If you’re not familiar with swing trading, the name probably conjures up many different images from a pitcher going up to bat to playground equipment. It might sound intimidating at first, but swing trading is just a term used to describe the trader’s time frame and the pivot point on the charts that the trader is attempting to optimize.
Typically, a swing trader will trade off of time frames as small as thirty minute for entry and exit points and use daily charts to get a view of the wider trends. Using primarily daily charts, the swing trader picks swing high and low pivot points for entries and exits. These trades are most typically held for three to ten days.
The continuum of time frames for various types of traders is a like this:
- Day traders who almost always end the day with no positions (flat)
- Swing traders who typically hold positions for three to ten days
- Position traders who generally keep positions for four to six weeks.
So as you see, swing traders are quite active but don’t worry about holding positions overnight or through the weekend. They rely nearly completely on technical analysis to make their decisions and trade on breakouts and momentum, grabbing profits as the opportunities are presented to them. The swing trader’s vocabulary doesn’t include the phrase “Buy and hold” and fundamental analysis has only a minor part in their overall trading methodology.
A rule based system is critical when using a swing trading strategy. You success in swing trading will be dependent on being able to remove subjectivity from your trading process and learning to be militarily exacting regarding your entries and exits.
Strong portfolio and money management separates those who will succeed from those who will fail when swing trading. You have to avoid the temptation to overweight certain positions – this is an unprofessional approach to swing trading and can be detrimental to your portfolio. You will also need to outline specific rules as part of your swing trading methodology. This is crucial to your future success.
If you are interested in learning a short-term swing trading system that will give the tools to become successful, join us today MarketTamer.com.
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