Use the 5-day Moving Average on your daily charts for clear exit signals. Set your stops below the 5-day MA.
Use the 8/8 crossover on daily and intraday charts to do the same thing.
Use stop-loss orders; stopping out is your pay day. The 5-period Moving Average is valid for all time frames, but for more flexibility on intraday charts use the Donchian channel to avoid getting stopped out too quickly.
Use stop-losses instead of taking profits quickly. Ride the bull as long as you can, because he will try to buck you off. The market maker is doing that: he'll take the price back down to stop you out before he takes the price up.
In addition to intraday trades for short-term profits, be sure to trade the intermediate chart. This will prevent you from missing nice trending trades, even when you can't sit and watch the market intraday.
Keep in mind that our double-beta ETFs are leveraged plays, up and down. Leverage is great when it's going your way, but set your stops and get out when reversals come.
Your position size should never put you in a situation to lose more than 1% of your portfolio. Plan your trade size and stop-loss orders accordingly.
Use an intraday chart even if you can’t get real-time data--the 8/8 crossover will give you nice signals on getting back into a trend.
