Most traders want a small set of simple, repeatable patterns they can trust. On the long side, three top trading setups cover a lot of ground: buy stop limit orders, intraday mean reversion longs (IMLs), and opening range breakouts (ORBs).
These three approaches handle both swing trading and day trading, and they also fit different lifestyles. Some traders have full-time jobs or family duties and cannot sit in front of screens all day. Others enjoy active intraday trading. With these three tools, both groups have clear, structured ways to enter long trades.
Highly recommend that you watch the video below which provides examples of each of the three setups, explaining identifying setup, entry and managing the trades.
Why These Core Setups?
The three core setups are:
- Buy stop limit orders on daily trigger bars
- INMERELOs (intraday mean reversion longs) on 5‑minute charts
- ORBS (Opening range breakouts) using the first 5‑minute bar
Each one covers a different type of opportunity.
- Buy stop limit orders let you define risk and entry in advance. You can place the order and walk away.
- INMERELOs are more active. They look for sharp intraday selloffs that reverse, often near key daily moving averages.
- ORBs focus on power moves from the open, when volume and volatility are typically highest.
These are all long setups, so they are easy to combine with a bullish watchlist or a trend-following process.
For fundamentals, the go-to research tool is MarketSurge, which makes it easy to study company earnings, sales, and other key data.
For charts, scans, and custom scripts, TradingView is the platform used in the examples. The INMERELO and ORB indicators mentioned are ones that I provide free to use. There is also a free RS Line indicator for TradingView that tracks relative strength versus the major indexes.
With that context in place, let’s go through each of the three setups.
Buy Stop Limit Orders
A buy stop limit order is a classic swing entry. Traders like Nicolas Darvas and Stan Weinstein wrote about very similar ideas in their work on growth stocks and trend trading.
This approach works best on the daily chart and suits traders who cannot monitor price action all session.
A buy stop limit order has two parts:
- The buy stop is the trigger price. If the stock trades at or above this price, the order activates.
- The limit is the highest price you are willing to pay once that trigger hits.
You also pair the order with a stop loss, usually based on the daily bar that produced the signal. The goal is to define risk in advance, relative to the stock’s normal daily range.
Spotting Trigger Bars On The Daily Chart
The basic idea is to wait for a constructive daily candlestick near key moving averages, then plan an entry through the high of that bar.
The main types of triggers that often work well:
- Tight low-volume inside bars near important daily moving averages
- Gap-down reversal bars that close strong after early weakness
- Shakeout demand tails, which are long lower wicks that show intraday selling getting absorbed
The most important moving averages here are:
- 10‑day EMA (exponential moving average)
- 21‑day EMA
- 50‑day SMA (simple moving average )
- 65‑day EMA
With this in place, you know:
- The exact entry zone (25.16 to 25.41 dollars)
- The maximum size of the stop (from the top of that zone down to 23.41 dollars)
- The risk as a share of the 20‑day ADR percentage
If the stock gaps above your limit, you simply do not get filled, and your risk plan stays intact.
Why They Suit Busy Traders
Buy stop limit orders are ideal for traders who:
- Have a full-time job
- Have family duties or school runs
- Live in a different time zone
- Do not want to watch intraday noise
You can scan in the evening, find constructive daily setups, and place good‑till‑canceled or session‑only buy stop limit orders. If price breaks out through the trigger level within your limit range, you are in. If it does not, nothing happens.
This turns a lot of the work into planning instead of reacting, while still using one of the top trading setups for long swing entries.
INMERELOs: Active Swiss Army Knife
INMERELOs, or intraday mean reversion longs, are short-term long trades that bet on a snapback after a sharp intraday selloff.
These trades are more active, yet they offer very tight stops and strong risk-to-reward when they work.
When INMERELOS Tend To Appear
Most INMERELOs show up:
- In the first two hours after the open
- Or in the final hour into the close
There are usually fewer clean setups in the middle of the session, when price often chops around.
IMLs often appear on days that end up printing shakeout demand tails on the daily chart. Intraday, those days usually look like:
- A selloff that undercuts a key moving average or recent lows
- A V shape or U shape intraday recovery back through a key intraday moving average
That intraday turn is where the IML entry sits.
Entry Signals For An INMERELO On The 5‑Minute Chart
The key signals for an IML entry are:
- Price reclaims the 5‑minute 60 EMA with a clear bullish candlestick
- There is a noticeable pop in volume on that reclaim candle
- A custom MACD with settings 6, 2, 9 turns positive at roughly the same time
Using faster MACD settings like 6,2,9 makes the indicator turn quicker, so it often lines up closely with the 5‑minute 60 EMA reclaim.
The INMERELO indicator on TradingView highlights this exact combination.
