Swing trading (also known as momentum trading) exploits price uptrends or downtrends by entering the market during brief counter-trend pullbacks to ride the trend's momentum. Swing trades can be held for only hours, but more often days and weeks until a trend is played out.

Day trading instead uses minor price fluctuations each day. So you might think that the main difference between day trading and swing trading is the timeframe, right?

After all, swing trading seems like a longer-term form of day trading. They share many of the same principles such as

Going long or short the market as neededQuickly freeing up your capital for the next tradePicking more losers than winners to ensure a profitable strategy, and so forth

That's correct except there's one very big difference:

Some of the best day trading opportunities come from counter-trend trading whereas swing trading must always go with the trend.

Does this surprise you? I hope not, because this is how I get my day trades closed out so quickly on most days.

1) I examine the overnight trend in the market
2) Assign specific criteria for when that trend should be exhausted, and then
3) Jump in at turning points for a quick profit

Since most of these pullbacks occur before lunchtime here in Florida, I'm normally done my day trading by that time and therefore free for the rest of the day.

Of course, I look at the bigger, longer-term picture and take the opposite view (trend vs. counter-trend) for when I enter and exit profitable swing trades with the same 75% accuracy. But my swing trades are fewer and farther than my day trades and normally last for several days (sometimes as long as three or four weeks).

Together the two methods synchronize very well to produce a powerful winning trading strategy.

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Brian Heyliger is a successful futures day and swing trader who specializes in the e-mini S&P, Treasury Bond and other high-probability, high-profit markets.

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