Time period for short term trade

Beginner Questions
1

Please House, wat time period can be considered short-term trade or long-term trade?

Thank you and God bless.

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2

actually short time trading is much risky particularly scalping , but if you have good knowledge then there is a chance to bring profit by using this.

3

Short term less than a day , long term longer than a day is the watered down version

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4

time period depends on your trading conditions , actually its all about good knowledge and experience.

5

How is scalping any more risky than any other trading tactic?
Can’t there be “non-scalpers” who don’t use a stop loss, or, over-leverage, or, lack discipline to take profits?

6

Short term is for smaller than a day.

7

Short term trading is more than one day and less than about 10 I would say - yes that’s probably called swing trading too.

Anything less than a day is NOT short term trading - it’s day trading or intraday trading - but who really cares about semantics.

8

@FOREXunlimited

There is such a thing as psychological risk, which increases the shorter the time frame used (for most people).

9

Thanks for the “for most people” caveat. I think we’d both agree trying to make broad generalizations will get the conversation nowhere. It’s all about context- context which definitely includes “psychological risk”, regardless of time frame :slight_smile:

10

@FOREXunlimited

You are correct about context - but here is my big issues with experienced intra day traders on this forum.

Experienced traders know how hard intraday can be - and yet because they are now profitable they (maybe unconsciously) encourage the beginner to take the lower timeframes’.

For most though its like lambs to the slaughter.

Experienced traders need to temper their knowledge bias and put themselves in the shoes of a beginner - the vast majority are not or never will be cut out for the lower timeframes so the experienced day traders are not helping - which is what this forum is supposed to be about.

This is far from a personal attack - I have been guilty of this myself on many occasions.

But I do see it almost as a mission now to say - the use of any intra day charts kicks off a whole lot of psychological risk that newbies are not yet aware of

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11

Appreciate the response and conversation :slight_smile:
I think it’s not as complicated as that and a false sense of security gained from “only trading higher timeframes” is dangerous.

Regardless of what chart you’re looking at, the same exact necessary principles apply.
I can trade a weekly chart only, and (1) over leverage myself (2) not set stop losses (3) add to losing positions (4) not take profits and trim position (5) over-trade across multiple instruments because I’m bored. I can keep going, but you get my point.

All of the same exact pitfalls that someone scalping would be negatively subjected to apply at literally any time frame.

Why would the ‘vast majority’ never be cut out for lower timeframes. What is different about reading price action on a 5m chart vs. a daily?

I’d make the argument that the necessary lessons learned (e.g. how to deal with the 5 points listed above) are learned at a more rapid pace when trading intraday.

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12

If you are a scalper and making money I have nothing but the upmost respect.

But from what I can see saying that scalping is no harder than longer term trading is the same as saying learning to drive at Grand prix is no harder than learning to drive with L plates on a private road.

Agreed the technicals are no harder but the emotions are soooo much harder.

Maybe im wrong - I never did make a success of intra day trading - but I feel more would agree than disagree

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13

yes like some quoted above i thought short term was like part of a day session ect

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14

Short term trade is the one that concentrates on price action and can last for a few minutes and can even go long as few days. Anyone who wants to try a hand should know that although short-term trading can be lucrative, along with that it is also quite risky to be considered. If you want to get going with it, make sure you understand the risks and rewards related to each trade.

15

As for me, short-term trading is the most profitable for the trader, but also more risky than for the long term.

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16

Why is that? What is it about “short term trading” that makes it “more risk than for the long term”?
When you’re trading “the long term” (assuming this means H4, D1, W1, M1 charts??), are you not able to over-trade, over-leverage, not employ stop loss discipline, not take profits early? What about the “long term” makes it safer (in your words) to the trader vs. short term?

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