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Short-term trading,
or "swing trading," means holding a position (long or short)
for only a few days or less. The difference between this and
day trading is simply that you often hold the position for
longer than a single day. Short-term traders usually hold
a position for between 2 days and a week, but sometimes trades
can last a few weeks or even months. There is an old joke
that a long term trade is a short term trade that went wrong,
and old joke that actually is based on a truism! Short term
trading profit targets and stop losses tend to be larger than
in day trading, and leverage tends to be smaller - many short
term swing traders acually trade real shares, as opposed
to derivative instruments such as futures, funds or options.
The arrival of 'single stock futures' has also added to the
attraction of short term trading, as leverage can be increased
substantially (although it should be noted that risk also
rises with this kind of instrument).
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