Forex trading styles can be classified by the length of time traders expect a winning trade to last. I have written before about position trading (where trades may be held for weeks or months), and scalping (where trades may be held for seconds or minutes). Today, I am covering Forex swing trading, where trades may be held from one to a few days.
Swing Trading for Dummies
Swing trading is very popular with retail Forex traders for two main reasons. Firstly, Forex swing trading strategies usually contain entry and exit techniques that require checking the chart perhaps only once or twice each day, or at most every few hours. This relatively relaxed schedule is very suitable for people with busy lives and full-time jobs.
It could be said that position trading also has a relaxed schedule, so is equally suitable for busy traders. This is true, but as Forex position trading is really always trend trading, profitable position trading usually requires a low win rate, and a great deal of patience in waiting until the correct time to harvest winners. Many retail traders struggle psychologically in coping with these two issues, so as an alternative, they try swing trading, where profitable trades are exited more quickly.
I believe that the best chance new traders have to trade Forex profitably is by position trading, and conversely that one of the reasons so many lose money is because they choose instead to swing trade, without appreciating fully how challenging it can be. I will try to explain why, and in the process show which swing trading strategies and swing trading techniques tend to work best in swing trading Forex.
Forex Candlestick Trading
Most new traders that go for swing trading are taught to look for certain Forex candlestick formations, in alignment with support and resistance. In this style, traders are taught to be extremely selective in picking trades, and exhorted to stay on the sidelines unless everything looks perfect.
