There are many different types of day trading strategies out there but many fall into these 3 categories which are Trend Trading, Range Trading or Breakout Trading.
Trend Trading
Trading the trend is one of the most popular strategies out there. Going with the flow instead of fighting it can be much easier than trying to predict when a stock will reverse. Stocks will many times trend in a direction for months or years and if you stay with that trend instead of fighting it you will have a much higher chance of being on the right side of a trade. You shouldn’t just blindly enter a trade just because it is trending in a direction. You should have a plan and a strategy in place. You could trade the pullbacks which is when a stock after trending pulls back but doesn’t break key support levels before continuing back up.
Here is an example of a strong up trending chart on QQQ.
Range Trading
Range Trading is when a stock is just ranging inside of a channel. You can trade the highs and lows of this channel. Going long or short at the upper range or lower range of the support and resistance levels. A stock can range for long periods of time with no general direction and if you can identify stocks that are ranging you can trade this strategy. Always have stop losses outside of the channel in case it breaks these levels and turns into a breakout and starts trending up or down.
Here is a chart on Meta stock which is ranging.
Breakout / Breakdown Trading
Breakout trading is looking for stocks that are in a consolidation period. Patterns like Pennants, Wedges, Triangles, and Channels are all consolidation patterns. You can look for these and identify when a stock breaks out of this pattern and trade the breakout. Many times when a stock breaks out of one of these patterns it will continue in that direction before eventually consolidating again.
Here is a breakout trade on Tesla that is forming a bear pennant.
