Swing trading is a smart way to actively participate in the markets without turning trading into your full-time job. It’s strategic, flexible, and can fit into most schedules—even if you’ve got a day job. But like anything that involves money and risk, jumping in without a plan is a fast track to frustration. If you’re curious about how to start swing trading, keep reading.
Before doing anything, make sure you understand what swing trading really involves. You’re will not be a day trader trying to scalp a few cents in minutes, and you will not be an investor buying stocks to hold for years and years. Swing trading is about identifying short-term to mid-term trends and riding them for a few days, a few weeks, or maybe a few months – depending on market conditions.
You’re aiming to catch the “middle” of a move—getting in after a trend starts to form and getting out before it reverses. You will not aim to buy at the absolute bottom or sell at the perfect peak. You will ride the trends rather than try to be far ahead of them.
Swing trading trading depends more on technical analysis, trend recognition, and clean risk management than long-term financial data, but adding a pinch of fundamental analysis can still be helpful.
The main difference between swing trading and day trading is that a day trader will open and close positions within the same trading day, and never have any positions open at the end of the trading day, while a swing trader usually keep positions open for days, week, or months. Both day trading and swing trading are short-term trading compared to position trading and buy-and-hold strategies, but swing trading is longer-term than day trading.
This difference in time horizon leads to several other differences that we can observe between typical day trading strategies and typical swing trading strategies.
The typical profitable swing trader rely heavily on charts, and it’s worth spending time learning at least the basics of technical analysis and develop a better understanding for how markets behave in the short term and mid term before you put any money at risk.
Examples of things you should know how to do:
This is a part that takes time and practice, but don’t get lost in endless YouTube rabbit holes of technical analysis magic and get-rich-quick schemes. Pick a few concepts from sane sources, test them, and refine your understanding over time. The goal is to recognize repeatable setups and learn how they behave, not to believe you will turn $1,000 into $100,000 in three days using the most obscure technical analysis tool you can find online.
When the price moves above a key resistance level or below a key support level on the chart, it is called a breakout. A breakout can signal that a trend is about to intensify in the direction of the breakout.
A simple moving average (SMA) calculates the average price during a specific period of days. Typically, the closing prices are used to calculate the SMA. You add all the closing prices together for X number of days, and divide by X to get the SMA.
Looking at a moving average, such as the SMA, can make it easier for a trader to spot a price trend, since it evens out volatility and shows you an average.
A lot of traders rely heavily on the 200-day SMA when they try to spot trends, and this can – in itself – have an impact on markets. When many traders, and influential traders, all stare at the same thing, you can end up with a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The exponential moving average (EMA) is more heavily weighted on recent price action than the SMA.
Having access to good charting software and other types of support for technical analysis is important for swing traders. You can for instance use TradingView or Thinkorswim, or use the features that are integrated into the trading platforms cTrader, MetaTrader 4 (MT4) or MetaTrader 5 (MT5).
Make sure you have software that will let you watch price movements, mark key levels, and test ideas visually. You’ll be using things like moving averages, RSI, and candlestick patterns, so you’ll want a solution that lets you customize your setup without over-complicating things.
You need a trading strategy and a risk management plan. Without them, you will be trading blindly, jumping at every opportunity and making emotional decisions until you have depleted your trading account.
Take the time to develop a basic trading strategy, with clearly defined rules. Learn about risk-management and put together a basic routine that is easy to stick to. None of them will be perfect, but you can make adjustments (with a cool head) later on.
Risk management is what keeps you in the game long enough to get good. A good rule of thumb? Never risk more than 1–2% of your total trading capital on any single trade. That way, even a string of losses won’t wipe you out. The more you trade, the more you’ll realize: preserving capital is just as important as growing it. Of course, risk management is about much more than just trade size. It is advisable to learn more about this field before you get started, including how to use stop-loss and take-profit orders in a smart way. Before you even open a position, you should have decided where to get in, where to take-profit, and where to get out if things go wrong.
Choose a broker that is reputable, properly regulated and suitable for swing-traders. Make sure the fee structure fits your trading strategy. Swing traders who stick to brokers that will charge an arm and a leg in overnight fees tend to go broke.
There are several different websites that you can help you find a broker that offer good features for swing trading. Personally i use and recommend SwingTrading.com when i compare swing trading brokers but you can choose to use another site.
Open a free demo account with the broker and use the free play-money to learn how the platform work. Make the beginner mistakes now, before there are any real money on the line. The demo account will also give you a chance to test run your swing trading strategy and risk-management plan against real market data.
Be suspicious of brokers that refuse to give you access to a demo account before you have made your first deposit. If the platform is unsuitable for your swing trading strategy, you want to know that before you commit any money with a broker.
Even if you have been doing great in the demo account, you will not be prepared for the emotions that come with risking real money. Therefore, it is advisable to start small. Get used to the emotions, learn how to stay disciplined when markets are stormy, and increase gradually – without breaking any of the rules in your risk-management plan.
It is also advisable to keep your first trades basic—one setup, one timeframe, clear entry and exit rules.
Example of what it can look like: “Buy when the price closes above resistance and the 50-day moving average is rising. Sell when it hits a target profit or drops below support.”
Is it perfect? No. But it’s specific. And specific beats guessing every time. You’ll learn more from sticking to one method and improving it than from bouncing between strategies every week.
After your first few trades, pause and review. What worked? What didn’t? Were you too early? Too late? Did you follow your own rules? Trading is part strategy, part psychology. Keeping a simple trade journal helps you see where you’re making progress—and where emotion might be getting in the way.
