Day Trading & Forex Forum

GCC

Recently there is a post on position trading by Ingot54. He describes that he had success with position/swing trading but was not very well with intraday or scalping. Although he acknowledged that there are successful scalpers, he went on to quote from some people that short-term trading is not as profitable as long-term trading.

I have ploughed through the forum and I found there are people trading intraday successfully, like Mr Chart (see his method). However, I am more interested in the profitability of the two kinds of trading. I would like to ask experienced traders of both styles:

1. Do you think, in the long run, swing/position trading makes more money than intraday trading (including scalping)?
2. Do you think the pipwise difference in target profits in the two kinds of trading can be compensated with higher leverage, without risk more volatility?
3. Suppose you trade both styles, and you are trading fulltime, which style makes you more profit? Or if you were to quit your job and trade professtionally, which style would you prefer?
4. Finally, a question for the full-time scalpers: what makes you choose scalping over position/swing?

It is quite a long list of questions, and it certainly rivals a boring job interview, I confess. However, I am sincerely interested in this topic, since I myself is trying to choose between the two as well. I appreciate your time in advance.

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everyonerich

swing position takes LOoooooooooooNG TIME to get into.. thats why while traders are waiting, there are traders temporary scalping.

Bolimomo

Another one of those sprint versus marathon running discussion. So boring.

Different people are built differently! Some are good at 100 meter sprint. Some are good at 26 mile marathon. Some can do both. Some can't do either!

Try them both. Try them all! See what fits you. If you can do both, that's great!

GCC

Well, if you read my starting post carefully, you shall discover that I never wanted to start a debate which one is good or bad, I'm merely trying to ask about the difference of the two styles, given their different average true range, duration, volatility and leverage involved.

Perhaps it was my fault that I did not write it carefully in my first post, so it led to some misunderstanding. Please allow me to clarify.

I think I should have renamed the title as, "Can scalping make you rich AS MUCH AS POSITION TRADING". As I stated, there are people making money in the intraday way of trading, like Mr Chart in this forum (see first post). What I want to know is, given the inherent advantage for larger target profit in swing/position trading, can intraday traders compensate for this with larger leverage? If so, do they risk more due to high involatility in short time frames?

So put it in another way, the question of whether scalping give an annual return on the par of (or even better than) swing or position trading is what really interested me. I shall reiterate than I know some people can only do one of them, so for them this question is meaningless. But suppose you can do both and your personality does not have any bias towards either, which would you prefer in terms of profitability, if you are only allowed to choose one?

__________________
Google for "Ganglion's Trading Blog" and you will find my blog!

everyonerich

hard to answer. there r ppl scalp can earn more than swing trader. as well as while there r also swing trader can earn more than scalp trader.

maybe.. there r also scalp trader earn less in year 08 than swing trader. while on year 09 scalper earn more than swing trader in year 09

there r also swing trader earn less in year 08 than scalp trader. while on year 09 swing trader earn more than scalp trader in year 09 & so forth.. lulz

Aspire

Both scalping and position/ swing trading can make you far more money than you will ever be able to spend. The money is not and should not be a consideration when finding your style.

dcraig1

Why not ?

It's all about money and risk isn't it ?

Aspire

Well, for starters, like I said, you can make far more money either way than you will ever be able to spend so for someone starting out to be worrying that they won't he able to make enough with one style is a bit silly.

Are you fast thinking, aggressive, competitive, calm and enjoy computer games? Then maybe you should be scalping.

Are you more patient, planned, stick to your convictions, like to have time to think things through etc? Then maybe you are better suited to position trading.

Some people who would make good swing traders could never scalp. some people who could scalp really well could never swing or position trade.

You don't have to decide which approach is best. They're both more than good enough when done well. You have to decide which is best for you.