Why The First Few Minutes Of Trading Are Important

Why pay so much attention to the first fewgained" list right after the open, you have to
minutes of the trading day and who the top 10 orwatch that one! It should pull back some from
15 stocks are right at the open?that huge gap, base out and start climbing up
As you know many times the market will "gap"again.
open. That is, it will open stocks higher than theyTo put it frankly, you can scan thousands of
closed the day before. This is important becauseheadlines every morning looking for that one
"something" is going to happen to that stock. It"gem" of a story that will give a stock a big boost
will either fall back down and be forgotten (greatand a lot of times you find it, but Wall Street will
short) on the day or it will "fill the gap" meaning itshow you those stocks and dozens of others
will pull back and then possibly move higher again.simply by the amount of excitement right at the
There is no stronger indication of what stocksopen. Some of your best research can be started
may move later in the day than to take notice ofjust two or three minutes after the bell. Look for
who is the point leader just a few minutes intopoint gainers, volume spikes, and % gainers. If
the day.you see a stock that is trading on the leader
Every morning you can scan the headlines forboard and it is up 2 or more points from where it
stock moving news and take note of a handfull ofclosed the day before, rest assured either it is
really interesting headlines, jot those companiesbeing carried over from the news the day before,
down and in addition to them, you want to seethat morning's news, or some thing neat is going
who the "market" is moving. Many times you willon!
see a stock up 3 or 4 dollars from yesterday'sUse the leaderboard as a tool, it tells a wonderful
close and you cannot find one word of newsstory. If you study it long enough you will see
about why it may be moving. These are oftenvery evident patterns emerge, and you will be
very interesting stocks to take note of becauseable to benefit from these patterns.
"something" is happening there and it warrantsOne last note: On a terrible day it is even more
further investigation (inside buys, news leaks, newimportant to watch the leaderboard early. Why?
contracts, rumors of mergers, and all kinds ofBecause even if the market beats them up and
interesting things could be causing the move).pulls them back, they could again be the winner
Another interesting thing about watching thethe next day. Watch for that to happen often
"leaderboard" a few minutes after the open is toand you will find some good bargains the next
affirm your own research. For instance supposeday.
you see a mention about the XYZ companyLarry is the publisher of and is a recognized
looking good going forward. You do a littleauthority on the subject of trading and has been
homework and decide that "yes, this is a goodpublishing his newsletter, Stocks2Watch(R), since
looking candidate". Well, if that stock opens strongJanuary of 1997.
the next day and is actually on the "most points