A swing trader may have started as a day trader. As the market kept moving in the desired direction, either they scaled out of a portion of the position, set a stop loss objective and kept the trade running.
So, many day traders eventually end up being swing traders when they see the trend continuing and dont wont to let go the opportunity of riding the trend. A swing trader is also considered to be a mini position holder. Swing traders need to focus on higher degree time frames and spend less time on 5-15 minutes time frames regardless of how swing trading started.
5-15 minutes charts will generate too many short term signals if you are a swing trader holding a position for a few days. The most reasonable time frames for a swing trader are the 60 minutes (hourly), 240 minutes (4 hourly) and the daily charts.
As far as the pivot point trading is concerned, swing traders should give more attention to the daily, weekly and the monthly pivots. This information will help them to identify potential entry or exit targets but also help to be aware of the confluence of any support or resistance.
Keep this in mind that as a day trader, you are not so much concerned with long term macroeconomic conditions as you are with riding a momentum wave. The same is also true for a swing trader. As a swing trader you are simply looking to ride from a move and profit from it. This is your job.
You need to capture opportunities as they arise. In short term trading market conditions change! Forex markets are ideal for momentum trades. The forex market tends to trend well over the course of 3-10 days. This allows swing traders opportunity to capture larger price swings over a given period of time.
The biggest advantage that forex markets have over stock markets is that you have access to the forex market over the 24 hours period unlike the equity markets. Therefore, you can monitor your positions, place stops and take action to exit a trade at any time, day or night.
The fact that the forex market is a 24 hour market and because of the time frame involving several days in swing trading, swing trading is slightly more advantageous in forex markets. Due this continuous market action there are very few time that gaps occur in the currency pair prices, this makes forex markets more suitable for swing trading as compared to the equity markets.
So if a day trade moves sharply in your favor, carry it through the overnight session. However try not to hold a position over the weekend. If the trade starts making money in your favor from the let go, your entry was correct. Do not carry your losing position to the next session.
Never get fancy and try to get a better fill by placing limit orders when you enter a bona fide trading signal. Go to the market before your competitors. Wait until the close of the period to confirm the signal. Never anticipate that a signal will happen.
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