You don’t need to trade every day. In fact, it’s better if you don’t. Swing trading rewards patience, planning, and the ability to wait for the setups that fit your strategy. Not everything that moves is worth chasing.
Choosing the right broker is one of the most underrated parts of getting started with swing trading. A good broker helps your trades go smoothly, keeps your costs low, and gives you access to the tools you need. A bad one? It’ll eat your profits with fees, frustrate you with clunky software, or worse—slow your execution when it matters most.
Below, we will take a look at a few points that are good to keep in mind when selecting a broker.
Most swing traders look at charts a lot, so the platform should ideally be easy to use for charting and be visually clean. You don’t need 400 indicators and professional-level scripting tools, but you do need clear, responsive charts, basic technical indicators, and the ability to mark up trends and support/resistance. If you have to fight the interface just to draw a trendline, you’re wasting time and energy.
This does not have to be integrated into the trading platform, as stand-alone charting and technical analysis software is available, but many swing traders prefer to use a trading platform that provide this type of support. Also, some brokers integrate with charting platforms like TradingView, which can be a game-changer.
Examples of what a good platform will let you do without any difficulty:
Swing traders don’t need lightning-fast millisecond execution like scalpers, but you still need your trades to go through quickly and at the right price. Your broker should offer reliable order routing with minimal slippage. If your orders are constantly filling way off the price you see, it becomes hard to trust your setups.
Look for brokers that allow:
Every penny in fees is money that you could have invested instead. Make sure you stick with a broker where the costs are actually worth it.
Pick a broker suitable for your strategy, rather than adjusting your strategy to whatever a broker is offering. Many swing traders focus on stocks listed in the U.S. and/or UK, but maybe you want something else? Maybe you don´t even want to swing trade stocks, but commodities, forex, cryptocurrency, or stock options?
What ever your plan is, make sure your broker offers that market and decent conditions to trade it. Some brokers shine in equities but are terrible for forex, and so on.
If you’re just getting started, having responsive customer service is extra important. Live chat, phone support, and fast email replies make a big difference when something goes wrong or you have a time-sensitive question. You don´t want to be stuck with a low-quality chat robot because it´s outside office hours in Romania for the next 28 hours.
This part isn’t sexy, but it’s essential. Always choose a broker regulated by a credible authority.
To avoid legal complexity when it comes to jurisdiction, ideally stick with a broker licensed to be active within your country. (For traders in the European Union, this means a broker licensed by any of the membership countries.)
If you live in a country that doesn´t license online broker, or where trader protection is lax, you may want to go with a broker licensed by a foreign financial authority known for enforcing strict trader protection, such as:
Avoid brokers that are non-regulated, brokers that are vague about where they’re regulated, and brokers regulated by a lax financial authority.
Always verify directly with the applicable financial authority that the broker is actually registered with them and holds an active license. Many financial authorities post current lists on their official site.
If you’re already looking for a broker, you’ve probably come across acronyms like STP, ECN, and PAMM, and maybe wondered what they actually mean. Not all brokers operate the same way, and which type you choose can directly impact trade execution, fees, slippage, transparency, and more.
Below, we will take a look at a few different broker categories, see how work behind the scenes, and what kind of trader each one suits best.
Market makers are often the easiest to access and most beginner-friendly—but that simplicity comes with trade-offs. These brokers don’t pass your order to the real market. Instead, they “make the market” by being the counterparty to your trade. If you buy, they sell. If you make a profit, they make a loss (and vice versa).
This setup allows for fast execution, fixed spreads, and MM brokers often accept smaller deposits—but it also means:
For casual or low-volume traders, market makers can be convenient, especially since many of them will allow you to get started trading with just a $10 first deposit. But if you value raw market access, they’re not ideal.
STP brokers act as a bridge between you and the liquidity providers, e.g. banks or other large institutions. Your orders are routed directly to the market without interference, though they may be routed through one or multiple third parties.
What makes STP appealing:
STP brokers typically make money on the spread (the difference between bid and ask), not on your losses. That removes that specific conflict of interest you get with market makers. STP brokers are great for intermediate traders who want cleaner execution without jumping fully into ECN territory.
ECN brokers connect your orders directly to a network of participants—banks, institutions, other traders. You see the best bid and ask prices in real time, and your orders get matched automatically with the best available counterpart.
This is the most transparent and direct form of trading you can get through a broker, offering:
ECN brokers are ideal for advanced or high-volume traders who care about raw pricing, high-speed execution, and minimal interference. Just be prepared for higher minimum deposits and potentially more complex platforms.
DMA is similar to ECN, but with even more control. You’re literally placing trades into the order book, just like an institutional trader. You can see and interact with real market liquidity, including placing orders between bid and ask prices.
This type of broker is especially popular among professional traders, particularly those trading equities and futures, and want full transparency with no markup or hidden fees.
Using DMA brokers is not very common among retail traders because it often requires large accounts and pro-level platforms.
PAMM stands for Percentage Allocation Management Module. It’s not a broker type per se, but a service offered by some brokers that allows investors to allocate funds to a professional trader’s account.
Here’s how it works:
PAMM can be a viable choice for hands-off investors who want exposure to trading without learning strategies or placing trades themselves. But it comes with risks—if the trader loses, you lose too. You are giving up a lot of control when you use a PAMM service.
This article was last updated on: April 3, 2025
