IBD not only supplies answers to a lot of questions but they also warn about the importance of evaluating our own progress. After two years of disappointments my own experience told me that the 'cup'n'handle' buy points didn't work for me as well as they seemed to work for them.
Then again, it may have been something else; please let me know what you're finding.
I watch and watch and do what my instincts tell me. I've missed so many opportunities to make money since I've been sitting it out but I'm just not seeing anything I want.
Either the stocks I have a feel for are stuck around a pivotal point for weeks now or I feel they are over-priced.
I'll tell you what I was doing. I wasn't ready to buy in 1000 lots, max was 300 for me. You should really start at opening and watch all day; they all seem to take off up or down. I look at the general past trend, then pull up a 1 day 1 minute chart, keep refreshing it. That combined with the MACD and started watching volume, I was getting fairly good at hitting the highs and lows for the day. Also the RSI. That isn't foolproof, but when a stock goes into oversold at the bottom, sometimes a couple bounces, that's a good point to buy in. But some stocks aren't that volatile. Some stay on a narrower channel.
My biggest problem is when a trade starts to go bad, I have a sale ready to get out as soon as I buy but it hard to resist the temptation to hang on. One day it went bad on me, 300 sh I sold at about 80 loss. So I see where to buy back in, stayed in, maybe that one was a swing and made about 180 on it. Net gain not so good. But those amounts are still considerable cash for me.
I guess I just got cold feet. I am risk averse right now.