Anybody profitable just trading the open? (first 1 to 2 hour)

I trade opens.

I found that it's best to pick a side and use stop orders.
usually at the open price is at a range.
I fined that it's best to let the price get out of that range

if the open looks like a continuation of privious price action. draw a trend line and enter with stop orders when price bounces back from the trend line. Just believe in the failure of the  breakout and you are good to go 😉

if the open is a reversal of previous price action
than you get a MAJOR TREND REVERSAL.
if you do get one. if the second leg doesn't form a HH or a LL but instead a DB or DT. than it's probably a range and not new trend...

How do you know if it's a continuation or a revesal? if the ternd line has not been brokenI bet on continuation. if it has been broken you can try a MAJOR TREND REVESAL (there is more too it though, that's why I like to pick the chart that continues the previous trend, it's much easier for me to trade).

Hi Thomas

A profitable 'Trade the open" strategy is very attractive to many people because allows a trader to spend only a couple of hours in front of a screen, and then spend most of the day doing anything else they want (on the Pacific coast go to a full-time job, play golf, etc ....). 😀 

Now, Will Your Strategy Work (be long-term profitable):

When you say trade the trend continuation with stop orders, of course you are taking swing trades with at least 2XR profit target, right?

And if the trade turns against your position, do you have an early exit or scale out strategy? (because about 60% of the trades will not hit the target in time, so you will fair much better to exit well above your stoploss). 😀 

Thanks for the ideas. 😆 

I trade the open, for at most 2 hours a day. I recommend using tick charts if you're planning to do the same. Overnight patterns are much easier to spot on tick charts, and signal/entry bars are usually much more affordable, since a lot of transactions take place at critical levels. Keep a 5 min chart on your screen as well. If there is confluence in a setup on your tick chart and a setup on the 5min chart, that's a beautiful trade.

Another tip is to play the defense, even when it means to skip a beautiful setup simply because the stop loss has to be too far away and thus the risk is too big. This happens often for me in the first 30 minutes of the day. You need to have the confidence that other setups will follow. Learn to stay out of the market, rather than take every single trade you see.

If you're a beginner, I would also suggest setting hard limits with your broker. I still have mine in place, and I plan on keeping them there. Let's say I trade 1 contract of the ES, and when I lose $X, or make $Y on the day, I get locked out of my account until the next trading day. This has been a huge help for me. I only get locked out once every few days, but it's made me much more consistent.

Last tip is to respect Al and use the knowledge from the course, but also make your way of trading your own. An example; (I believe) Al says at some point during the course that moving your stop to breakeven is usually done out of fear, and you shouldn't do it. Whenever I'm up or down 2 strong bars in my direction, I usually move my stop to breakeven. It does cause me to lose out on some strong moves, but it also protects my capital and especially during the open I believe capital preservation is priority number one.