A couple of things...

First, dismiss what you have heard about "Amateur Hour." Are you an amateur? Will you be embarrassed if you trade during the first hour of the day? I do it all the time! Most of the money is made in the first hour, and on some trades this could be an opportunity risk if you miss it.

Next, if you place trades based on a particular entry rule or signal, trade whenever you get your signal! What difference does the time make? If I get my signal in the morning, afternoon, dawn, dusk, middle of the night, whatever. Trade your signal!

Finally, if you don't use an actual signal, then the time of day should only relevant to your level of risk tolerance. If you want to run out and anticipate something beforehand, great! As long as you are comfortable with the risk associated with it.

Here are my rules, and you can do what you want with them (except blindly use them). Most of you know I use two different technical approaches to time my entry points.

Support/Resistance entries

Breakouts

For my support/resistance entries, the time of the day is irrelevant. Time does not confirm anything on these trades. I don't wait for price confirmation nor volume confirmation. As soon as the stock is at the level in which I am comfortable taking a trade, I take it.

Breakouts are the only exception. Think about what a breakout is. It is when price exceeds a certain support/resistance level along with heavy volume. Time is very important in this scenario, because you cannot determine if price will remain beyond these levels until the days end. Nor will you be able to determine if enough volume will be present. This is why I wait until the end of the day to trade breakouts. I want to make sure that the price will remain beyond these levels and enough volume has been accumulated.

Then there is the topic of exits.

All my exits are pretty much based on support/resistance. Because of this, I also wait until the end of the day to see if the price remains beyond my line in the sand. If the price is beyond my line in the sand early in the day, I wait until the close to see if it holds or not.

Recommendation: Let's change the subject

Long: Stocks that go up

Short: Stocks that go down