Intraday trading is one common form of market speculation, where traders open and close all trades within a day. Traders who enter and exit the market within a span of a day are called intraday traders.
To succeed as a day trader, it is important to know how to pick stocks for intraday trading. Often people are unable to make profits because they fail to select appropriate stocks to trade during the day.
Trade Only in Liquid Stocks:
The criteria to find the best intraday stocks boils down to selecting highly liquid stocks.
Liquidity is the most important intraday trading tip while choosing the right stocks to trade during the day. Liquid stocks have huge trading volumes whereby larger quantities can be purchased and sold without significantly affecting the price. Generally, lesser liquid stocks do not provide traders the opportunity to purchase and sell larger quantities due to lack of too many buyers. Some traders may argue that illiquid stocks offer bigger opportunities with rapid price modifications. However, statistics show that volatile stocks show greater movements in a short period of time. Thus, most of the possible gains dissipate while the downside risk still looms. Nonetheless, the liquidity of the stocks depends on the quality of the trades placed by the traders. For example, a volume of 50,000 to 75,000 shares is sufficient if the trade is for 50 or 100 Rs; however, if the volume is a few hundred or thousands, volume requirements significantly become larger.
While selecting liquid stocks, don’t forget to check liquidity at various price levels. You will find some stocks that are highly liquid at a lower price level, but the volume drops drastically after reaching a certain price zone. Understanding the variability of liquidity at different price levels will help you buy these stocks at the right time.
Stay Away from Volatile Stocks:
It is commonly noticed that a low daily volume of traded stocks or those where some huge news is expected to move in an unpredictable way. Sometimes, the stock may show volatility even after the announcement of the big news. Traders are recommended to avoid intraday trading in such stocks. A few volatile stocks are in the mid-size segment while most stocks traded in the low-cap categories like S, T, and Z are highly chaotic. In addition to being volatile, these stocks have low daily volumes, making them illiquid.
Keeping the above warning in mind, let’s now also tell that a certain degree of volatility indicates active market and intraday traders can profit by successfully betting in these stocks. Although there is no rule, most intraday traders acknowledge shares with 3-5 percent of price movement on either side as the best intraday stocks.
Trade in Good Correlation Stocks:
An intraday tip for choosing the right stock is to opt for those that have a higher correlation with major sectors and indices. This means when the index or the sector sees an upward movement, the stock price also increases. Stocks that move according to the sentiment of the group are reliable and often follow the expected movement of the sector. For example, strengthening of the Indian Rupee against the Dollar will generally affect all information technology companies dependent on the US markets. A stronger rupee implies lower earnings for the IT companies and weakening rupee will result in higher export incomes for these companies.
Follow the Trend:
One of the most important intraday trading tips is to remember that moving with the trend is always beneficial. During a bull run in the stock market, traders must try to identify stocks that can potentially arise. On the other hand, during the bear run, finding stocks that are likely to decline is advisable.
Pick after Research:
Undertaking quality research is one of the most vital intraday tips that traders must always remember. Unfortunately, most day traders avoid doing their research. Identifying the index and then finding sectors that are of interest is recommended. The next step is to create a list of several stocks with these sectors. Traders need not necessarily include sector leaders, but rather identify stocks that are liquid. Technical analysis and determining the support and resistance levels along with studying the fundamentals of these stocks will help traders find the right stocks to profit through intraday/day trading.
Intraday trading has inherent risks, but speed plays a vital role in making all the difference. Earning profits through small price fluctuations during the few trading hours is not an easy task. Angel One Angel Eye helps to monitors stocks in real-time. Being browser-based, you can easily do online share trading from anywhere, without the speed being affected. The platforms help in taking Quick decisions, thus enabling traders to book profits.
Intraday trading is all about initiating and closing out your trades on the same day. For example, if you buy 500 shares of Reliance in the morning at Rs.920 and sell it by an evening at Rs.928, then you can book a profit of Rs.4000 (500×8) intraday. This trade does not result in any delivery as your net position at the end of the day is zero. You can also sell the stock in the morning and buy it back in the evening if you believe that the stock is likely to go down. In fact, if you want to short sell stocks (without delivery), then the only way you can do it in rolling settlements mode is intraday.
The most important step for an intraday trader is selecting the stocks to trade intraday. You need stocks that can give movement and at the same time are predictable. Here are 6 such factors you should consider when you select stocks for intraday trading.
Is the stock liquid enough?
Market liquidity is the most important consideration when looking at a stock for intraday trading. After all, you do not want to enter into a position and they worry about how you are going to exit the same. This problem normally exists in small stocks and more of the F&O stocks and the higher end of mid-cap stocks are normally quite liquid. But how do you measure liquidity? One of the basic measures of liquidity is to view daily volumes as a proportion of market capitalization.
Liquidity = Average daily volumes / Market capitalization
While there are no hard and fast rules, a minimum liquidity ratio of 10% should be the benchmark to consider a stock for intraday trading.
Can you buy or sell the stock with low impact cost? What do we understand by low impact cost? It is the impact on the stock price when you place a large buy or sell order on the stock. When impact cost is high, the risk of intraday becomes too high and hence such stocks should be avoided for intraday trading. High impact cost means that the price at which you will get the stock could be unfavorable to you in case of large orders. This will change the economics of your intraday trade. Prefer stocks that have low impact cost, which is normally another proxy for liquidity.