If you place the stop below the low of the day, the total risk from entry to stop is about 1.5 percent. That is already far tighter than a swing stop built off the entire daily shakeout bar.
Tightening Risk With Reclaim-Candle Stops
The best INMERELO trades share a useful trait. They do not undercut the low of the 5‑minute 60 EMA reclaim candle.
When that is true, you can place the stop just under the low of the reclaim bar, not the low of the day.
A well-timed INMERELO entries risk less than 1 percent, against a stock that often moves more than 7 percent in a day.
Compare that to what a buy stop limit order would need if you traded the daily shakeout bar instead.
That is where asymmetric risk-to-reward comes from in this setup.
Traits Of Strong INMERELO Winners
The strongest INMERELO trades tend to:
- Move in your favor almost immediately after the reclaim candle
- Avoid undercutting the low of the 5‑minute reclaim bar
- Line up with a daily shakeout under key moving averages and recent lows
Jesse Livermore wrote that his best trades rarely put him under pressure. The same idea applies here. The best INMERELOs do not come back to stop you out by a tick or two. They simply catch a strong intraday mean reversion and keep going.
On the management side, the 5‑minute 21 EMA and 5‑minute 6 EMA can help track shorter intraday swings, especially when price starts to stretch beyond its 20‑day ADR percentage.
INMERELOs do require screen time, yet they offer very attractive profiles: low initial risk and the chance to catch sizable intraday moves from clear shakeout areas.
ORBs: Power Plays From The Open
The third setup, the opening range breakout (ORB), looks for a strong early surge from the open. Here the focus is on the first 5‑minute bar and what happens when price pushes through its high.
This setup works best when combined with group strength and a favourable daily chart.
What’s a Strong 5‑Minute ORB Bar?
A good ORB bar has a few key traits:
- It is a wide-range 5‑minute candle relative to recent action
- It opens near the low of the bar
- It closes near the high of the bar
That shape shows buyers were in control from start to finish in that opening window.
Volume should be at least about average versus the prior 20 sessions, but it does not need to be huge. In fact, when volume is extremely high on the first bar, risk can sometimes be skewed, because the stock may already have moved a large chunk of its daily ADR.
The ORB indicator on TradingView flags this bar as a potential opening range breakout candidate.
Three Key Confirmation Checks For ORBs
A strong first 5‑minute bar is only the start. Before acting on an ORB, there are three main checks that help filter quality:
- Group or theme strength
When the group theme confirms move, individual ORBs tend to work better. - Intraday relative strength versus the major index
The stock and its group should be acting stronger than the broader market.- For tech or growth-focused stocks, compare to QQQ (NASDAQ‑100).For more general or commodity-related names, compare to SPY (S&P 500).
The ideal ORB has the stock, its group ETF, and its theme all showing relative strength against the relevant benchmark. - Daily chart above key moving averages
ORBs tend to work best when the stock is above the 10‑day EMA, 21‑day EMA, 50‑day SMA and 65‑day EMA
When you study big trends, you will often see that leading stocks spend the majority of their runs above these moving averages. That is the area where ORBs can tap into larger moves.
By contrast, taking ORBs when the stock is chopping below key moving averages often leads to whipsaws and messy trade management. In those cases, INMERELOs are usually a better fit.
Managing ORBs Once in a Trade
Once the ORB triggers through the high of the opening 5‑minute bar, there are two main paths:
- Intraday focus: use shorter intraday moving averages, such as the 5‑minute 21 EMA, to trail the move.
- Swing focus: zoom out and manage the trade off the 10‑day and 21‑day EMAs on the daily chart.
When the stock becomes more extended, some traders choose to use the 21‑day EMA instead to give the trend a bit more room.
Either way, the ORB gives a precise entry early in the move, backed by group strength and a supportive daily trend.
A Trading Toolbox
Each of these three setups fills a different role:
- Buy stop limit orders: planned, set‑it‑and‑forget‑it swing entries, ideal for busy traders.
- INMERELOs (intraday mean reversion longs): active intraday entries around shakeouts, often with sub‑1 percent stops.
- Opening range breakouts (ORBs): early momentum entries when a stock and its group show power from the open.
Together, they form a small yet flexible trading toolbox of top trading setups on the long side. Instead of being the trader who only has a hammer, this approach uses something more like a Swiss army knife, plus a few other tools.
Conclusion
Buy stop limit orders, intraday mean reversion longs, and opening range breakouts cover a wide range of long-side opportunities. Each setup has clear rules, its own strengths, and a natural place in a well-built trading toolbox of top trading setups.
Used together, they allow both part-time and active traders to handle daily breakouts, intraday reversals, and powerful opens in a structured way.
