Intraday Trading

Intraday trading is one of the most complex trading methods in the Indian stock market.

Although a lot of traders look to start their trading journey through this form of stakeholding, only a fraction percentage are able to make money consistently.

There are quite a few intricacies involved and it will definitely take some time and experience for you to understand how the whole mechanism works.

The grander idea, however, remains that you must be in the right direction in the first place otherwise, you may feel cheated or lost – which is not an ideal situation for anyone.

Intraday Trading Meaning

Let’s start with the basic understanding of what is intraday trading– it implies buying and selling of securities on the same day, during the exchange trading hours.

The securities are purchased not with an intention of investment, but with the intent of harvesting profits due to the price fluctuations throughout the day. It is a challenging domain.

Intraday trading for beginners can be successful all it requires is consistency, patience and very accurate knowledge of the market and market trends. Intraday traders operate with the highest levels of risks and participate in volatile market conditions.

Intraday Trading Vs Delivery trading

A lot of people, especially beginner-level traders, confuse intraday trading with delivery trading. This is a 360-degree difference between the trading concepts.

When the securities are bought and sold on the same day and the orders are squared off before the end of the trading day, it is called Intraday Trading; whereas when the securities are bought and held overnight and taken delivery of, it is called Delivery Trading.

These are the two modus operandi to operate in the market.

The purpose or intent behind both forms of trading and the risks involved and capital required varying in intraday trading vs delivery trading. Both have their own pros and cons.

In Intraday trading, the intent is to make quick profits, with no overnight risks, but high risks due to price fluctuations in the day, it requires less capital and involves less brokerage and short selling of securities is possible.

However, in delivery trading, capital required is high as full payment has to be made upfront for the securities and it involves high brokerage but there are other benefits like rights issues and dividends.

Both intraday trading and delivery trading are efficient ways to deal with the market. It is the requirement and purpose of the trader that makes him decide which route he wants to take.

Now, assuming all the basic implications and related confusions of intraday trading are clear, we will cover specific aspects that you MUST know before you indulge in this form of trading with your hard-earned money:

• Intraday Trading Risk Management
• Intraday Trading Tools
• Intraday Trading Tips
• Intraday Trading Tricks
• Intraday Trading Strategies
• Intraday Trading Rules
• Intraday Trading Indicators
• Intraday Trading Charts

Intraday Trading Risk Management

Intraday trading has very high returns on investment, but along with the high returns come high risks. Intraday trading is not safe, especially for novices. Intraday trading is at the top of the risk spectrum and is not safe.

For intraday trading to become safe, it takes a lot of expertise, experience and rationalism of the trader, which comes after years of practice and dedication.

Risk management techniques are of paramount importance. Risk management techniques used by successful traders are some of the following:

• Thorough research
• Choosing the stock wisely
• Following an effective strategy
• Booking profits regularly
• Using stop loss
• Being aware of how much to risk

Intraday trading is not safe and along with making profits, the primary objective of an intraday trader is to reduce losses in intraday trading.

Intraday Trading Tools

For an established intraday trader, the decision-making comes on its own with time and they become experienced in making judgment calls and predicting trends; however, for beginners, they are mostly dependent on the various tools available to make an informed and profitable decision.

Intraday trading is riskier for untrained traders, but if they keep a vigilant eye on the market trends and the indicators, they can reap huge profits.

This, of course, needs a lot of hard work and discipline, however, the work can be made a little simpler by using the various tools and technologies available in the market. Using the right trading tools is critical to the success of a day trader.

The various tools available for intraday trading are:

1. Trading Platforms:

Trading platforms provide in-depth information about the volumes being traded, prices at which they are traded, bid-offer range, and make ladders to give an accurate picture to the trader.

The trading platforms make a personalized risk profile for the traders based on their risk appetite, net worth, investment objective etc., derive signals based on fundamental and technical analysis and also execute the trades based on these signals.

2. Charts:

Charts give detailed information about the opening, closing, high and low of the security trade in the defined time interval. For instance, the 15-minutes intraday chart shows the opening, closing, high and low of each 15-minute interval for the time period.

3. Trading Indicators:

Technical Indicators are used in conjunction with the charts to get a deeper and more useful analysis. These indicators predict the future prices, or the price direction, by looking at the past patterns. Some commonly used technical indicators are moving averages, Bollinger bands, RSI and Stochastic Oscillator.

4. Live News Feed and Live Radio Feed:

The most critical factor in intraday trading is the short-term trade and the immediate effects that are brought about by the market on the price movement of securities.

In order to capture and harvest the opportunity, the intraday traders have to stay abreast with the breaking news and obtain this news in real-time so that they can predict or calculate the effect of the news on the prices of securities and take an action or position accordingly.

Intraday Trading Tips

It does not really matter whether you are a beginner-level trader or an expert oldie, you need to take cognizance of some of the most crucial intraday trading tips that you NEVER forget.

These tips must, over a period of time, imbibe in your head and it becomes natural for you to use these tips in your day-to-day trades.

Yes, this will require time and patience, but these tips will prove helpful to you in amplifying your profits and avoiding loss-making trades.

