swing trading stocks for a living

i just wonder if there is anyone "swing trading stocks for a living", say with consistent profitability for at least 2-3 years???

 

Yes.

 

do you mind telling me your monthly return target???

 

I don't set targets, as the market environment can vary dramatically from month to month.

If by chance you are looking for expectations of a return on your own work, you won't find it in someone else's results. Every trader has a different level of experience, different strategy, different resources, different psychology, different expectations.

 

I swing trade for part of my living. The other part is from long term investments.

 

+1

 

Same here

 

I retired early to swing trade full time. From your first question to Lindq I can tell you are not swing trading full time. Focusing on profitability comes second to loss management as a swing trader.

It takes new traders years to get the stars out of their eyes to switch from counting profits to minimizing losses in swing trading. But until that step is completed the swing trader is going to have a difficult time trading anything. Losses define the characteristics of a swing trader. Profits are the left over a trader gets if they have managed swing trade losses correctly.

The primary idea is to plan in advance the maximum initial allowable damage to the trader’s account that swing trading losses may initially take from a pre determined set of trades or time period. Without reasonable limits the swing trader will jump to “Hope” and become an investor who “believes” their set ups will turn around and make the swing trading profits they feel they deserve. If a trader allows this to happen one or more times than the trader will have a difficult time ever becoming a profitable swing trader.

When profitability does come it is back to loss management as big drawdowns or changes in the markets has you second guessing your “profitable” set ups. You may then have months or years of redefining loss management tactics in your plan until you “think” you have it right. That is when another drawdown slaps you in the face that is bigger than the last.

It happened recently to me when AAPL started its gyrations. I got on the wrong end of some volatile days with a big drawdown. But my plans contingency methods, trading rules, position sizing and risk management pulled me through the drawdown and I’m back. So manage the losses and “consistent profitability” may happen to you.

 

Those are excellent points.

Everything - and I mean everything - is geared toward handing a trader losses, not profits. One needs to first master the art of survival before focusing on making money.

 

in order to "trade for a living", i'm more concern with P&L volatility. that's one thing i'd like to discuss in this thread. i know i can make money, say in a 1-year time frame. but just being profitable is not enough. it needs to be profitable with low P&L volatility.