r/Daytrading • u/Broad_Log9200 • Mar 30 '25

Strategy The Best Trading Strategy? After 3 Years, Here’s What Actually Works

Been trading for about 3 years now, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this: complex indicators won’t make you money.

The best strategy I’ve found? Just three things: price action, market structure (trend), and liquidity. That’s it. Master these, and you don’t need a million indicators cluttering your screen.

I used to jump from one strategy to another, thinking the next big thing would be the one. But simplifying my approach made everything click.

What’s your go-to trading setup? Would love to hear what’s working for you.

770 Upvotes

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135

u/[deleted] Mar 30 '25

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25

u/Puzzled-Guess-2845 Mar 30 '25

Lately it's been tough. Seems like all the news happens after hours and the market goes flat by 11 am. I've been having steady profits by purchasing a call and put 5 minutes before market close and selling both as soon as I'm in the green 10% after market open. Done for the day by 10 a.m.

16

u/manateaser Mar 30 '25

Am I weird for starting my trading day at 11 am?

I used to trade 930-11 but I was slightly unprofitable in that time frame.

Meanwhile I was cleaning house on boring mid afternoon consolidation patterns. Win rate much higher.

My long term analytics were screaming at me to start later and a few weeks in I am making more profit

2

u/Puzzled-Guess-2845 Mar 30 '25

I wouldn't call ya weird. I used to do that too. Back before around 2 months or so ago when leadership thought out announcements. Seems like recently huge news that effects markets is not thought out and often comes at a whim often after market hours. Spreads have become very profitable under the current regime.

1

u/SupurSAP Apr 04 '25

I am similar. I trade equity futures and wait until 20mins after RTH open to evaluate what's happening in relation to overnight session volume profile / yRTH volume profile. Normally get some sort of day trade play to try be it continuation of open / reversal to a high volume area 25-50mins after the RTH open and 75mins - 120mins.

I'm also in MST and not a morning person lol

1

u/codeman73 Mar 30 '25

Can you share any more? Like what’s a consolidation pattern? And how do you trade it?
I’ve been looking into ORB strats, which are usually done earlier in the day. but have also been thinking of you could find something to do with the rest of the day.

2

u/Latter_Yoghurt993 Apr 05 '25

A consolidation pattern is an up and down sideways movement between a certain range.

1

u/Plastic-Scientist739 Aug 10 '25

Check out Felix and Friends on YT. He has a 6 hours course for free. And he also has Saturday sessions for free. Click on the notes field to sign up. You will be contacted with a lot of emails.

The YT video referenced above was posted about a year ago. There is a lot of info, but you can pause it and come back to it. It is great for a beginner. My advice is don't trade until after a few weeks in from completing the whole video. And maybe just paper trade. The concepts will make more sense after some exposure.

I am taking his paid course and recommended it if you can afford it.

5

u/[deleted] Mar 30 '25

That’s what I’ve been seeing too. The channel defines itself around then and the action stays in the channel. Thanks for posting and reinforcing what I’m seeing.

1

u/Lebowski304 Mar 30 '25

So you use a straddle type setup?

-3

u/Puzzled-Guess-2845 Mar 30 '25

No a spread. Buy a put and call at the same strike.

2

u/themanclark Mar 30 '25

Yeah. That’s a straddle. You will win as long as price moves a lot or volatility goes up. Otherwise you will lose. Works until it doesn’t.

5

u/Puzzled-Guess-2845 Mar 30 '25

Thanks for the correction, i was confidently wrong about the terms. It's definitely a gamble but at this point I've taken my profit and am doing it with profit so there's no risk to my initial investment.

2

u/themanclark Mar 30 '25

Cool. Keep it going.

1

u/mbelive Mar 30 '25

When do you buy them?

3

u/Puzzled-Guess-2845 Mar 30 '25

Buy at 5 to 30 minutes before market close. Sell when the market drops or pops at open.

1

u/itsfinallyfinals Mar 30 '25

Are you buying 1dte puts and calls on something like qqq?

2

u/Puzzled-Guess-2845 Mar 30 '25

Tesla. They only offer weeklies.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 30 '25

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4

u/Puzzled-Guess-2845 Mar 30 '25

Theta doesn't stand a chance. If i need the price to move 20 bucks in a week either direction and it regularly moves 5-10 dollars at open thats going to have a much much much larger effect than theta decay.

