"I know my strategy is to catch larger intraday swings but for some reason I only manage scalps... Scalps are in my tool bag but not my focus." I've suffered from a similar syndrome, but I think I understand the reasons why: If you try both to scalp (even scalping in the "2" mode rather than the "1") and to intraday-swing ("3"), you're very likely to do more of the former than the latter, reinforcing scalper habits and reflexes. Scalping makes your trigger finger itchy, gets you focused on L2 and very short time frames, and makes relatively small gains, losses, and re-tracements look a lot larger. Combining time frames also increases the likelihood of taking simultaneous trades in opposite directions (e.g., long on the scalp, short on the swing) - not always a bad tactic, but it often feels unnatural, even when the tradables are from very different sectors. To some extent, scaling out offers something of a bridge between the two modes. Since Tradestation moved to per-share pricing, I've been scaling out much more even than I did before - trying to hold at least some part of a winning position for possible follow-through. All the same, even when you're holding only a quarter, or even only a tenth, of an original position, it can be hard to resist the impulses to close out the trade when a new signal on some other stock, but in the contrary direction, arises. If you believe that the market is moving upward more or less consequentially, and your 200-share lot still shows good open short profits, why not just hit the button and close it out - especially since that may well turn out to have been the right decision? A parallel set of issues affect new entries: Having one or more successful short positions can induce hesitation prior to taking new long signals - and that's presuming that the effort and attention spent on managing the short position doesn't prevent you even from noticing the long set-ups in the first place. Seeking to avoiding this situation may lead you back to closing out successful positions prematurely. Those are only some of the problems that can be taken into account, and subjected to further investigation. I try mainly to settle on a set of clear trading rules, hoping that a consistently followed "good" solution that also happens to suit my personality will outperform an inconsistently followed "best" solution, not least because it will engender much less in the way of distracting self-recrimination.
there is a simple fix for this. view most of your trades as short term scalp quick profit opportunities, but set aside the best ones for longer holding time. for example, have a rule to kick out your plays within X hours or minutes EXCEPT for the ones that move at least X percentage in a short time, in which case they have proven themselves to be worthy of holding a little longer. The best and biggest movers tend to kick a$$ from the start, you want to hold on to quality. in otherwords, a mechanical rule / volatility based filter you can use to separate out the cream of the crop and hold on to 'em. and feel free to mail me a check for a couple hundred bucks as a token appreciation of all the profits i've just helped ya get...
Interesting results... most people prefer intraday charts and are somewhere between quick gains (the need for certainty) and swing gains (profit maximisation with a dose of hope)...
These days, I am cutting way back on my scalping... I will let the young guns marvel in the intricasies of Level2...