There’s nothing more maddening for a trader than seeing that perfect trading opportunity slip away. You see it coming together; you feel it’s your setup, but for some reason or another, you fail to enter at the correct time, and the trade becomes a monster winner without you. Skipped prime opportunities limit not only confidence but also overall performance. Catching high-edge trades, where most of the risk lies on one side, is crucial to consistent profitability. So, why do traders consistently miss these? More importantly, how can they stop?
As a professional trader at a top proprietary trading firm like S&B Capital, we deal with these issues on a regular basis. Our trading teams focus on high-probability setups, including key breakout and breakdown trades. The real challenge isn’t just identifying the trade—it’s being prepared and in the right place to execute it at the right moment. Our proprietary tools and techniques have enabled us to come up with a kind of process where we make such absolute trades rarely go wrong and, hence, our traders always outperform.
As we share in this report, the secret of never missing your best trades is just that—leverage technology, prep, and an enhanced process. By the end of this report, you will be well on your way to being clear on what these trades are and the three key strategies to ensure that you remain prepared to execute at the right moment.
Knowing the Opportunity
The trade you miss is often one with the highest potential. For instance, let’s use a real-life example: a higher time frame breakout in the semiconductor sector. That setup was during the first 15 minutes of trading, offering the most edge at the open. Missed that window, missed the most profitable opportunity of the day.
To stay out of such an experience, preparation becomes the most vital factor. Without proper preparation, you remain trying to pursue the market—a practice that could make you lose confidence and profits.
Preparation is Key to Success
Preparation is one of the critical aspects of being successful in trading. Receiving high-probability trades such as a sector-based breakdown or breakout requires developing a clear process around conducting and finding such opportunity scanning of the markets. Professional trading environments go way beyond where setting alerts on a stock may be adequate.
The tools used by successful traders to anticipate the best trades follow:
- Market Context Tracking: It shows whether the environment is conducive for a particular kind of trade.
- Daily Watchlists and Alerts: Pre-market scanning for potential setups ensures that none slip past you.
- Automated Alerts on Key Levels: Using alerts which trigger at key levels keeps you sharp without having to watch all stocks all the time.
1. Track the Market Environment
Know when to be able to expect certain trades. For instance, breakdowns could be less likely and may draw fewer returns if the market were a bull one. Breakdowns are extremely frequent in a weak market or during a bear cycle. These offer more opportunities for profitable short trades.
Proprietary traders are constantly a step ahead of the market. As an example, they often follow along with the NASDAQ New Highs/New Lows indicator to see how many equities reach new highs or lows over a variety of time frames. When new lows begin to gain an edge, it could mark breakdown opportunities, just like in the trade above for the semiconductor situation.
Beyond tracking new highs and lows, another method of further market direction gauging is that of a breadth thrust signal. Such a signal represents the advancing versus declining stock numbers. It would be super strong during pre-big moves preparation. This kind of insight enables traders to predict big moves before they take place.
2. Market Scanners and Watchlists
It’s only a matter of having the right stocks on your radar as to when you catch the best trades. High-probability trades are pinpointed by professional traders at S&B Capital using copious reports of market scanning and watchlists.
For example, each day, traders get a “squeeze report,” which shows stocks that are compressing on the daily chart. Compression often precedes a major breakout or breakdown. It is thus important to identify such setups in advance so that the trader is ready to pounce when the market opens.
Another level of preparation is through the end-of-day reports, which show the stocks that represented the greatest strength or weakness in the day. These watchlists are focused on volume, strength, and performance versus other stocks in the market. Reviewing these lists provides a good idea of which stocks to pay attention to the next day.
3. Set Up Automated Alerts at Key Levels
The last secret to not missing your best trades is always making sure you have automated alerts set up at critical levels. That means if a stock is approaching a major resistance or support level, such as the 120-level breakdown in this semiconductor trade, you want to get that alert as soon as it approaches that threshold.
Professional traders use market filters, one of whose roles is to alert them that a stock approaches some level. This might show the proximity to key levels but can also give information about relative volume, strength, and other technical criteria the trader deems relevant. Having such a system keeps the trader from the frustration of getting overtaken in a trade because of not focusing at the right time.
Applying These Tools to Your Trading
By using the three tactics outlined above—tracking the market context, using comprehensive watchlists, and having automated alerts—you are going to drastically reduce the chances of missing your best trades. It doesn’t matter whether you’re trading from home or through a firm—the process in preparation, anticipation, and execution follows the same model.
Trading is about consistency, and consistency comes from a well-defined process. Missing just one trade may be the difference that makes your week or even your month; thus, prep can never be overestimated.
Conclusion: Never Miss Your Best Trades Again
Preparation, process, and technology is the way to never miss your best trades. This is how you’re going to stay prepared and always ready for your ideal trade by scanning for high-probability setups, tracking the market context, and setting alerts at key levels. Time and again, this is what has helped experienced professionals end the day with profitable trades and the best trades going.