Here is my super simple one-trade-a-day strategy that you can use to consistently grow your account.
Disclaimer: Any and all information discussed is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered tax, legal, or investment advice. A referral to a stock or commodity is not an indication to buy or sell that stock or commodity.
Notice how I didn’t say, “Here’s how you can make an extra $1000/day” or “10k/week?” That’s because this isn’t a clickbait article. This is a legit strategy that I use every single morning.
Don’t Waste Your Time
If you’re looking for shortcuts to make 50% or 100% returns daily, don’t waste your time reading the rest of this article. There are no shortcuts to success, and trading is no exception. This strategy yields me returns ranging from 1–5% per trade, so if you’re still interested, I hope you enjoy reading about it.
Why Am I Sharing My Strategy?
First off, to call it my strategy would be wrong. Hundreds of thousands of traders implement this strategy daily. What I’m about to share with you isn’t anything new. The reason I’m sharing it is because I know how big of a scam the trading education market is. I wasted two years of my life and a lot of money wandering around it. I’m no trading mentor, but I hope this strategy gives beginners the boost to grow their small accounts.
The Micro Gap N’ Go
The strategy I’m about to share with you is derived from the traditional Gap And Go. I’ve tuned it slightly so the stock selection is more simple, but the profit target is more conservative. This article will not cover the traditional Gap And Go strategy, so if you’re unfamiliar with it, I’d recommend watching the video below.
What Is A Gap In Stocks?
A “gap” occurs when a stock opens at a price different from its previous day’s close. How is that possible? How can a stock resume at a price different from where it ended? This typically occurs when a company releases news during the pre-market or after-hours, which causes a flood of people to buy the stock before the market opens. As a result, when the market opens, the stock resumes at a different price because of its pre-market or after-hours activity.
Stock Selection
The traditional Gap And Go strategy focuses on multiple pre-market gappers; however, this variant only focuses on the largest pre-market gainer. Here is the stock selection checklist:
▪️ Up by at least 20%
▪️ Price is between $1 to $9
▪️ Float is less than 50M (≤ 20M is best)
▪️ Largest pre-market gainer
▪️ Began moving during pre-market (not after-hours)
▪️ Bonus: Company released news during pre-market
Entry
The idea is to enter immediately when the market opens, which is the time of day with the highest volatility. The second the clock strikes 09:30 AM EST, everyone is jumping in and submitting their orders, which creates insane volatility leading to opportunity. The goal is to quickly and swiftly capitalize on this opportunity within seconds.
I enter my position a couple of seconds before the market opens so that I don’t have to worry about my order not getting filled due to the morning bell volatility. This means that by 09:29:58 AM EST, I have already submitted my limit order to purchase shares at their current ask price + $0.02. I choose to buy at the ask price with a two-cent offset so that I get filled immediately at the best price possible. Market orders typically fill at the ask price or higher, whereas limit orders fill at the best price available. This can sometimes even be less than the last price. Below is an example of what my entry order looks like.
09:29:58 AM EST - BUY x1000 XYZ LIMIT @ASK+$0.02
Exit
As mentioned earlier, this variant of the traditional Gap And Go strategy is more conservative regarding its profit target, resulting in a higher accuracy. Typically after entering a position, you would ride the bullish move, keeping an eye on the Level 2 for an exit price. In this strategy, you want to lock in your profits after hitting $0.05 to $0.15 per share (usually $0.10) or gracefully accept your loss once you're down $0.05 to $0.10 per share. In other words, this is a quick scalping strategy that only plays out for a few seconds.
Why not ride the bullish move to the upside for higher returns? Obviously, riding a stock’s momentum would yield higher returns but doing so would also expose you to more risk. The idea is to get green and get out quickly. More importantly, though, most top gappers get tanked down by sellers after the market opens, because investors lock in their profits after finding their investment up by a staggering amount in the morning. Regardless, you can still expect to find and quickly capitalize on the initial volatility pop of a leading gapper.
Why Does This Strategy Work?
The leading pre-market gapper is one of the most popular stocks of the day. Before the market opens, every trader has their eyes on it and many are eagerly waiting behind their keyboards to pull the trigger and make a move on it once the market opens. The second the morning bell rings orders are flying left and right causing insane volatility. Sometimes this will immediately pump the stock up for a while but usually, it will sell off throughout the day. Regardless, you can almost always expect to quickly capitalize on the initial volatility pop in the first few seconds of the day.
Conclusion
This is a fairly simple strategy that only runs for a few seconds once the market opens. I think it's an excellent strategy for traders of any level to use to grow their accounts, even if it’s by a little bit. Many people get discouraged by small steps of progress but something to keep in mind is that great things take time and these tiny accomplishments will eventually add up to something bigger. Keep moving forward every day and I’m sure you’ll eventually get to where you want to be! Good luck with your trading!