📚 Education & Wisdom

Profitable Day-Trading Strategies (Free)

• Opening-Range Breakout (ORB, 5-min) – Long above the first 5-minute candle’s high, or short below its low.
  • Stop-loss: the opposite side of that candle.
  • Target: 0.5 R (half the risk).
  Best on lively index futures such as NQ, DAX, or YM (Dow) where the opening thrust often delivers quick follow-through.
  
  Even with a small payoff (0.5 R) the math works: 70 % wins × +0.5 R − 30 % losses × 1 R ≈ +0.05 R per trade—a slim but positive edge.
  
  Stack the edge: add a context filter like VWAP direction— e.g. only take longs if price is already above VWAP (shorts if below). That simple rule keeps you trading with intraday momentum and can nudge the win-rate higher, widening the expectancy—just like a casino tweaks the rules to tilt probability a few extra points in its favour.
• VWAP Pull-Back Continuation – Trade with VWAP slope; buy pull-backs to the +1 SD band in an up-trend, or short to –1 SD in a down-trend.
  • Bias filter: VWAP must be sloping clearly ↑ for longs (or ↓ for shorts); ignore flat days.
  • Entry: wait for a retrace into the 1-SD envelope and a stall / micro-structure reversal (engulfing, tiny double-bottom, etc.).
  • Stop-loss: just below the swing low of the pull-back (or above the swing high for shorts).
  • Target: prior session high (or low) — or trail behind higher lows / lower highs if momentum explodes.
  Think of it as “buying the dip” but with VWAP acting as an institutional value line: when the slope is strong, funds tend to re-load inventory on shallow retracements. Probability improves markedly vs. the classic mean-reversion fade because you’re lining up with both direction and momentum.
  
  • In NQ, DAX, or YM a 1-SD pull-back often snaps back within 2–3 bars; risk is tight (swing low) so R-multiple can still reach 1–1.5 even though you’re not hunting the moon.
  • Skip trade ideas if price sinks beyond the 2-SD band on the pull-back; that usually signals a regime shift or approaching trend exhaustion.