My trading rules

I have amended some of these. The old rule is still there in red, the current one is 1a, 1b, etc.

1. Don't buy or sell anything during the day.
1a. Buy using limit orders after watching the opening range of the first 30mins or 1 hr after market open. Only buy if it's an up day for the market, and your stock is above the opening range.
2. Use a "mental stop" based on close prices. A tight physical stop will often
get shaken out during the day. A wider emergency stop might be a good
idea, though.
2a. Now when I buy, I put in a physical stop at 3 * ATR(14) below my buypoint.
3. My R is 1% (0.5% in a downtrend).
4. Don't go long during a downtrend.
5. Once you're up 10%, don't take a loss on that stock.
6. At 20% profit, sell half.
7. Stop shorting stuff until you can make money on longs.
8. NEVER AVERAGE DOWN
9. Only buy at a proper buypoint. Ones I will use are cup & handle, double bottom (with handle), 3 weeks tight, and bounce off the 50dma. All these should be accompanied with at least 50% greater than average volume on the breakout day.
10. Don't buy right before or after an earnings release.
11. If a stock does not break out the first day, sell half of it. You only want stocks that are going to go up immediately.
12. Only buy good-quality IBD stocks. They should be above the 50day, have a 50day above the 200day and trade more than 150k shares daily. And they should have a share price above $10.
13. Remember, there is always another stock.
14. Before you buy a stock, know where you want to get in, where you want to take profits, and where you will bail out.