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Intraday Trading Techniques That Work 

Last Updated: August 2, 2022

By Rayner Teo

Intraday trading is fast-paced.

You’ve got to make quick decisions, work under pressure, and take the heat every.single.day.

Is this what you want?

Then you’re in the right place.

Because in today’s post, you’ll discover my 7 best intraday trading tips I’ve learned back as a prop trader.

(These are the stuff winners pay attention to that losers ignore).

You ready?

Then let’s begin!

Not all markets are the same. Here’s what you must know…

Here’s the thing:

If you’ve read Technical Analysis books, most tell you the market trends 30% of the time.

But recently, I’ve discovered it’s not entirely true.

In fact, some markets trend better than others—this affects your day trading strategies.

Let me prove it to you…

I applied a simple Trend Following strategy to different markets (credits to Andrea Unger for sharing it in Trading Mentors).

Here’s how it works…

  1. Buy the breakout of previous day high
  2. Hold the long position till the price hits the previous day low, and go short
  3. Hold the short position till the price breaks above the previous day high, and go long
  4. Rinse repeat over again

Now, I’ve applied this strategy to a portfolio of markets.

And here are the results of two markets that proves my point…

GBP/USD: Equity curve in an uptrend when a Trend Following approach is traded on it.

intraday trading, d, i

You see an equity curve that’s moving higher.

This tells you GBP/USD is a trending market as it makes money when a Trend Following approach is traded on it.

AUD/CAD: Equity curve making new lows when a Trend Following approach is traded on it.

intraday trading, d, i

Now, you see an equity curve that’s heading lower.

Clearly, AUD/CAD is a mean reverting market as it loses money when a Trend Following approach is traded on it.

So, the lesson is this…

Not all markets are created equal.

As an intraday trader, it’s important to know whether the markets you trade has a trending or mean-reverting behaviour.

Once you know, then you can use the appropriate intraday trading strategies for it.

Next…

Intraday trading: How to tell when the market is exhausted

Now:

The market is like a car running on a gas tank.

It can go only go so far before it exhausts itself.

So, the question is…

How do you know when the market is exhausted?

You can use an indicator like the Average True Range (ATR) and observe its historical volatility

Here’s what I mean…

EUR/USD: Daily ATR

intraday trading, d, i

As you can see, EUR/USD has an ATR of 50 pips a day.

This means on average, EUR/USD moved about 50 pips a day (from the highs to the lows).

Now, it doesn’t mean EUR/USD will reverse whenever it makes a 50 pip move for the day because it can “stretch” further than 50 pips.

But as a guideline, if a market has moved 2 ATR for the day, it’s probably exhausted and unlikely to make new highs/lows.

Here’s an example…

EUR/USD 15mins: The price reverses after reaching 2 ATR

intraday trading, d, i

Do you see how this affects the kind of intraday forex trading strategies you’ll have?

How to identify market turning points ahead of time

Intraday trading is fast paced.

A level that’s respected a few days ago might be useless now so you must re-draw your levels regularly as part of your intraday trading strategy.

Now, one thing I found useful in my prop trading days is to identify the previous week’s high/low.

Why?

Because that’s the point of extreme optimism/pessimism (for the week) before the reversal occurs.

And this is future reference points where the market could find Support and Resistance.

So, here’s how you draw it…

  1. Identify the previous week high and low
  2. Then draw a horizontal line across it, and that’s it

Here’s an example…

intraday trading, d, i

Pro Tip #1:

You can get this indicator for free in TradingView. Just search for “Weekly_OHLC” under the indicators tab.

Pro Tip #2:

Mean reverting markets like AUD/CAD, AUD/NZD, USD/CAD respects the previous week high/low better than other Forex pairs.

How to tell when the market is about to make a big move

Here’s the deal:

The volatility of the markets is always changing.

It moves from a period of low volatility to high volatility and vice versa.

This means if the volatility of the previous few days is low, then expect volatility to expand soon.

Here’s an example:

intraday trading, d, i

So, how do you use this knowledge to refine your intraday trading strategy?

Simple.

#1 Have a more aggressive target profit

If you’ enter a trade during a low volatility environment, you want to consider having a further take profit level as the price could really move in your favour when volatility expands.

One way is to take half of your profits at 1:1 risk-reward ratio and let the remaining half ride with a trailing stop loss.

#2 Don’t trade against the breakout

Now…

When the price breaks out from a low volatility environment, it can move fast.

So, don’t trade against the breakout (unless you know what you’re doing).

Why the volatile hours are your money-making opportunities

As part of your forex intraday trading strategies, you must pay attention to volatile market sessions.

Look at the different market sessions below…

intraday trading, d, i

Now, let me ask you…

Which session is more profitable to trade?

The London session, right?

Because the market is volatile during this period which offers more trading opportunities.

For example:

If the market has a trending behavior, then you’d want to be trading trend continuation trades or breakouts.

Or if the market has a mean-reverting behavior, then you can look to fade the previous day high/low as a counter-trend trade.

There are many ways to skin a cat, but before you skin the cat, you must know when the cat comes out — which for most Forex pairs is during the London session.

You must know when a major news release is coming out, or else…

You’ll get stopped out of your trades repeatedly.

Here’s why it matters to your intraday trading strategies…

During major news release, the spread widens because there’s a lack of liquidity in the markets (and no it’s not your broker trying to hunt your stops).

So, if your stop loss is near the current market price, you’ll likely get stopped out on the major news release.

So, what can you do about it?

#1: Exit your position before the major news release

What you can do is exit your position before the major news release.

And when the spread becomes normal again, you can re-enter your position if the trading setup is still valid.

