Stocks & Commodities V. 31:10 (32-36): Intraday Or Swing Trader? by Josh DiPietro

Intraday Or Swing Trader? by Josh DiPietro

The Perfect Fusion!

You can be both. Find out how this trader combines these two time frames to create a logical trading plan.

Can you define yourself as either an intraday trader or a swing trader? In my trading, I synergize both in a logical way, the reason being that intraday and swing trading are not mutually exclusive.

Beginner and advanced traders enter my training program with experience in both intraday and swing. However, very few traders come to me knowing these facts:

1. You must learn intraday trading prior to swing trading

2. Intraday and swing trading are interlinked.

When I first started trading in 1998, I wish someone had taught me those facts. With regard to fact 1, I hadn’t been properly coached. I would mistakenly trade an intraday support/resistance (S/R) level and then, if my trade was in the red at market close, I would always hold overnight. That’s a classic mistake!

With regard to fact 2, I would find strong swing trading levels, but I would fail to account for newly formed intraday trading levels. In other words, I wasn’t adjusting my limit orders, so my swing trades were mostly off. I was a mess!

I didn’t give up

It wasn’t until 2007 that I learned a consistent system. I call it the Wall Street way. I moved to Manhattan from San Diego and started trading on a private equity floor. I’ll return to the Wall Street way in a bit. First, I want to map out the framework of my methodology for both intraday and swing trading.

Most important, I only trade equities (stocks). This is because of all the securities, they are the most transparent, and they don’t have expiration dates or intrinsic value. Equities are best for systems like mine that base their strategy around key price levels. For instance, if the stock price moves 15 cents in either direction, then your share value will remain par-value.