Just because you have what may be a good strategy for swing trading stocks doesn’t necessarily mean you will make money with it.
How can that be you ask?
If you are not disciplined and follow a plan with money management you will probably take unnecessary risks or not take risks when the odds are in your favor.
There are four main considerations for swing traders, well cover them now.
Money Management
I consider this the most import consideration in the success of a swing trader. Without proper allocation of your funds you can be right the majority of the time and still lose money.
If you get too aggressive with a trade because you “feel” it can’t lose and it inevitably will, you will lose more than you should have if you had practiced proper money management.
Conversely after a few losing trades you get too conservative with your trades and they will naturally be winners, you will not make as much as you should have and probably not enough to make up for the losers.
Execution
Once you find your swing trading advantage over the markets you must have the ability to execute when your edge tells you to enter a trade.
Maybe the most common problem for new swing traders is fear. So they wait for the trade to make sure it’s going to work out before entering or probably worse, entering before the actual signal is given. Either will hurt your profitability!
You must follow you edge in the markets with every trade and take your emotions out of the trade. You can only do that by trust your system and take the trades as they are given.
By being disciplined and getting out of trades if they are not working out is limiting draw-downs that will destroy your capital and more importantly your confidence and mental capital. Many traders never make it past this stage and blow out their accounts before they they learn this!
Winning Strategy
Naturally you need to have some advantage over the markets to be successful. Most swing traders use trends as their edge. Market tend to trend up or down roughly 80%.
The trick is to know when to stay out of the market or trade smaller when they market is transition and keep losses small during these periods.
This is where discipline comes into play, we take the trades as they come our way and keep losses small when the markets are not trending. By keeping losses small and letting winners ride we will make money.
Diversifying
When we say diversification we are saying don’t go putting all your eggs in one basket. Spread out your capital among several trades.
Then as your account grows put some of it into more conservative options so you don’t lose the money you worked so hard for.
Final Thoughts
By following our buy and sell strategies as they come and not second guessing them you will make money as long as your strategy is a winning one.
That’s why it’s a good idea to follow in the footsteps of winning traders like Jason Bond or Matt Morris of MicroCap Millionaires. By following successful traders you can learn to be disciplined as you learn how to trade.
