Intraday

Occurring or trading within the course of a single business day.

Intraday refers to price movements, transactions, and trends that occur within the bounds of a single regular trading day. This encompasses everything that happens between the opening bell and the closing bell of a major exchange. For retail investors, tracking intraday data provides a granular view of market sentiment, liquidity, and price volatility that is often obscured when looking only at daily closing prices. Intraday activity is observed using real-time data feeds and charted using short-term intervals, such as 1-minute, 5-minute, or 15-minute bars. These charts reveal the intraday high (the peak price reached during the session) and the intraday low (the lowest price touched). The difference between these two points defines the asset's intraday trading range, which serves as a key measure of daily volatility. Short-term traders, such as day traders, rely heavily on intraday patterns to execute rapid buy and sell orders, aiming to capture small price swings before the market closes. Long-term investors also care about intraday movements, using them to identify optimal entry or exit points. For example, an investor looking to build a position might wait for an intraday dip to place a limit order rather than buying at the market open. A common pitfall for retail investors is overreacting to intraday noise. Price swings during the trading day can be highly erratic, driven by temporary order imbalances or algorithmic trading, and may not reflect the long-term fundamentals of the underlying business. Additionally, transaction costs and taxes can quickly erode profits for those who trade too frequently within the day.

A stock opens the trading day at $100.00. During the morning, positive news drives the price up to an intraday high of $105.00. In the afternoon, profit-taking pushes the price down to an intraday low of $98.00. The stock eventually closes the session at $102.00. The intraday trading range is calculated as: $105.00 (High) - $98.00 (Low) = $7.00.