get your hands on. In addition, some traders perform well without knowing the why's while others (like me) need to know the why's to understand the price action prior to the appearance of any trade signals. Mark