In my ten thousand hours of trading experience, these are the 4 best day trading strategies that actually worked! I will share them in the order I used them, from the start of my trading journey to now.

Number 4.

For this strategy, I primarily focus on around 5-minute timeframes. The reason is, it’s quick enough to get in and out of trades but slow enough to think, analyze, and calculate position sizes. Now, you might notice that my charts are clean—no MACD, no RSI, no moving averages. That’s because when I used this strategy, I was a pure price action trader; indicators just made things confusing.

Step one: identifying extreme reversal points. You know how when you’re looking at a chart, and some patterns or price points are visible instantly? Well, extreme highs and lows did that for me.

What do I mean by extreme? Picture a V-shape in the price, where the price surges in one direction and then sharply reverses. That point where the price reverses? That’s what I call an extreme reversal point. I’m not talking about ‘W’ shapes or bouncing price action; it’s got to be a sharp, clean V or an inverted V.

Once I identified an extreme reversal point, I’d draw support and resistance lines around it. I would put a horizontal line right at the tip of the wick. For example, let’s say the price went strongly in the upward direction, then formed a shooting star candlestick pattern with a long wick, and then the price moved down. I would place my horizontal line at the extreme high of that wick. That’s my extreme resistance. If it were a V shape right side up, I’d put the line at the extreme low, making it extreme support.

Now that we’ve got our extreme lines, the next step is to wait. I’d wait for the price to approach these lines again.

The idea is simple: Whenever there is a clearly visible reversal point, the probability of the people reacting to it in a similar way can be higher. This happens around 60% of the time according to the data we have found on the Main Trading Rush Channel. If there is a support that looks like a V pattern, many people might see it as potential support when the price comes near it again. This is similar to how stock market participants see a crash bottom as strong support and an all-time high as a good resistance.

As the price comes down near the strong support, people start buying well before the end of the support. But the best support resistance entry in this support area is at the bottom. Furthermore, many other support resistance traders will set their stop-loss just below this support area. So, the breakout of this support line we have drawn is the deciding factor for many. Is the support going to hold the price above it or the price will break through it.

By taking a long trade at the edge of the support, I not only get the best entry price, but if I set the stop-loss just below the support with many other traders, I also get a good reward-risk ratio.

But how do you know when to enter the long trade?

Well, here comes the crucial part—identifying strong price rejection. Imagine the price nearing one of these extreme lines. What I’m looking for is the price to ‘kiss’ that line and then—wham!—a sharp move in the opposite direction. It has to be almost instant! The longer the wick, the stronger the rejection, and that’s my entry point.

I wouldn’t enter the trade immediately after the rejection; I’d only enter after the rejection candle has closed. Why? Because the markets can trick you. Sometimes there’d be a sharp rejection, but before the candle closed, it would reverse, effectively canceling out the initial rejection signal. Also, if the price happens to move too much in the entry direction after the rejection, I would avoid taking the trade. That’s because now the entry price is too far from the extreme support resistance. The risk reward is not worth it!

As soon as I spotted a strong rejection off an extreme support line and the candle closed, I’d go long, setting my stop-loss just below the wick of the rejection candle. My reasoning was simple: that wick represented a strong buying pressure, and if the price goes below it, means that buying pressure wasn’t so strong. For profit targets, back then, I’d aim for a 1-to-1 reward risk ratio. Nowadays, I would recommend using a lower reward risk ratio such as 0.5 to 1. If the price has a lot of room to move in the entry direction, then I would use 1 to 1 reward risk ratio.

For a short setup, it was the same story but in reverse. A strong rejection at an extreme resistance would be my cue to enter a short position, with the stop-loss set just above the wick of the rejection candle.

Number 3.

While I was using the strategy that focused on extreme reversal points, I noticed that there were times when the price would move towards the extreme support or resistance, and then nothing would happen. This was frustrating as it meant a lot of time spent watching the charts without any result. So, to optimize my time and increase my chances of making successful trades, I decided to adapt the strategy. Instead of only looking for extreme reversal points that resemble a V-pattern, I also started scanning for price ranges, where the price is staying within a range for a while and the edges of the range are clearly visible. If the price has been in a range for a while, it’s support and resistance are most likely also visible on multiple timeframes. If many traders can see those support resistance areas, they are just as good as the extreme V shaped reversal areas.

So here is what I did: I opened around 5-minute time frame charts. Just like before, I would draw horizontal lines at the edges or extreme wicks of the support and resistance. Now, if the price comes in at the extreme resistance wick but then crosses it clearly in the upward direction, the previous strategy setup becomes invalid. In this case, I wait for the price to move in the opposite direction, as if it’s carrying out a pullback. As the price comes back towards the breakout resistance, I want to see if there is a price rejection from it. If there is strong rejection, it basically means that the breakout resistance is now acting as support and there is higher buying pressure from it. When I see the higher buying pressure, I enter a long trade and set the stop loss inside the range, below the support.

Similarly, if I was waiting for a price rejection from a strong support and that didn’t happen, and instead the price went down clearly resulting in a breakout of the support, then I wait for the price to move back in the upward direction as if it’s carrying out a pullback. Then, I wait for the price to get strong rejection from that previous support level. If there is strong rejection from the support, it means that support is now acting as a potential resistance. When that happens, I take a short trade only when the candle is closed. I set the stop loss above the breakout, which in this case is above the support level.

