Day Trading or Position Trading?

I’m a position trader myself.

Both run incredible for me. taking more risk with day trading according to strategy and less risk on position trading.

Hey mate,

I trade all of the above. In trending markets I like position and swing trading because your returns are larger and frankly its less work. In volatile and range bound markets I day trade.

Position trading - doesn’t require a lot of capital and its the easiest way to learn to trade whilst making money. Likewise for swing trading. Swing and Position traders look at larger time frames (4 hr, Day, weekly) to see the overall trend in the market and use both fundamentals and technical analysis to support trade setups. It doesn’t require as much time commitment, is less stressful, and has less risk.

Day trading - requires more technical analysis whilst being aware of the fundamental events that are driving the technicals on the day. Day Traders generally make more trades than position and swing traders and thus take on more risk. There’s less room for error as a day trader.

As I said, I am not adverse to all methods of trading however I generally prefer Day and Swing trading over Position trading. Mostly because of my nature, I like analysing the market and I’ve found I make the most money that way.

N.B. A good trader isn’t the one who makes the most trades its the guy who holds on to his/her money. Oh and scalping is probably the hardest way to trade (not recommended for beginners) and will ultimately lead to over gearing and getting stopped out.

:wink:

That is what I’ve been saying all along, adjust your position size. Post #16.

Each one of us have a different threshold for patience. You can see my trades on a live account [U][B]here[/B][/U] and my Zulutrade SP account [B][U]FxTurtle[/U][/B]. You will noticed that my trades are infrequent.

i am happy yours and mine level of patience is more or less on the same level :wink:

Newbie question, but do you ever feel inclined to get out of a position before the market closes on Friday as a swing trader opposed to holding a position for say 2 weeks or a month (disregard interest) ? My greatest concern is that an event occurs and jacks the market up on a Saturday when I have no control over my trading platform. As always, my entry orders are set and don’t know if they would fill at the pricing I set if such an event occurred on a non trading day.

If you have a lot of capital then I advise you to start trading in position trade. Because it is a long term and need huge capital. You may earn a lot of money if you can trade in position. It also gives you a less pain. But if you have a poor capital then I will propose to u to invest in day trading. Its may give you pain but you may start to trade here easily with your small invest or capital.

Actually both are good but positional trading is good in that it brings lesser mental agony because you dont have to stare at the terminal whole day.

It been never long the profit get back with you got left your trading activities… Make sure you’re spontaneous with your trading business… :))))

spontaneity is not a characteristics of forex trading, are you kidding me?
careful calculations is what you need and protection for your accounts, good traders and market conditions :wink:

… if you also want to make sure that you end up being part of the industry’s losing statistics. :33:

“Spontaneous” suggests a lack of preparation, analysis, discipline and commonsense (probably more things as well) which ALL are essential to consistency in trading - so one could sum this up as “not a very good idea”.

However…if you mean without hesitation then perhaps you are somewhat correct. If one has confidence in one’s methods based on testing and usage then hesitation can lead to late entries which can lead to diminished profit or increased stop-loss. When you are ready, you pull the trigger, if you hesitate it can mean lack of trust in your system (go back to testing) or an unclear signal (leave it alone and wait for the next).

Day trading requires more screen time, as I don’t have this facility, which I find an advantage to me, I trade mostly on daily time frame in swing trading style.

Both? :slight_smile: I consider myself a day trader, but I do combined it occasionally with position trading or perform them simultaneously. They complement each other in certain ways, as the preparation for opening positions is different, but can point to a potential mistake or a weak spot in the analysis.

One thing many retail traders who attempt to daytrade FX don’t do is research a proper broker and trading platform that will accomodate a faster style of trading. You need a broker that can manage short term trades, preferably with low variable spreads/commission fee structure and who won’t start dealing against you if your doing well. An STP broker with a proper platform and datafeed that allows you to trade easily off a chart is a must for a scalper. I personally use cTrader and think it is hands down better than MT4 for anyone interested in scalping methods in particular. For one it supports tick charts, and shows market depth liquidity, which are both useful features for a professional scalper. It has been a forward step for me at least to kick my addiction to MT4. With a little effort to learn a new platform - the benefits are easily worth it IMO.

The long and short of it is that if you plan to daytrade - you better approach it like a professional. A daily loss limit is also a must that you have to obey religiously - for the newbie especially it is very easy to spiral out of control taking wreckless trades that will do great damage to, or entirely obliterate your account. Don’t even think of scalping if you are not prepared to approach it with rock solid risk management and the proper tools.