Primary Trading Styles You Will See
Day Trading: The buying and selling of stocks, options and futures within the same trading day, such that all positions will usually (not always) be closed out before the market close of the trading day.
Day trading is perfect for those looking for quick profits on a daily basis with no overnight risk.
Average Hold Time: 5 minutes up to a full trading day
Trading Frequency:
- 2-5 trades per day.
- Very patient and disciplined; only trade opportunities that present themselves.
- Never will have more than 2 simultaneous day trade positions.
Type of Stocks traded: Stocks monitored closely and special situations
Type of Futures Traded: S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, Euro FX, Japanese FX, Gold, Silver and Coffee
Trading Objective: To maximize gains and limit risk by using stops effectively
Pattern Day Trader Requirements: This means that the trader must have $25K in their brokerage account.
Swing Trading: The buying and selling of stocks, options and futures in which you hold the position for several days to several weeks; and trade it on the basis of its intra-week or intra-month oscillations between optimism and pessimism.
Swing Trading is perfect for traders looking for profits on stocks, stock options or futures in a 2-15 day period.
Average Hold Time: 2-15 days
Trading Frequency: Depends on the overall market & stock patterns
Types of stocks Swing Traded: Stocks monitored closely and special situations
Type of Futures Traded: S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, Euro FX, Japanese FX, Gold, Silver and Coffee
Trading Objective: To maximize gains and limit risk by using stops effectively
Investment Vehicles You Will See Traded
In Day Trading and Swing Trading you will see trades in stocks, options, ETF's and futures.
Stock Trading:
A type of security that signifies ownership in a corporation and represents a claim of part of the corporation's assets and earnings.
Option Trading:
A financial derivative that represents a contract sold by one party (option writer) to another party (option holder). The contract offers the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to buy (call) or sell (put) a security or other financial asset at an agreed-upon price (the strike price) during a certain period of time or on a specific date (exercise date).
ETF's:
An exchange-traded fund (or ETF) is an investment vehicle traded on stock exchanges, much like stocks or bonds. An ETF holds assets such as stocks or bonds and trades at approximately the same price as the net asset value of its underlying assets over the course of the trading day. Most ETFs track an index.
Futures Trading:
A futures contract is financial derivative that "derives" its value from the price movement of another instrument. In other words, the price of the derivative is not a function of any inherent value, but rather of changes in the value of whatever instrument the derivative is tracking. For example, the value of a derivative linked to the S&P 500 is a function of price movements in the S&P 500 cash. This is a strategy of trading various futures contracts by both going long or short which gives one the ability to gain more leverage and use less buying power. Most of the futures Brian trades can be day traded as well by using ETF's.