Is the Stock Widely Owned?
You can check out these details in the ownership pattern of the stock which is available on the websites of the exchange. You can also get cues from the trading pattern of the stock. Stocks that are not widely owned will be more volatile and will also hit circuit filters easily. That is because a handful of market operators will be able to corner these stocks quite easily if they are not widely owned. As an intraday trader, always prefer stocks that are liquid and widely owned. That will reduce your risk substantially.
Does the Stock Sustain Narrow Tick Spreads?
This is again an extension of the liquidity and the impact cost argument. But since we are talking about an intraday trader, the tick becomes very important. The tick is the minimum gap between the two orders. There must be enough volumes on each tick to qualify for an intraday trade. You do not want to place an order and realize that your order execution has actually happened several ticks away. In intraday trades, you try to capitalize trends and so you normally place market orders. Hence the tick gap becomes a key consideration for intraday stock selection. Smaller the tick gap, the better it is for you.
Does it Show Clear and Decipherable Chart Patterns?
As an intraday trader, you need to rely heavily on technical charts. Of course, you must develop the capacity to read charts on your own. But above all, ensure that the stock depicts clear chart patterns. It is not possible to trade in a stock that does not have sufficient history or which does not depict a clear pattern. Only with a long history, you can decipher patterns and then trade for a repeat of these patterns.
What is the Price Sensitivity to News Flows?
An intraday trader, typically, relies on two factors to trade viz. chart patterns and sensitivity to news flows. You cannot trade intraday in a stock that does not react to the news. Basically, you are looking at stocks that are extremely sensitive to news. That is why your strategy of buying on expectations and selling on announcements can actually work in practice.
Intraday trading is as much about getting the stock list right as it is about discipline. The key here is to keep your stock universe limited so that you can do justice tracking these stocks in terms of fundamentals, technicals and news flows. One of the big questions that come to every intraday trader’s mind every single day is to find the right stock for intraday trading. After all, the key to successful trading is the right selection of stocks. There are a number of factors that should be taken into consideration at the time of stock selection. There are so many listed shares but it isn’t necessary that they can be chosen for intraday trading. Take a look at a few tips mentioned below
How to Pick Best Stocks for Intraday Trading?
Shares Volume
One of the main criteria while intraday trading is the volume of the stocks. The total number of shares that are traded in a particular market at a given time reflect volume. It is mostly recommended to purchase stocks that are high in volume.
Stocks of the Day
Depending on good news, a few stocks are expected to perform well. Such stocks are anticipated to move in either direction with good volume. These shares can be used for intraday trading.
Week’s Movement
Study the movement of stocks that are constantly closing in negative or positive for the previous week. An analysis of this movement will help you in selecting the stocks for intraday trading.
Resistance Level
Some of the stocks to watch out for are those that have broken resistance levels and which move in an upward direction. Such stocks are one of the favourite choices.
Trading in Few Stocklists
A few intraday traders involve in trading only in particular shares. This is because these traders engage in a detailed study of share movement. This is one of the main intraday strategies that are followed by traders.
Top Gainers and Losers
While some shares come under top gainers, others come under top losers. Such shares may provide fairly good movements. However, keep a close watch on these them in order to begin trading.
Conclusion
Successful intraday traders have trained their eyes and senses so they can invariably pick the best shares for intraday. Choosing the right stocks is important to make a profit in intraday trading; hence, you must make technical analysis your ally. With time, you will discover the right way to select the best intraday stocks. Ensure that you make data-driven decisions and keep the emotional bias away.
FAQs
What happens if I don't sell intraday shares?
The shares in your intraday account will get squared off automatically at the end of the trading day. Or, get delivered to your DEMAT account, based on broking house’s policy.
How can I know my intraday trend?
Technical traders use multiple trading indicators and charts to understand market sentiment. If you are a new trader, it will take you some time to develop a workable trading strategy, for that you’ll have to research the market in detail.
How can I make consistent profits using intraday trading?
Most traders have a straight and simple goal – to make consistent profits. The best day trading strategy you can implement to achieve this is to buy when the stock moves above the Opening Range high and sell when the stock moves below the Opening Range low. In the first 30 minutes of day trading, each stock creates a range, known as the opening range. The fluctuations of this range are taken as support and resistance. If the stock movement is observed to cross the Opening Range high, then it is advisable to buy. Similarly, you can sell when stock movement is observed below the Opening Range low. This strategy can give you consistent profits if done with discipline, proper assessment of the market performance and optimal usage of indicators.
What is the difference between buying stocks on intraday basis and delivery basis?
Intraday trading, as the name suggests, is trading stocks within trading hours in a single day. Many new investors and traders are keen to know about how intraday trading works. To begin with, you buy shares when the price is low and sells them when the price is high, thus taking advantage of the price movement. You can use real-time charts to identify these price movements and make profits. On the other hand, if you purchase and hold shares overnight, then you take delivery of shares. This is known as delivery trading. In the delivery method, stocks are transferred to your demat account. You can sell these stocks for either a short-term period (maybe next day) or after a few weeks, months or years. The benefit of intraday trading is that the cost of brokerage is low compared to delivery trading. Also, you receive margin profits the same day as opposed to delivery trading.
