It should be realized that every sound trading strategy or plan is comprised of three primary action points: one entry point, and two exit points. One exit below your entry price (assuming a long position), better known as the initial stop loss, and one exit above your entry price, better known as the price objective. No matter how intelligently you have determined your stop and your target, if you enter the stock too fast, too slow, or at the wrong price, you run the risk of ruining the entire trade. What makes this game called trading so difficult is that it is not enough to know what stocks to play. One must know when to play the right stocks. "To act now, or not to act now?" That, my dear friends, is the question. To know the answer calls for a clear understanding of exactly when, where and how to strike (enter). Let us now delve into this all-important world of entering stocks the proper way. At Pristine's Trading University, we immerse our traders in three primary Pristine Entry Techniques. There are more, but these three serve to cover the vast majority of ways in which we enter our chosen stocks. Let's look at them now.

1) Prior High Entry Rule - Once a stock is chosen as a buy (long) candidate, we often look to enter it as soon as it demonstrates the ability to trade higher than it did throughout the entire prior trading day. In other words, if the stock can trade 5 to 10 cents above yesterday's high, we enter immediately. If a stock is able to trade higher than yesterday's high, we can be certain that the bulls are driving its engine harder than the bears. Tip: We jump on board trains moving in our desired direction, not against our desired direction. Keep in mind that this basic entry method is the main one of the three. Of course, one would simply reverse the above when looking to go short.

2) 30-minute Entry Rule - There are times when the prior day's high is simply too far away to consider buying above it. I personally will not let a stock rally $2 before considering a buy. This in my view is giving up too much of the potential upside potential. For these scenarios, Pristine's 30-minute Buy Rule comes into play. If the prior day's high is too far way for our taste ($1.50 or more is the general rule of thumb), we will look to this alternative entry method which calls for buying above the high established in the first 30-minutes of trading. At 10:00 EST, we simply mark off the high of the day. If the stock trades above this high any time between 10:01 and 3:59 EST, we buy, with a stop below the current day's low. This entry method, while not our main one, does at times help us get into plays closer to the bottom than the main entry method above. But it should be remembered that it is largely anticipatory in nature, which always brings added risk. The stock is only truly strong if it has demonstrated the ability to take out the prior day's high. It is not "officially" strong simply because it manages to take out the 30-minute high. So, one must know when this alternative entry method is truly applicable. Use it inappropriately, and you can turn good stock candidates into financial nightmares. Reverse the above for shorts.

3) 5-minute Entry Rule - If the 30-minute rule calls for buying a stock above the high established in the first 30-minutes of trading, the 5-minute Entry Rule calls for buying the stock above the high made in the first 5-minutes of trading. This is a more aggressive version of the 30-minute rule and is only used by our more advanced traders in training. When is this entry method pulled out of our arsenal? Usually when the stock has gapped marginally above our desired entry price. Let's say you wanted to buy XYZ above yesterday's high of $20. However, when the market opened, XYZ gapped open for trading at $20.35. This is beyond our 5 to 10-cent rule (see above), which causes us to employ the 5-minute entry rule. It should be noted that this rule is applied only to marginal gaps, not large gaps of $1 or more. The larger gaps take us back to the 30-minute entry rule. As is the case with the other two entry methods, reversing the above is necessary for shorts.