Momentum Scalps Using Range Bars

Conoco Philips continues to trend higher making new 20 day highs which makes for textbook momentum trading. I use a 25 cents range bar to trade COP which provided 3 momentum scalps good for a total of 1.89 of profit. As you can see from the chart above my first entry provided the best scalp of .77 in only 10 minutes. The second entry was good for .49 in 13 minutes and the last one produced .63 of profit in under 5 minutes as it took out the previous day's high...textbook!

Conoco Philips Momentum Scalp

Today Conoco Philips provided another 20 day high breakout momentum trade for me. As COP opened above Friday's range I waited for the first pullback to go long using 25 cents range bars. My entry was 77.45 at 9:37am that had very good momentum as I watched it go straight up for 20 minutes. I booked my profit at 78.47 which was 27 cents of the high of 78.74 as you can see on the chart. My re-entry of 78.09 at 10:37am did not have the same momentum and I took a small 27 cents loss. My net profit in COP was 75 cents and I passed on the reversal at lunch. Using the range bars keeps me from taking big losses and never allows me to turn winning trades into big losses.

20 Day Breakout Momentum Trades

I have been taking 20 day breakouts for momentum trades the past few months with very good success. Last week there was a lot of momentum in the energy sector providing many opportunities for intra-day as well as swing trades. Conoco Philips (NYSE:COP) was one of the stocks that I took advantage of using a 25 cents range bar to time my entries and exits. I do not use time bars because of the noise and I find it easier to manage my trades using only price action regardless of time. The chart above illustrates my trades on Thursday & Friday.