Some of those intraday trading tips include:

• Investing majorly in liquid stocks
• Identify the market trend and follow the same (with minor deviations here and there)
• Judicial and religious usage of stop-loss
• Never Overtrade
• Avoid rumours and do not believe everything out there
• Don’t confuse your trading style with that of an investor
• Never stop learning, don’t be an ‘i-know-everything‘ guy
• Emotions have no role to play, stay away from them
• Take calculated risks
• Stay focused, always!

It is not a matter of choice that you may cherry-pick a few tips out of the ones mentioned above. All of these are MANDATORY and cannot be let go of.

Give yourself time, push yourself in staying aligned with these tips and by time, all these tips will be a natural part of your trading style.

Intraday Trading Tricks

Apart from the tips mentioned above, there are always a few tricks of the trade that you must be aware of (if you wish to be a master in your trades)!

These tricks are not some cheap clever tricks that you can employ in your trades to make some quick bucks. In fact, these tricks are suitable for intermediate-level traders who are open to learning some of the technical aspects of the process.

If you are able to learn and use these tricks in your intraday trading, you may quicken up your money-making speed and avoid going into areas that prove unnecessary later.

Some of those intraday trading tricks are:

• Using Pivot Points
• Scalping
• Trading the unforeseen trends and events
• News based trading
• Trading breakouts
• Round number trick
• First Hour trading (yea, that’s a thing!)

All these tricks mentioned above, help you to save a lot of valuable time and assist in making quick trading decisions with reasonable opportunity-based returns.

The intraday trading strategy to be used also depends upon the traders’ personal trading styles, along with being dependent on the market conditions.

Some traders are very active and do many trades a day, with large position sizes, catching even the small price movements; while there are others who trade only on specific news events or only on tendencies that they have well researched.

So, a strategy that works for a very active trader may not work for a less active one and vice versa. Some of the important intraday strategies are as follows:

1. Momentum Trading Strategy: In momentum trading, the traders focus on stocks with momentum, i.e. the stocks that are significantly moving in one direction and in high volume.

2. Reversal Trading Strategy: In reversal intraday trading, the traders look for the stocks that are the extreme highs or lows and thus have a great snapback potential. As soon as the security begins to reverse, a stop is marked and trailing stops are used to stay in the trade for as long as possible.

For better analysis of reversal, it is good to analyze RSI strategy for intraday that during divergence gives you a clear indication of a reversal.

3. Gap and Go Trading Strategy: The gap and go strategy traders look for gappers and as a thumb rule, take a position in the same direction as the minor trend. They try to earn profits before the gaps are filled due to the establishment of equilibrium.

4. Pull Back Trading Strategy: In a pullback intraday trading strategy, weaknesses are bought and strengths are sold. Securities that are up trending will pull back giving a low-risk buying opportunity, and securities that are down-trending will go up offering a low-risk selling opportunity.

5. Bull Flag Trading Strategy: Bull Flag, in particular, shows a strong price hike that reaches its peak and then pulls back in an orderly fashion where the highs and lows are almost parallel to each other. Bulls flags are violent in the beginning as the bulls cause a breakout and blindside the bears.

6. Moving Average Crossover Trading Strategy: It is a price crossover strategy. When the price of a security goes above or below a moving average, it signals a potential change in trend.

7. Breakout Trading Strategy: Breakout trading means entering the market when the price moves outside a particular price range, its own support and resistance. It is accompanied by an increase in volume.

Various strategies are available to be used by intraday traders, but the use of the correct strategy at the correct time is the key.

Intraday Trading Rules:

To be successful in intraday trading a lot of discipline is required. Rules have to be formed and abided by at every given time, in every given trade.

These rules are not mandatory to be followed, but of course, they are quite valuable. Day trading may present the traders with many heats of moment scenarios, as intraday trading is very fast-paced.

In such scenarios, the traders may be tempted to let go of the rules and follow their eyes and ears, but that usually results in disastrous results.

As a bottom line, intraday traders have to be very quick and on their toes, along with making sure that they do not flow away with the moment and still stick to their rules. The golden rules to be adhered to during intraday trading are:

Also, know the Intraday Trading Time of your stockbroker can help you frame the strategies, that can bring you profits.

Now before jumping to the general rules, first and foremost, is Demat account necessary for intraday trading?

Intraday trading is buying and selling stocks within the day, hence there is no credit of shares in the Demat account, thus if you are entering the stock market specifically for day trading then you do not need a Demat account.

Now let’s see what other rules are to be followed while doing intraday trading.

1. Trade with the current market trend

When the market is bullish, an intraday trader must choose the stocks that have the potential to go up and when the markers are bearish, he must look for stocks that may go down. Quick reversals in trends also occur in day trading, and these reversals have to be carefully observed, spotted and followed.

2. Keep the emotions at bay

An intraday trader must keep his emotions at bay and not be overly affected by either the profits or the losses. A day trader must be patient and should wait for a pullback so that he has a low-risk entry and exit.

3. Follow a trading plan

Start with knowing whether you should do day trading or delivery trading, make an elaborate plan for intraday trading. Strategies must be practised and then the most suitable ones must be picked.

