I'm in my 5th year of trading and I've tried many different styles of trading, including scalping, swinging, technical, etc. Of all the "patterns" I've noticed about good trading from my perspective, of course, one that stood out and that I've stuck with for the past year or so is this: I, like many traders, traded (even though I said I wouldn't) almost daily, whether there were good trades or not, mostly because the market was open and I got sucked into "momo" trading. One more thing. Like may daytraders, I got myself to believe the notion that I can make $300 to $700 per day just scalping. This worked for a few months but eventually it stopped working. So the pattern that emerged is that the way to make the most money was not trying to "outsmart" thousands of other traders everyday by scalping but to catch "the wave" that seems to come every few weeks or one per month. For example, I played "WEL" for about 3 months and doubled my account. Then, I played "SIRI" for about 1 month and made about 60% of my account. Then, I played "VRA" for about 2 months and doubled my account. Then, most recently, I played "HLSH" for about 2 months and doubled my account. I'm still playing this one and expect to play it for another few more months. In the mean time, I don't usually wake up early to trade anymore because I don't need to. What I've learned is that "waves" come every few weeks to few months and that's plenty to make triple digit income per year, easy. Of course, choosing your "wave" does not guarantee success as you can easily get "shaken out" but you learn.