Now there’s a catch to this.

Sometimes the news could push the price further in your favour and you’re on the sidelines (because you exited the trade earlier).

#2: Widen your stop loss to withstand the price swing

Alternatively, you can widen your stops to withstand the sudden news spike.

Now, the downside to this is you might lose more than your initial risk.

So, what you can do is reduce your position size on the trade.

For example:

If you have 1 lot short on EUR/USD with a stop loss of 50 pips.

You can consider reducing your lot size to 0.5 lot and increasing your stop loss to 100 pips.

This way, even if you do get stopped out, it’s still within proper risk management.

Does it make sense?

Awesome!

How to identify insanely profitable intraday trading opportunities with low risk

Here’s a fact:

Support and Resistance (SR) on the lower timeframe isn’t as significant compared to the higher timeframe.

This means a bounce off SR on the lower timeframe is likely to move 20-30 pips whereas a bounce of SR on the higher timeframe can move a few hundred pips.

Now you might be thinking…

“But how do I use it to find insanely profitable intraday trading opportunities?”

Here’s how…

  1. Let the price approach Support/Resistance on the higher timeframe (e.g. Daily)
  2. Wait for a break of structure on the lower timeframe

I’ll explain…

1. Let the price approach Support/Resistance on the higher timeframe (e.g. Daily)

Be patient and let the price come to a key Support area on your chart.

Here’s an example: The price at Support area on the Daily timeframe

intraday trading, d, i

Next…

2. Wait for a break of structure on the lower timeframe

At this point, you’ll see a series of lower highs as the sellers are in control.

So, what you’re looking for is a break of structure, where the price makes a higher high and higher low (signaling the buyers are in control).

Here’s what I mean: Higher highs and lows leaning against the higher timeframe Support

intraday trading, d, i

Once you get a break of structure, you can go long and ride the potential move higher.

Conclusion

So, here’s what you’ve learned:

  • You must know the behaviour of the markets you’re trading; some have trending behaviour and some a mean-reverting behaviour
  • The market is unlikely to exceed 2 ATR in a day. So, you can use it as a gauge to determine how far the market can potentially move in a day.
  • The previous week high/low are important levels to pay attention to
  • If the volatility of the markets is low over the last few days, then expect volatility to expand soon
  • You want to trade during the most volatile hours of the session
  • Be aware of major news release as the spread tends to widen (and you could get stopped out of your trades)
  • If you want low risk and high reward trading setups, then enter your trades near Support & Resistance (on the higher timeframe)

And there you have it — my 7 best intraday trading techniques that work.

Now here’s what I’d like to know…

What are some things you look for during intraday trading?

What are your forex intraday trading strategies like?

Leave a comment below and share your thoughts with me.

Leave a reply

  • The trading tips you have just given us are very insightful and provide a deeper understanding of how the markets behave.

  • Good work Rayner your doing incredible work traders are now scooping cash from the markets, Big up Brooklyn

  • Here’s how it works…
    1. Buy the breakout of previous day high
    2. Hold the long position till the price hits the previous day low, and go short
    ** If you are holding long and it’s going the opposite direction reaching previous day low… You would loose money?

      • 1. Buy the breakout of previous day high
        2. Hold the long position till the price hits the previous day low, and go short
        ** If you are holding long and it’s going the opposite direction reaching previous day low… You would loose money?

        Rayner could you please amplify this bcoz i am not getting it … its actually confusing me

  • im gonna save(to enroll) and to learn from you, if you could give me simple profitable system to start with the better.

    Thanks again..

  • Rayner, your trading tips are fantastic. Thank you. I am so close to becoming consistently profitable, and I think your insights may get me over the line.

    Where do we position a stoo loss on the trend idea (buy a break of the previous day high). Last week my market broke previous day high, barely moved up, followed by a huge engulfing of over 600pts!

  • I trade in the intraday markets for Crude in India. I am going to test this strategy and see. Do you have any further tips on how to trade a commodity such as crude?

  • Thanks Rayner for your generosity. Just one question, does an entry signal on one time frame become less valid if it’s not present on a higher time frame?

    • The “move or signal” will always appear first on the lower timeframe followed by the higher timeframe.

      What’s important is to define your entry timeframe and then stick to it. Trading too many timeframes will only complicate matters.

  • Buy the breakout of previous day high
    Hold the long position till the price hits the previous day low, and go short
    Hold the short position till the price breaks above the previous day high, and go long
    Rinse repeat over again

    Not getting this

  • The trading tips you are giving for beginners are Excellence. Requesting kindly Share your ideas on positional calls..like how to identify the stocks will move up or down in upcoming days.

  • I’m Mupfuni from South Africa, can you please do a video based on how can we draw support and resistance, using different time frame. I’m confused that should I draw support and resistance in Daily,weekly or monthly chats

    • An example on a daily timeframe:

      A trending market would continue to make higher highs. A mean-reverting market would reverse lower after reaching the highs.

  • Actually im already doing and practicing this. Problem i have right now is I sell too early although I already set an exit point… This article just confirms i think im on the right track but just poor execution… thanks Rayner!

  • Hey Rhyner, Thanks for inspiring many through your articles. I took quite a lot points from it. My question is when I wanted to go long based on price action indication on perticular stock , but overall market giving indication to go down. So in that case shall i stick to my decission to go long or quit due to overall market is weak ?

      • Hold the long position till the price hits the previous day low, and go short
        Hold the short position till the price breaks above the previous day high, and go long
        I DIDN’T ABOVE POINT . COULD YOU PLEASE MAKE ME CLEAR.

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