Hey everyone, Ross Cameron here! Today, I’m excited to teach you a variation of my momentum trading strategy, where I focus exclusively on buying dips. This means I wait for the price to drop and when other traders are panic selling, I buy that dip and look for a bounce back through the high of the day. This strategy has been incredibly profitable for me and has provided me an excellent profit-to-loss ratio. The key is to buy close to support, allowing for a tight stop. This way, if the trade turns against me, my loss is minimized. If the trade goes my way, the profit can be substantial.
This method works best when trading something that is trending. If the stock is moving sideways, dips are less likely to bounce back. Something moving up strongly provides the best opportunities. For example, today I’ll be discussing SNGX, a stock that spiked over 400% on news, and I managed to peak at $17,900 in profits (Results not typical).
A lot of beginner traders struggle with buying the dip, an analogy often referred to as “trying to catch a falling knife.” They lose money because they don’t have a set of rules to follow. In this post, I’ll share the rules I use to decide when to buy the dip and when to wait for a better opportunity. Let’s dive in!
Understanding the Dip Trading Strategy
The dip trading strategy involves buying stocks when their prices temporarily drop. Essentially, I take advantage of momentary imbalances in the market. When prices flush and create a panic sell, I buy in, aiming for a price squeeze back to the high of the day. By buying near support levels, I can trade with a very tight stop-loss. This limits my maximum loss and boosts the profit-to-loss ratio to potentially 3:1, 4:1, or even 5:1.
When I buy close to support, the risk is generally low because the stop-loss is tight. If I buy a level where the support is strong, the price often bounces back, turning my small risk into a significant reward. However, it’s crucial to have a solid set of rules. Buying indiscriminately without understanding the underlying factors can lead to losses.
The stock SNGX recently saw an impressive 400% increase due to positive news. During this jump, I used my dip trading strategy to peak at around $17,900 (Results not typical). Watching the stock carefully, I waited for those momentary dips, bought in, and rode the wave back up. The key was trading something that was already moving up strongly, thus increasing my chances of a successful dip buy.
For a lot of beginners, buying the dip can be tricky. Many end up “catching a falling knife” and getting cut. This happens because they don’t follow a set of rules and get caught in the panic. Understanding when to buy and when to wait is crucial to avoid these pitfalls.
Trading Rules and Guidelines
Effective Dip Trading Rules
- Volume and Volatility: Ensure the stock is up at least 30% on high relative volume.
- Support Levels: Look for entries near half and whole dollars. Support can also be ascending or descending resistance lines, horizontal lines, or indicators like VWAP and moving averages.
- Avoid Halt Risk: Stay away from trades that might hit a halt down. Halting can lead to significant losses due to price gaps.
- Front Side Trading: Trade on the front side of the move, not the back side. This means entering while the stock is still trending upwards.
Detailed Strategy Breakdown
This strategy, often called the “dip and rip,” involves buying dips near support levels. Prices typically move in waves, and the goal is to buy near the bottom of a wave for the next leg up. Recognizing these waves helps distinguish between a sustainable uptrend and a stock that’s just flushing without the potential for a bounce back.
Understanding whether a stock is still stair-stepping up or starting to come back down is crucial. Indicators include the MACD, volume tops, and rejection candles. Identifying these signals helps determine whether you’re trading a dip in an uptrend or buying into a downtrend, which should be avoided.
Historical Context and Real-World Application
One notable example is March 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the market dropped 35%. I started buying stocks that were about to be halted going down or just after several halts. The goal was to capitalize on the huge bounces back up, creating nearly instant winners. (Results not typical)
Understanding how circuit breaker halts work is also essential. Knowing the halt levels and avoiding trades that might hit these marks can prevent getting stuck in a halt down and suffering significant losses.
Reading the Market and Recognizing Opportunities
Panic sell-offs can happen due to various reasons, including large market orders or high-frequency trading algorithms. Recognizing these moments is key to successful dip trading.
Differentiating between small and huge dips is vital. Small dips might involve minor pullbacks, while huge dips see significant single-candle drops. Visualizing these can help decide which dips are worth buying into.
Advanced Trading Techniques
Psychological price levels like half and whole dollars often act as support. Trading near these levels can improve entry points, making it easier to identify strong support areas.
Avoiding trades near halt levels is critical. Managing risk in volatile markets involves being aware of the potential for halts and steering clear of those risky zones.
Risk Management and Exit Strategies
A narrow stop-loss is essential for dip trades. Quick exits during stalls or drops can prevent small losses from turning into significant ones.
Key exit indicators include large sellers on level two and price movement stalls. Tighter stop-losses based on these indicators can help manage risk effectively.
Consistency and Adapting to Market Conditions
Setting clear profit and loss levels helps maintain consistency. Walking away after hitting these levels can prevent giving back profits.
FOMO and overtrading are common pitfalls. Learning to walk away and avoid unnecessary trades can improve overall profitability.
Final Insights and Summary
Balancing emotion and logic is key to successful day trading. Managing emotions and making logical decisions in volatile markets is challenging but crucial. My results aren’t typical, and trading is risky. Continuous learning and reflection on each trading day should be the goal. If you’re serious about improving your day trading skills, following a structured approach and learning from proven strategies is the way to go.
Remember, trading is risky, and my results are not typical. Always practice in a simulator before putting real money on the line. See you in the next blog!
Stay Connected
Warrior Trading was founded by Ross Cameron in 2012 and is now a thriving community of thousands of traders. You can learn more about joining the Warrior Trading community here
Check out my new book How To Day Trade: The Plain Truth
You can listen to me on Apple Podcasts
Make sure to follow my YouTube Channel
Check me out on Facebook
Watch behind the scenes on Instagram
Stay connected with me on X
