In the financial markets, many participate, some as investors, some as traders. Investing, over years or even decades, is carried out with a long-term view in mind. Trading, meanwhile, moves on a daily basis to pocket profits.

The time span during which a trader holds a stock is a common technique for separating one type of trader from another, a variation that may vary from a few seconds to months or even years.

Day trading, swing trading, scalping, and position trading are among the most common trading strategies. It’s important for long-term success to choose a style that fits your own trading temperament. The distinctions between a scalping strategy and a swing trading strategy are laid out in this article.

A quick snapshot of the key differences between the two trading types is given in the table below.

	Scalp Trading	Swing Trading
Holding Period	A few seconds to minutes, never overnight	A few days to weeks, even months at times; most commonly held for few days
Number of Trades	Can be hundreds during a day	A few
Chart	Tick chart or 1-5 minute charts	Daily or weekly charts
Trader Traits	Vigilance, impatience work well here	Greater patience and precision required to understand trends
Decision-Making Time	Rapid	Fluid
Strategy	Extreme	Moderate
Stress Level	High	Moderate
Profit Target	Small, multiple	Few but large
Tracking	Constant monitoring throughout the trading session	Reasonable monitoring; requires up-to-date info on news and corporate events
Suitability	Not for novice traders	Suitable for all, from beginners to moderate and advanced players

 

Every type of trading comes with its own risk and reward package. There is no single ‘perfect strategy’ to suit all traders, making it best to select a trading strategy based on your abilities, temperament, the amount of time you can spend, the size of your account, trading experience, and tolerance for personal risk.