Newbie to swing trading

[outofstep]

After successfully playing poker and bonus whoring for some time now I'm becoming increasingly interested in other forms of investment. One option that sticks to mind is swing trading. I like to take an active role in my investments. For me, holding stocks for ten years is dreadfully boring.

So have any of you guys swing traded before? What would you recommend to get me started? What kind of bankroll do I need to get started? How profitable is swing trading?

[ctv1116]

much less profitable than poker, but of course, less time is spent.

[outofstep]

Could you elaborate why? Right now my bankroll stands at about $6K. At the moment poker is more profitable but I could do some swing trading on the side.

Basically, I'm looking for an agressive approach to investing.What are some other options?

[joop]

Poker will be more profitable for you until you have more capital. If you can make 50% on your money each year swing trading you would be doing well, 100% and you would be doing very well, although you could make much more. Once you have a large amount of capital, trading is far more profitable than playing poker. If you want to do something that's even more profitable than swing trading, look into shorter term intraday trading, this is how you will make the big bucks. PM 1800GAMBLER and ask him to send you the message I sent him, it will set you on the right path.

[FMMonty]

To be a swing trader you need a very large bankroll otherwise the costs will east you alive. I'd say £100k at avery bare minimum.

I'm a prop trader and hence use the banks money instead of my own.

If you want to try it out, you could do one of two roots

1: Apply to an Investment Bank (Hard to get)

2: Apply to an Arcade

They will give you a bank roll, and then you split the profits after you have covered costs. usaully 70% you, 30% them

Good thing about this is you are using someone elses money and you can still play poker at work (I do)

Monty

[FredJones888]

I'll give you a little general advice since you said you are a newbie.

1. Don't EVER make a trade because you are bored, or worse, pick a trading strategy because it is more exciting. Quite often the boring approach is what works.

2. "Swing Trading" is a very loose term that means different things to different people. To me it means trading with a specific time frame in mind that is usually 3 days to 3 weeks.

3. The real money in trading is made when a winning trade lasts much longer than you could have anticipated because you just let it keep going in the right direction. Swing trading implies that you would chop off your winning trades after a certain predetermined ( and probably wrong ) amount of time which will hurt your long term results, although it will give you a nice looking win % ( which is meaningless except to your ego ).

4. Many are attracted to "swing trading" ( which is a vague concept ) because they hear about high percentages of winning trades. However, trading is about positive expectation , not high winning percentages, just like poker. ( What percentage of poker hands that you participate in do you win?)Many very successfull traders have overall win percentages below 50%, but when they win, they win BIG.

5. The concept of bankroll in poker is the same as how large your trading account is. No matter how good you are at trading, if you trade higher than your bankroll you will eventually wipe out ( called "blowing up" in trader jargon).

Hope this helps.

[Your Mom]

You're going to have a hell of a time beating the juice (commission) with only 6k.

[wickedgoodtrader]

Your 6k will get you 12k in buying power on margin. This is how you start making cash. I am a day/swing trader and I think it's the only way to go. I don't understand how guys will settle for a 10% return on their money a year. I will do 10% in 10 minutes. Anyway... I've played poker successfully for over 4 years now and find daytrading much more exciting. I don't work in the winter, poker was my job.. I would sleep in until 4-5pm everyday and hated it. The market gives you somethign exciting to wake up for. You could drink till 5am and get up at 9am for the market and not hit the snooze once. Just run with the hype... ride it up as far as it goes.. when it turns around sell. If you jump in and unexpectedly it starts to fall.. sell right away. It's almost too ez.

[tek]

I agree. You need to pick the time frame you are most comfortable with. Also, pick the type of stocks you are most comfortable with.

The faster a stock moves, the faster you will win or lose. When the MM's stop supporting a stock, look out. Depending on the type of stock and the av daily vol you will have either days, hours or minutes to cash out.

You need a good brokerage, a good computer and ISP, a good game plan (either fundamental or technical), etc.

Don't trade because it looks cool (same for poker). You have to really like it. And you need to know what you are doing. Most people in either activity do not take the time or effort to adequately learn and prepare.