[Dogpile]

Here is how I traded ILMN. Essentially, I waited to buy until some intraday momentum off of the opening price developed -- sacrificing a bit in intraday location in order to try to catch a 'direct' move.

Waiting for momentum off of the opening price means you are 'joining in' on strong buying. I believe that this is the way electronic markets behave. You aren't always going to get a super-pretty intraday bull flag that is going to let you in.

The intraday momentum will more often than not lead to a green bar. The green bar starts a potential upswing. You can take partial profits into the initial burst and get a free-ride on the balance.

As an independent trader, you have a large advantage here -- you don't have to buy 500,000 shares and incur 3 points of slippage building a position. You can buy 500 or 1000 on a buy-stop with maybe 3 cents of slippage. Others will recognize the pretty chart pattern and the developing momentum and join-in. Even more important, you can exit without slippage whereas an institution can get buried trying to unload the stock. I know this because I used to work for one of those institutions getting buried on abandoned high-beta names.