This can actually be one of the most successful strategies in the investment world. As with every type of trading, there are stories of people who have enjoyed unbridled success in this practice. Of course, there are also many people out there who wish to sell you their book on how they had such amazing success. You might not have to spend too much on literature to learn how to be a swing trader. You need an understanding of the markets, a good brokerage to let you trade at a reasonable price and the patience to hold onto a stock just long enough to see your profit realized. A little bit of luck never hurt either.
Trying to hit the absolute top of the price will be difficult. That may be something that is best put aside as a strategy. More important is to get close to the top. While the time frame is not as short as day trading, it is still relatively short. If you wait too long your profit might be lost. If you sell at what looks to be close to the high position, you now have made a profit and you have additional funds to put into something that is lower to the trough. You can make a lot of trades like this. Since you are not buying and selling the shares in the same day you will not be subject to the rules that govern pattern day traders.
Knowing when not to swing trade is important. It might sound odd to give up on your trading strategy but it has been shown that this is not such a good practice and works much differently in any kind of extreme market. If the market is particularly bullish or a tough bear market then the rules change and you might be better off finding a different strategy while things calm down a little bit. That can mean either moving into something closer to a buy and hold strategy, day trading or even getting right out and putting the money under the proverbial mattress until the storm is over.
Picking the best stocks to swing trade is also going to determine your success. You are looking at price fluctuations when you are engaging in swing trading so you want most other things to remain as stable as possible as you try to peg where the peaks and valleys of price changes end up. If you are trading in small cap then you might get more volatility than you bargained for. Large cap might be the better way to go. Choose correctly and see if you can get the timing right, you might just turn a nice profit on swing trading.