It’s important to note that this time, since the support and resistance are not the extreme edges, we can’t set the stop loss right next to them. Before, I was setting the stop loss just after the extreme reversal point and the rejection point, but this time, I have to keep a good enough gap between the line I have drawn as the support or resistance and the area I think is the actual support or resistance. Since we know that support and resistance is an area, not a single line on a chart, we want to make sure that we cover the entire support or resistance while taking this breakout trade.

Number 2.

While both the extreme reversal strategy and breakout pullback were effective, they generated very few entry setups in the market. Waiting for the right moment can take a long time, which might lead to impatience and even cause you to see trading opportunities that are not actually there.

So, I adapted my approach.

This time, when I opened the chart, I selected any time frame between 5 minutes and one day. For this strategy, we are not going to use rejections of the candles that much. So, the time frame doesn’t really matter. But what I used this time was the Bollinger Bands, specifically with the default settings.

But why did I use the Bollinger Bands?

Imagine price as an elastic band. When you stretch an elastic band too far and release it, it snaps back to its original position. Similarly, when the price stretches too far in one direction, it often corrects itself and returns to its average. The Bollinger Bands, with its two bands moving with the price, serve as the boundaries of this ‘elastic band’. When the price becomes volatile, the bands expand, and when the price is slow, they retract.

When the price moved too far above or below these bands, I saw it as the price stretching too much, and thus, it had a higher probability of returning inside the Bollinger Bands.

But it wasn’t as straightforward as just waiting for the price to cross the bands. Even a stretched rubber band doesn’t snap back immediately. So, when the price moved above the upper Bollinger Band, for example, I waited for a strong engulfing or a shooting star pattern to form almost entirely outside the upper Bollinger Band. Then, I took a short entry at the closing price of that candle, and set my stop loss above the highest point of the upward move.

On the other hand, if the price went far below the lower Bollinger Band, I waited for a strong and clear engulfing or hammer pattern. Then, I took a long entry at the closing price of that candlestick pattern and set my stop loss below the lowest point of the downward move.

Since this was kind of a reversal trade and I was only anticipating a smaller correction of the price moving back inside the Bollinger Band, I used a lower reward-risk ratio of around 0.5 to 1 or 1 to 1.

Let me show you on this chart here. See how the price moved above the upper Bollinger Band and then formed a shooting star pattern entirely outside the band? That’s where I would take a short entry at the closing price of the shooting star candle and set my stop loss above the highest point of the upward move. And here, when the price dropped below the lower Bollinger Band and then formed a clear hammer pattern, I would take a long entry at the closing price of the hammer candle and set my stop loss below the lowest point of the downward move.

This strategy was quite different from the previous ones because it did not rely heavily on candle rejections and allowed me to trade on any timeframe. And while it was more of a reversal trade, it helped me increase my trading opportunities and not get too impatient waiting for the perfect setup.

But while this strategy was good and everything, it was a very difficult strategy. Bollinger Bands and Candlestick Pattern combination is one of the most challenging or confusing things I have used. You have to filter a lot of false setups that are caused by market noise and other things. Bollinger Bands also has one of the highest difficultly rating on the Trading Rush Website. So I used this strategy for a brief period in my trading journey.

Number 1.

You know, after dabbling with Bollinger Bands and other indicators, I came back home to price action. I loved looking at a naked chart. It speaks to me more than any of the indicators ever did. Here, I found one of my favorite Price Action strategies that I have used in most of my trading journey. I still use it to this day!

Look at this chart. See the time frame? You could actually use anything between 5 minutes and 1 day. You can go lower than 5 min if you want, because I’m pretty sure I did when I started trading with it. But nowadays I don’t and so I wouldn’t recommend it. What I keep an eye out for is a specific pattern in price action.

Notice here on the chart how the price initially moves upwards, takes a bit of a breather and moves downwards, then kicks up strong, smashing past the previous high? Right after that, it pulls back down but not as much as it shot up. Experienced traders might recognize this as a price action trend pattern.

Once I spot this, I draw an area of support right here, just where the breakout resistance was. This resistance now has the potential to act as support. But how do I confirm it? Ah, I used one of the rules from my previous strategies — the one involving candle rejections and strong candlestick patterns to sense buying pressure.

I zoom in and watch the price approach this newly drawn support. Since the rejection on higher timeframes won’t be easily visible, I used strong engulfing and hammer patterns as the entry point. If the hammer candlestick pattern had a long wick at the bottom, it would indicate strong buying pressure. I recommend watching the Free Price Action Series I have made on the Trading Rush Website to learn all the high win-rate candlestick patterns I have found.

I would enter the trade at the closing price of the strong candlestick pattern that emerged. As for my stop-loss, I would place it just below the support level and the candlestick entry pattern.

For the exit strategy, since this is a trend-following strategy, the probability of the price moving big in the entry direction is higher. So I would aim for a higher reward-to-risk ratio. Such as 1 to 1, 1.5 to 1, or even 2 to 1. Although I rarely go that high these days. Back in the day, I would use whatever reward-risk ratios that fit before the swing high resistance. But nowadays, I stick with 1 to 1 and 1.5 to 1 below the resistance.

Now flip the strategy. If the price is moving down, then pulls up a bit, crashes down again, and takes another breath by pulling up—you see where I’m going with this—I treat it the same way but in reverse. I mark the previous swing low as a potential resistance area. If a shooting star pattern appears or any other reversal pattern, that’s my signal. In this case, I enter a short position at the closing price of the candlestick entry pattern, set a stop loss above the entry candle and above the resistance, and again use a 1 to 1 or 1.5 to 1 reward-to-risk ratio before the swing low support of this trend pattern.

This was a reliable strategy in my trading journey!