Scalping or Swing Trading? Which is better? This is the most important question that every new trader should find the answer before finally deciding his or her trading style. Scalping entail grabbing 10-30 pips per trade by quickly entering and exiting the market. Sometime when there is momentum behind the market move, you will be able to make 10-30 pips in less than 15 minutes. And when there is not enough momentum behind the market, a scalp trade can last for a few hours even.
So the most important question for a scalper is to find the best times for scalping. The best times are of course after the London Open and the NY Open. The time to avoid is the Asian Market Session. During these two times market is highly volatile and a number of good moves develop that have a lot of momentum behind them meaning you can easily reach your target of 10-30 minutes in a short time. The time to avoid is the Asian Market Session. During the Asian Market Session, there is not enough momentum behind the moves.
However waiting for the right scalp trade can take time. You will have to constantly look at the charts especially if you are trading on the lower timeframe of M1 or M5. It is always a good idea to do scalping on M30 or H1 timeframe. So you need to choose the timeframe pretty careful as it will eventually determine your success or failure. If you happen to make 3-4 scalp trades and make 10 pips on average, you can easily make 30-40 pips daily.
Now swing trading entail entering the market when you spot a trend and then riding that trend as long as you can. Most swing traders trade on timeframes like M30, H1 or H4. Trading on these timeframes mean you don’t have to stay glued to the charts for hours waiting for the right trade setup especially if you are trading on H1 and H4 timeframe. A swing trader might check the charts after every few hours for a possible trade signal.
Now as a scalper, you will have to make at least 4-5 trades daily. This might take time. Each trade needs a lot of attention. So scalping can be a pretty stressful experience. On lower timeframes, the trade opportunity vanishes pretty quickly so you will have to be very attentive if you want to catch the trade setup on time.
On the other hand, if you are swing trading on the higher timeframe like H1 or H4, you have time to analyze the market and decide whether you want to enter into a trade or not. This can improve the quality of the trades a lot. One swing trade on H1 timeframe can easily grab 30-60 pips while one swing trade on H4 timeframe can easily grab 100-150 pips.
However it is always a good idea to use a combination of scalping as well as swing trading. When you spot a good swing trading opportunity, you can trade it. If you don’t find a good swing trade opportunity, you can make a few scalp trades and grab 30-40 pips instead of going empty handed. Watch this video on Scalping or Swing Trading. Just make sure that you master candlesticks. This can help you both in scalping as well as swing trading.