Intraday trend following means identifying the session's dominant direction and trading with it — buying strength in an uptrend, selling weakness in a downtrend — and holding while the trend's structure stays intact.

Reading the trend

A healthy intraday uptrend makes higher highs and higher lows, holds above a rising VWAP, and keeps its moving-average stack aligned (fast above slow). As long as that structure holds, the trend is your friend. The trade is to join on pullbacks (the pullback entry), not to fight the move.

Where it thrives and where it dies

Trend following prints on trend days — sessions with a clear directional drift — and bleeds on range days, where every "breakout" reverses and the chop stops you out repeatedly (range trading). The single most valuable skill is recognizing which kind of day you're in early (momentum vs mean reversion).

Trend following is easy to describe and brutal to hold. The edge isn't the entry — it's the patience to stay in while it works.

Structure defines the exit

You stay in while the trend structure holds and exit when it breaks — a lower low in an uptrend, a loss of VWAP, a break of the moving-average stack. Dealer gamma amplifies trends in negative-gamma regimes, so continuation runs further there (positive vs negative gamma). NoVo's continuation gate is a mechanical version of this exact read. See the ORB strategy.