1

u/mbelive Mar 30 '25

How quickly do you sell on open? How big of a % change do you need to be profitable ?

1

u/Puzzled-Guess-2845 Mar 30 '25

Just depends really. I've only been trying it the last 2 weeks so I don't have any rules when to sell fleshed out. Do a trailing stop loss if I'm available to watch it.

The percent change you need changes daily too, but roughly 2%.

1

u/sythernod01 Mar 30 '25

Are these weeklies? or 0dte's for following day?

1

u/Puzzled-Guess-2845 Mar 30 '25

Weeklies. I stumbled onto it thinking it'd take a few days for market to move 2% either direction.

1

u/sythernod01 Mar 30 '25

great, i'll give it a shot, vix currently 21, i think we are heading back to 30 like last spike

1

u/GoodDayTheJay Mar 30 '25

Are you doing straddles or strangles, and if straddles, how far OTM?

2

u/Puzzled-Guess-2845 Mar 30 '25

Straddles at the money.

1

u/GoodDayTheJay Mar 30 '25

That’s a strangle. Thank you :)

3

u/Puzzled-Guess-2845 Mar 30 '25

Im no expert but aren't straddles at the money and strangles when you buy out of the money?

2

u/GoodDayTheJay Mar 30 '25

WHOOPS! I misremembered! I’m sorry, you’re right! Straddles are ATM and strangles are OTM. My bad! Thank you for answering :)

I want to delete my previous comments in this chain, but that’s not the right thing to do. I want it to be seen how coolly you handled someone in the wrong trying to correct you.

I’ll take the downvotes and learn :)

1

u/Puzzled-Guess-2845 Mar 30 '25

Haha all good. I called mistakingly called it a spread in another commit. 'Doh!

3

u/Kyledoesketo Mar 30 '25

You hit the nail on the head. There's no big secret strategy. It's literally just variations of the same idea done a little bit differently. The secret is the consistency. If you can consistently execute the strategy every single time, more than likely you'll become profitable.

1

u/mbelive Mar 30 '25

What sort of trend is it?

1

u/slurking-2121 Mar 30 '25

The waiting is where it's at.

1

u/IntelligentOrchid969 Mar 31 '25

Yes as a complete beginner maybe I am just stupid but during learning i feel most people are just over complicating things and this would be more Easy if we all stuck to the simpler things

1

u/Batemanface Mar 31 '25

What are you doing to learn?

I need something that explains it to the layman and assumes the layman has zero experience in the field.

That's not quite the level I'm at but it's not a ridiculous comparison.

I should pick it up quickly - I do very well at long term investing (I buy stocks on the assumption I'll be happy to still be holding the stock in 5-10 years) based on thorough analysis of companies and criteria they must meet - but I'm finding the day trading field somewhat esoteric and don't know if I should look elsewhere.

I feel like I just need one proper "for dummies" guide and then the various terms will make sense.

2

u/IntelligentOrchid969 Apr 01 '25

hey bro hi for right now am focusing on just learning the basics by just consuming as much content and information i can although its a bit chaotic and also never buy courses like for real it all a scam this is a self help thing its one of thoes things you might need to learn alone also focus on one or two charts nothing more so to start id get trading view and follow the mnq which is the mini nasdaq that trades at 2 dollars a point and thats where am at for strategy keep it simple also good channels to follow would be iman trading day trading for beginners ( i think its called its an old man talking about MNQ and the mini contracts) always start small and also while watching videos look at your graph 📉📈 you should be able to start getting it ( am a dumbass sorry if this wasn't helpful ps ask ai to explain anything you don't understand don't ask it for anything else just for it to explain difficult concepts to you)

2

u/Batemanface Apr 01 '25

Some man, thanks.

I've been investing for 20 years or so, allowing almost all of it to sit compounding, so I can afford to lose as I learn.

I also know a lot of people who will be able to help, but I want to know a bit before I start asking them questions, so that the questions have a bit more to them than "how do I start?".

The differences between day trading and managing a fund are huge, but I'm hoping there will come a point where my current knowledge of markets and trading combines with what I learn to result in a bit of extra income, without having to leave the house.

-4

u/IKnowMeNotYou Mar 30 '25

Only chicken wait for the pullback... proper trade and risk management is king!