Difference Between Day trading vs swing trading
Trading is one of the complex tasks, and it needs continuous efforts to understand and design a trading system. Trading based on security holding can be divided into two broad categories, day trading, and swing trading. The ultimate goal of trading is generating profit. Now let’s see what is the difference between Day Trading vs Swing Trading.
What is Day Trading?
Day trading is buying and selling any security in a single trading day. For example, buying stock in the morning and selling the same stock in the afternoon. Day trading can be done in any marketplace, but it is a common phenomenon in the stock market and Foreign Exchange (Forex) market. It is also called intraday trading.
Generally, day trading is a highly skilled job, and it is well funded as well. Day traders can leverage amounts for short-term trading to capitalize on any small change in price. Day trading is done in highly liquid stocks and currencies. Day trading involves making multiple trades on a daily basis. Even though every trader has his own strategy, generally pivot level, moving average, trend lines are used for taking buy or short calls.
Characteristics of Day Traders
- Knowledge and Experience in the Marketplace
- Sufficient Capital
- A Strategy
- Discipline
Day trading Pros
- Potential to make substantial profits.
- Being your own boss.
- Never a dull moment.
- Expensive education is not required.
- Self-employment benefits
Day trading Cons
- Risk of substantial losses
- Significant start-up and ongoing costs
- No consistent pay
- High stress and risk of burnout
What is Swing Trading?
The goal of swing trading is to identify the trend and capture the trend for gain. Unlike day trading, swing trading is done overnight or holds for several weeks. Swing trading uses technical analysis of the stocks for short-term price movement prediction. Some traders also use intrinsic value or fundamentals of the stocks in addition to technical analysis.
Swing trading carries extra risk of holding security overnight or more than a day.
Swing traders generally look at multi-day charts. Some of the charts generally used by swing traders are moving average crossovers, head & shoulder patterns, cup & handle patterns, flags, and triangles.
Candlestick chart is one of the commonly used chart patterns by swing traders. It is most widely used in the industry.
Swing trading can be done with the help of derivatives and futures also. But generally, it is referred to as future and option trading. Future and options trading is risky, and it needs high skill sets than swing trading in a stock market or foreign exchange market (forex), or commodity market.
Swing trading is also called momentum trading.
Pros of Swing Trading
- It does not have to be a full-time job
- The potential for significant profits
- Constant monitoring is not required
- Less stress and risk of burnout
- Expensive investment not required
Cons of Swing Trading
- Higher margin requirements
- Risk of substantial losses
Even though swing traders flow with the ongoing trend in security, some of the traders enter into contrarian trading or counter trading to gain by going against the trend.
Head To Head Comparison Between Day Trading vs Swing Trading (Infographics)
Below is the top 6 difference between Day Trading vs Swing Trading
Key Differences Between Day Trading vs Swing Trading
Let us discuss some of the major Difference Between Day Trading vs Swing Trading
The major difference is the holding period of time. Day trader closes out all positions before the market hours, whereas swing trading has at least an overnight holding. Day trading positions are held for a single day only. Swing trading positions are held for several days to several weeks.
Swing trading involves unpredictable overnight holding risk of gap up opening or gap down the opening of stock. By understanding the underlying risk, swing trades are usually done on a small position size than day trading. Swing trading is less leveraged compared to day trading; day trading generally involves huge leverage, around 8 to 10 times the investment capital.
Day Trading vs Swing Trading Comparison Table
Below is the 6 topmost comparison between Day Trading vs Swing Trading
| The Basis OF Comparison | Day Trading | Swing Trading |
| Security holding time | Less than one day | Overnight to several weeks. |
| Leverage | Highly Leveraged | Leveraged but less compared to day trading. |
| Risk | Daily volatility | Overnight holding risk. |
| Mode | Buying or shorting a security | Buying or shoring security |
| Tools used | Charts | Charts & Patterns |
| Role | Can be a full time | It can be done part-time also. |
Conclusion
Both have their own pros and cons. Neither strategy is superior to others. A trader should choose his own approach that suits their personality, skills, and preferences. Day trading is best suited for individuals who are passionate about trading and comfortable being full-time in trading. Discipline, diligence, and decisiveness are key characteristics one should possess in order to be a good trader. Learning from own mistakes and creating own trading strategy generally pays good results; one should always look to develop his own style of trading.
Day trading is stressful and intense; it requires an understanding of technical trading charts and emotional intelligence. It is a risky business one should be ready to incur 100 % losses and still ready to go ahead from his past mistakes.
Swing trading can be done part-time also by understanding the basics of charts and fundamentals. It is a viable option for traders who want to keep their full-time job and continue with trading. Even though it is also risky but if it is done in cash, one cannot lose 100 % of his capital, unlike day trading. The chart pattern is one of the most common tools used by swing traders. Swing trading offers the major advantage of doing it part-time, and if done strictly with cash, then also descent returns can be earned without taking the risk of losing 100 % capital. Swing trading time can be as large as six months; it solely depends on the investor and his comfort zone.
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