Can I do swing trading for living?
Can you make a living swing trading, or is this just another case of “too good to be true”? This trading style is positioned between day trading and long-term investment and demands a strategic approach and a solid understanding of market trends. But, yes – you can absolutely get started swing trading for a living.
One of the main benefits of swing trading is that while it doesn't take much time, you can earn large profits for the time invested. This trading style can be anything you want it to be. If you are willing to dedicate yourself entirely to it, you can easily earn a living through swing trading alone.
When done correctly using sound trading rules, swing trading can absolutely produce big gains. Even though you're aiming for 5-10% profit in a swing trade, those gains add up quickly when you reinvest the profits in new stocks and grow the overall size of your portfolio.
We've seen estimations that as many as 90% of swing traders fail to make money in the stock market – meaning they either break even or lose money. That suggests that the average swing trading success rate is somewhere around 10% – meaning 10% of swing traders actually bring in profit over the course of a year.
| Annual Salary | Monthly Pay | |
|---|---|---|
| Top Earners | $31,500 | $2,625 |
| 75th Percentile | $28,000 | $2,333 |
| Average | $25,349 | $2,112 |
| 25th Percentile | $21,500 | $1,791 |
Bottom Line. The Swing Trading strategy can lead to profits in the short term, usually in the range of 10% to 30%. However, as most things investing usually are, it is a risky bet. About 90% of traders report losses during trading.
Some swing traders may make a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars per day or week during successful periods. However, losses are also a part of trading, and it's essential to manage risks and not trade with money you can't afford to lose.
Paul Tudor Jones - Another famous swing trader is Paul Tudor Jones. Jones is a billionaire hedge fund manager who is known for his aggressive trading style. He is one of the most successful traders of all time, and he has a net worth of over $5 billion.
The average return of swing trading is said to be 10%. Of course, it is never possible for you to get these exact ures all the time. Although the overall performance depends on how you do your trades and how many trades you take part in. It can immensely help you achieve your monthly return easily.
Many swing traders expect just 5%. If you are making 5 to 10% within a week on a scrip, that is far better than bank deposits and mutual funds, and even better than long or medium term investment in stocks.
Which type of trading is most profitable?
The defining feature of day trading is that traders do not hold positions overnight; instead, they seek to profit from short-term price movements occurring during the trading session.It can be considered one of the most profitable trading methods available to investors.
Many people put in multiple years before breaking into consistent (or even any) profitability. It takes at least a year to consistently make money from day trading or swing trading, if working at it full-time or with a mentor, and only working one (maybe two) strategies. Six months is the quickest; most take longer.
Swing trade means that you are taking delivery of a position for a few days to few weeks. It is a perfect form of trading for working professionals. In my experience, it takes a good 6 months to learn Swing trading. Let's break these 6 months down to see where exactly we need to spend that time.
Swing trading doesn't take much time, once you understand price action. If you take trades for 3-10 days then 5-10% should be your target per trade, if you are looking for a longer timeframe like 3-6 months then you should target for atleast 30% per trade.
Because of the longer time frame (from days to weeks as opposed to minutes to hours), swing traders do not need to be glued to their computer screen all day. They can even maintain a separate full-time job (as long as they are not checking trading screens all the time at work).
50 period: The 50 moving average is the standard swing-trading moving average and very popular. Most traders use it to ride trends because it's the ideal compromise between too short and too long term.
The biggest con of this trading tool is the overnight risk. Swing traders hold positions for several days, which increases the risk of market gaps due to unexpected news or events. Another drawback is that many new traders may mistake false signals for trends.
Typically, swing trading involves holding a position either long or short for more than one trading session, but usually not longer than several weeks or a couple of months. This is a general time frame, as some trades may last longer than a couple of months, yet the trader may still consider them swing trades.
So if you want to swing trade stocks, you will need at least $2,000 in your account, and a $10,000 account would be a much safer starting point. Since stock prices can vary a lot, it's better to be prepared with a bigger account.
Swing trading has lesser opening positions, but they drive greater profits as well as losses for traders. Unlike day traders, swing traders do not opt to gain massive profit from a single trade. It's because they open lesser positions, the transaction fees are also less compared to day traders.
How much money do day traders with $10000 accounts make per day on average?
With a $10,000 account, a good day might bring in a five percent gain, which is $500. However, day traders also need to consider fixed costs such as commissions charged by brokers. These commissions can eat into profits, and day traders need to earn enough to overcome these fees [2].
Swing traders stay active for a few hours daily and don't stay glued to the computers the whole day. Day trading requires full dedication and time. It takes less expertise to swing trade than day trading.
Swing trading can be difficult for the average retail trader. Professional traders have more experience, leverage, information, and lower commissions; however, they are limited by the instruments they are allowed to trade, the risk they are capable of taking on, and their large amount of capital.
1. George Soros. George Soros, often referred to as the «Man Who Broke the Bank of England», is an iconic figure in the world of forex trading.
For SwingTrader performance, we use a model portfolio. To keep things simple, eight full positions of equal weight put us at 100% invested. It's a number suggested by IBD Founder William J. O'Neil in his book "How To Make Money In Stocks." That means a full position starts out at 12.5%.
