What is the difference between short-term and long-term trading/investing?
A swing trader is normally looking for highly volatile stocks. This type of trader wants to ride the up and down movement of a stock like a roller coaster. The greater the movement, the more the potential profit. A trader wants to be long on the up move and short on the down move. The move may last a day up to a few weeks before it reverses. This we consider short-term trading. An investor is normally looking for less volatile stocks. These are stocks that have a good growth pattern, but don’t bounce around too much. These are usually stocks supported by a good earnings history and have a high probability of upward price movement. An investor is focused on a stock’s growth characteristic and to do this he must look at the company’s earnings and their future prospects. Since earnings only come out 4 times a year, he must look at longer duration charts. Thus, traders and investors are normally looking for 2 different types of stocks. The wizard is the tool that finds them. For short-term
