Some every morning stuff

 This will likely be short because I don't feel so great today. I didn't sleep well last night if I slept at all, but i had the nerve to do my morning routine and trade. I traded CLF since X was being acquired and it was moving. Other options were SNAP and ARQT but CLF was moving enough early to give me a couple good trades. This leads me to talk a bit about my prep in the morning. The first thing I look for is Volume - so there is usually higher RVOL (relative volume) - but what I choose doesn't need to have elevated RVOL. It just often does. When I'm looking at volume I need to see that I can trade the stock both ways. I usually don't trade it if I can't trade it both ways because I trade long and short and I don't want to only be able to go long a stock and then all it does is show signs of going down and go down - it's just a waste of my time.  After that I look for what has a good ATR or APTR (how much the price moves on average throughout the day - Average True Range or Average Percent True Range). I need a stock that will give me a few good moves in a day (and if the RVOL is elevated then the stock may move 2 or 3 times ATR). Next I look for News catalysts/Fundamental changes which explain the price movements. I don't like to put too much weight on the news to give bias in the direction of the stock. I may be looking for different setups if I think the news is positive but you have to be ready to trade the opposite direction than your "news bias." Once I have a few stocks I look for levels in the past where there may be action, mark those, and set alerts. Then I have a morning meeting where I may hear other ideas or maybe get a little more perspective on what I am already looking at. And that takes me to the bell. I watching price action up to the bell and after, but I want to see how price is moving and levels that it may want to break or touch or what levels it's moving away from. And that is the first 1-2 hours of my morning. All before any trading takes place. I also like to look up specific info about the stocks on Finviz or yahoo finance (stuff like short float and institutional ownership and sometimes just what exactly the company does) and I have a morning preparation sheet that I will fill out (I don't always fill it out - especially when I'm trading the same thing on back to back days even though the preparation sheet covers many market technicals that will have likely changed - I can see those in front of my face since I have a screen full of them (stuff I'm not trading, but could help influence how I trade what I have chosen on the day). Ok. that's all. now to go blow my nose. Cheers.