What has worked for me may not work for you, and you must do your own homework. But for people who may be new to trading, this is something that I would've wanted to search on youtube or search on investopedia, or some other sort of site. 

I've seen that while yes, some stocks breakout in the afternoon and even late morning lull, most of the action is the first hour of the day. Stocks that have broken out in the morning and fade also sometimes will make another run after lunchtime,usually between 12:30 and 1:30 EST.

Volume and price action are the best indicators of momentum. If you think a price is breaking out over a high, or is breaking out over a resistance level, you better make sure that volume is also trending. Without other traders buying alot of shares at the level that you're looking to buy in at, you're not going to get a breakout, you'll probably buy right when you think that price will break, and then you'll see a sell-off and will be in a losing position. This has happened to me, I see that price is approaching the HOD, I get into the stock anticipating a breakout and then realize that I bought a retest of the high and not actually a breakout and end up losing. Trust me, you only want to buy when volume is on your side.

Hope is not a strategy. This applies to being in a losing position. Don't ever think that the price of a stock must return to a previous level. Honor your stops, cut your losses quick, or you will fail. I've been in a trade and reached a stop and thought maybe i'm at support and price will pop back up. If volume is not on your side and you're heading down from a higher price level, you're probably not going to return back to your desired price level. Honor your stops, don't think that the price can't go lower. Think about what you'd do if you were coaching someone, if you had no money in the trade. You think that because you haven't hit the sell button and haven't realized the loss, that somehow you can make up some of that unrealized loss. Just honor your stop and get out. I've been down 20c and seen price pop back up to break even and i thought that it'd continue to rise so I held on, only to see it test the level where my breakeven point was and then plummet back down to a bad loss. Trust me, greed and hope are your worst enemies.

Don't think that a stock can't go higher. Don't get this confused with FOMO (fear of missing out). If a stock is up 50, 60, or even 100 percent, don't think that it can't go to 130, 150, or 200%. If volume and price action are there and you find a good opportunity to enter a stock, go for it. Just make sure volume is on your side.

OK so now onto strategy, if you're reading this-thank you. I know this has been wordy. But this is info that I wish I could've read.

So first off, I only trade momentum stocks. Stocks that are uptrending on some sort of news or just because they're familiar tickers with low float and a history of spiking 50-60-100+ percent. I only like to get into stocks that have at least 750k volume, preferrably over 1M, but i will look at something with less volume depending on price action and time of day.

Bull flag: for beginners, its best to look at 3 or 5 minute charts, preferrably 5m charts. first part of flag- run up in price on good volume. Followed by lower prices, red candle. You don't want the red candle larger or even same size as the green spike candle. you want the red candle to be small, (profit taking). The first candle to break the high of the previous red candle, you buy that break and set your stop at the low of the red candle. this works best for 1st and 2nd pullbacks of the morning. So you get green candles, the first red candle is the pullback. once price heads back up, look for it to break that previous red candle's high. This will usually send price back to retest the high and hopefully breakout to a new High. again, Volume must be present for the breakout, which is why this works best for morning spikes.

 

To be cont'd.