Swing Trading For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Swing Trading For Dummies, 2nd Edition

by CFA Omar Bassal
Released April 2019
Publisher(s): For Dummies
ISBN: 9781119565086

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Book description

Increase profit and limit risk with swing trading basics

Swing trading is all about riding the momentum of brief price changes in trending stocks. Although it can be risky, swing trading is popular for a reason, and Swing Trading For Dummies, 2nd Edition, will show you how to manage the risk and navigate the latest markets to succeed at this lucrative trading strategy.

In this updated edition, you’ll find expert guidance on new accounting rules, the 2018 tax law, trading in international markets, algorithmic trading, and more. Plus, learn about the role social media now plays in moving asset prices, and how you can tap into online trends to ride price swings.

  • Understand money management, journal keeping, and strategy planning
  • Focus on fundamental analysis to increase your chance of success
  • Evaluate companies to screen for under- or overvalued stocks
  • Develop and implement your trading plan and calculate performance

Starting from the basic differences between swing trading and other trading styles and progressing through plain-English explanations of more advanced topics like charts and reporting standards, Swing Trading For Dummies will help you maintain and grow your assets with swing trading in any market!

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Introduction
    1. About This Book
    2. Foolish Assumptions
    3. Icons Used in This Book
    4. Where to Go from Here
  3. Part 1: Getting into the Swing of Things
    1. Chapter 1: Swing Trading from A to Z
      1. Understanding What Swing Trading Is (and Isn’t)
      2. What Swing Trading Is to You: Determining Your Time Commitment
      3. Sneaking a Peek at the Swing Trader’s Strategic Plan
      4. Building Your Swing Trading Prowess
    2. Chapter 2: Understanding the Swing Trader’s Two Main Strategies
      1. Strategy and Style: The Swing Trader’s Bio
      2. Wrapping Your Mind around Technical Theory
      3. Appreciating the Value of the Big Picture: Fundamental Theory
    3. Chapter 3: Focusing on the Small Stuff: The Administrative Tasks
      1. Hooking Up with a Broker
      2. Selecting Service Providers
      3. Starting a Trading Journal
      4. Creating a Winning Mindset
  4. Part 2: Timing Is Everything: Technical Analysis
    1. Chapter 4: Charting the Market
      1. Nailing Down the Concepts: The Roles of Price and Volume in Charting
      2. Having Fun with Pictures: The Four Main Chart Types
      3. Charts in Action: A Pictorial View of the Security Cycle of Life
      4. Assessing Trading-Crowd Psychology: Popular Patterns for All Chart Types
      5. Letting Special Candlestick Patterns Reveal Trend Changes
      6. Measuring the Strength of Trends with Trendlines
    2. Chapter 5: Asking Technical Indicators for Directions
      1. All You Need to Know about Analyzing Indicators
      2. Determining Whether a Security Is Trending
      3. Recognizing Major Trending Indicators
      4. Spotting Major Non-Trending Indicators
      5. Combining Technical Indicators with Chart Patterns
      6. Using Technical Indicators to Determine Whether to Be In or Out of the Market
    3. Chapter 6: Trend Following or Trading Ranges
      1. Trading Trends versus Trading Ranges: A Quick Rundown
      2. Trend Trading
      3. Trading Ranges: Perhaps Stasis Is Bliss?
      4. Comparing Markets to One Another: Intermarket Analysis
      5. Putting Securities in a Market Head-to-Head: Relative Strength Analysis
  5. Part 3: Running the Numbers: Fundamental Analysis
    1. Chapter 7: Understanding a Company, Inside and Out
      1. Getting Your Hands on a Company’s Financial Statements
      2. Assessing a Company’s Financial Statements
      3. Analyzing More Than Just Numbers: Qualitative Data
      4. Valuing a Company Based on Data You’ve Gathered
    2. Chapter 8: Finding Companies Based on Their Fundamentals
      1. Seeing the Forest for the Trees: The Top-Down Approach
      2. Starting from the Grassroots Level: The Bottom-Up Approach
      3. Deciding Which Approach to Use
    3. Chapter 9: Assessing a Company’s Stock: Six Tried-and-True Steps
      1. The Six Step Dance: Analyzing a Company
      2. Step 1: Taking a Company’s Industry into Account
      3. Step 2: Determining a Company’s Financial Stability
      4. Step 3: Looking Back at Historical Earnings and Sales Growth
      5. Step 4: Understanding Earnings and Sales Expectations
      6. Step 5: Checking Out the Competition
      7. Step 6: Estimating a Company’s Value
  6. Part 4: Planning the Trade and Trading the Plan
    1. Chapter 10: Fail Fast: Managing Risk
      1. Risk Measurement and Management in a Nutshell
      2. First Things First: Measuring the Riskiness of Stocks before You Buy
      3. Limiting Losses at the Individual Stock Level
      4. Building a Portfolio with Minimal Risk
      5. Planning Your Exit Strategies
    2. Chapter 11: Knowing Your Entry and Exit Strategies
      1. Understanding Market Mechanics
      2. Surveying the Major Order Types
      3. Placing Orders as a Part-Time Swing Trader
      4. Placing Orders if Swing Trading’s Your Full-Time Gig
    3. Chapter 12: Walking through a Trade, Swing-Style
      1. Step 1: Sizing Up the Market
      2. Step 2: Identifying the Top Industry Groups
      3. Step 3: Selecting Promising Candidates
      4. Step 4: Determining Position Size
      5. Step 5: Executing Your Order
      6. Step 6: Recording Your Trade
      7. Step 7: Monitoring Your Shares’ Motion and Exiting When the Time is Right
      8. Step 8: Improving Your Swing Trading Skills
    4. Chapter 13: Looking at the Scoreboard to Evaluate Your Performance
      1. No Additions, No Withdrawals? No Problem!
      2. Comparing Returns over Different Time Periods: Annualizing Returns
      3. Accounting for Deposits and Withdrawals: The Time-Weighted Return Method
      4. Comparing Your Returns to an Appropriate Benchmark
      5. Evaluating Your Trading Plan
  7. Part 5: The Part of Tens
    1. Chapter 14: Ten Simple Rules for Swing Trading
      1. Trade Your Plan
      2. Follow the Lead of the Overall Market and Industry Groups
      3. Don’t Let Emotions Control Your Trading
      4. Diversify, but Not Too Much
      5. Set Your Risk Level
      6. Set a Profit Target or Technical Exit
      7. Use Limit Orders
      8. Use Stop-Loss Orders
      9. Keep a Trading Journal
      10. Have Fun
    2. Chapter 15: Ten (Plus One) Deadly Mistakes of Swing Trading
      1. Violating Your Trading Plan
      2. Starting with Too Little Capital
      3. Gambling on Earnings Dates
      4. Speculating on Penny Stocks
      5. Changing Your Trading Destination Midflight
      6. Doubling Down
      7. Keeping Open Positions While You Travel
      8. Thinking You’re Hot Stuff
      9. Concentrating on a Single Sector
      10. Trading Illiquid Securities
      11. Overtrading Stocks
  8. Appendix: Helpful Resources for Today’s Swing Trader
    1. Sourcing and Charting Your Trading Ideas
    2. Doing Your Market Research
    3. Keeping Tabs on Your Portfolio and the Latest Market News
    4. Fine-Tuning Your Trading Techniques
  9. Index
  10. About the Author
  11. Advertisement Page
  12. Connect with Dummies
  13. End User License Agreement

Product information

  • Title: Swing Trading For Dummies, 2nd Edition
  • Author(s): CFA Omar Bassal
  • Release date: April 2019
  • Publisher(s): For Dummies
  • ISBN: 9781119565086