There must be a plan before the start of each trading day and journals of profits and losses must be kept to keep a track of whether or not the strategy worked.

4. Don’t overtrade

A disciplined intraday trader goes slow when the market is choppy and may even not trader when the market is horizontal and does not trade until the market is stabilized. Make sure that the range of movements of prices is high enough so that the rewards exceed the potential risk. Don’t trade when the market is not moving.

5. Market positions with limit orders and not market orders:

In a limit order, the maximum purchase price is set for a buy order and a minimum selling price is set for a sell order; so if the market does not reach the limit price, the order is not executed. Therefore, to ensure that there are no untoward losses, it is highly advisable to set limit orders instead of market orders.

6. Never stop learning:

Intraday trading is a job where learning never ends. Each trade and each aspect of trade teaches something new. An efficient intraday trader must be very open-minded to new learnings.

7. Trade only with the capital that you may risk to lose

A critical rule of intraday trading is to not be reckless. So, for a seasoned and successful trader, it is very important to be aware of losses and put in only the amount of money that they can afford to lose.

8. Use strict stop loss

Stop loss helps to stop the losses at a particular point and it covers the position if the price moves beyond a specific limit. Thus it does not let the trader be carried away by emotions and the movements and the capital is kept safe and enormous losses are avoided by using the stop loss.

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SEBI New Margin Rules for Intraday Trading

This is something that grabs the attention of most of the day traders. According to this new rule, the margin funding will be limited to 5 times to 20 times thus reducing the overall profit potential of most of the retail trader.

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Intraday Trading Charts

Price movements in the share market happen in microseconds and the best way to monitor those movements is through the usage of Intraday trading charts. These charts come in all shapes, sizes, dimensions, time frequencies, signals etc.

Although, there are 100s types of such charts available on different trading platforms and at the end of the day, each chart has its own set of pros and cons.

The choice of a trading chart is highly subjective and you need to see which type suits the best based on your trading style.

Nonetheless, we have listed out some of the top trading charts that you may pick for analyzing the stock market:

1. Line Charts

If you simply join the closing price of each trading session with the help of a line, you will see a line chart formed. It is simple to use with limited applications though.

2. Bar Charts

Another simple chart form that is entirely time-based in nature. It employs using OHLC (Open, High, Low, Close) pricing to form a bar and then colour code it, based on the market movement.

3. Candlestick Charts

One of the most prominent chart types that give direct market trend signal whether it is bearish or bullish in nature. Suitable for intermediate to expert level traders. Although beginner-level traders may use it too, it will take some time for them to know how to make the best use of it.

4. Volume Charts

These charts use the market activity as their base instead of using time-frame as done in the charts discussed above. These types of charts are highly useful during times when there is limited volatility in the market.

5. Tick Charts

These charts use the number of transactions as their base instead of market volume or time frame that are generally used in other trading charts. In times of strong trends, such chart types of highly useful.

6. Point and Figure Charts

If you are looking for situations when there is a significant market movement, you should ideally be using these types of charts in such cases. These intraday trading charts remove all the unnecessary noise that you must not be focussing at all during quick intraday movements.

7. Renko Charts

A relatively advanced type of chart, Renko charts have “bricks” as their currency and each movement is displayed in the form of a single brick. There are appropriate colour codes to provide quick understanding to the trader along with information on the size and volume of the movement.

You can read this review in Hindi as well.

Intraday Trading Indicators

Intraday trading indicators are generally used during the advanced stage of intraday technical analysis. If you are someone who has been around for a while, using technical indicators must be a DEFINITE part of your trading.

These indicators are used in combination with different intraday strategies and charts to get quick market signals and the expected direction of different stocks and/or indices.

There are 100s of trading indicators out there and each of these has its own set of usage values. Some of those are optimal during times of high market volatility while others are used during limited market movement.

Some of the most commonly used intraday trading indicators are:

• Moving Averages
• Moving Average Convergence Divergence or MACD
• Bollinger Bands
• Relative Strength Index
• Advance-Decline Line
• Average Directional Index
• Stochastic Oscillator
• SuperTrend

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Intraday Trading Books

What intraday trading is and how to do it is briefly explained in the section above, but not every intraday trader is making money. Have you ever wondered why you fail to earn profit?

Well! the major reason is the lack of knowledge and understanding. You jump into the market without complete learning and end up making losses.

To avoid this it is important to focus on learning first, which again is possible through different means but the most convenient and traditional way is referring to a book.

There are many intraday trading books that can help you in knowing the basics and complex concepts of the market. Here are some of the top picks for you:

As a bottom line, intraday trading is a unique game!

It requires a very different set of qualities, qualifications and mental setup. It is not a possibility for everyone who gets into intraday trading to be successful. Statistically, only 4.5% of the intraday traders are able to survive long term.

However, if one wants to try intraday trading and be good at it, it is necessary to be dedicated, hard-working, consistent and very open to learning. You can make your own informed choice!

Happy Trading!!!

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More on Share Market Education:

If you wish to learn more about intraday trading or stock market investments in India in general, here are a few references for you: