Day trades, swing trades, and position trades are all ways to time the market. It’s different from a traditional buy and hold strategy because positions are generally only held for a short to intermediate term period. Swing traders typically look for patterns in the market and try to take advantage of any trends. Stocks can also be held this way during periods of correction with the expectation that they will eventually go up in the future.
I plan to hold most of my investments until retirement but once in awhile I also like to have some fun with my money and speculate by swing trading. Because of the risky nature of timing the markets I never have more than 10% of my entire portfolio in these kinds of trades. The purpose of my swing trades is to buy stocks when they’re low, and sell them when they’re high to make a profit. I blog about my experiences usually right after I make a trade so that anyone who follows my blog can see exactly what stocks I buy, when I buy them, and when I sell them. This keeps me accountable since my trades are always in the present, so I can’t make up numbers from the past. I make my trades public for educational purposes only so others may see my decision making process. Obviously there is nothing stopping anyone who reads this blog to mirror my trades but I’m not here to recommend advice and can’t be held responsible for other people’s financial outcomes 😛 Everyone should do their own research before swing trading.
Swing Trade Round 1 (2011)
Stocks: SNC-Lavalin (SNC), Halliburton (HAL)
Principle investment amount: $0 (trade made with 100% borrowed money)
Net profit: $594
Reason for buying
Reason for selling
Swing Trade Round 2 (2012)
Stocks: Halliburton (HAL), Silver Wheaton (SLW)
Principle investment amount: $2000
Net profit: $381 (19% return)
Reason for buying
Reason for selling
Swing Trade Round 3 (2012)
Stocks: Horizons S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures: Bull Plus ETF (HVU)
Principle investment amount: $1000
Net loss: -$1999 (-200% return)
Reason for buying
Reason for selling
Swing Trade Round 4 (2012)
Stocks: Silver Wheaton (SLW), Suncor (SU)
Principle investment amount: $3000
Net profit: $1027 (34% return)
Reason for buying
Reason for selling
Swing Trade Round 5 (2012)
Stocks: Potash Corp (POT)
Principle investment amount: $2260
Net profit: $129 (6% return)
Reason for buying
Reason for buying more to average down
Reason for selling
Swing Trade Round 6 (2013)
Stocks: Amazon.com (AMZN), Bank of America (BAC)
Principle investment amount: $2980
Net profit: $141 (5% return)
Reason for buying
Reason for selling
Swing Trade Round 7 (2013)
Stocks: Silver Wheaton (SLW), Goldcorp (G), Suncor (SU)
Principle investment amount: $2000
Net profit: $1175 (59% return)
Reason for buying
Reason for selling
Swing Trade Round 8 (2014)
Stocks: Avigilon Corp (AVO)
Principle investment amount: $2600
Net profit: $1426 (55% return)
Reason for buying
Reason for buying more to average down
Reason for selling
Overall Performance For Completed Swing Trades:
- Average Principle Invested: $1980
- Average profit/loss: $360 profit
- Average return on each trade: 18%
In my first swing trading experience even though I didn’t have any savings I still managed to swing trade by borrowing $5000 from the bank. Luckily that trade went well. But using leverage can also backfire like in the case with my third swing trade attempt. There have definitely been some costly mistakes in my short history of speculating, but overall I’m pretty happy with my results so far.
So you never lost money ? Always made money by swing trading?
Lol I wish. Lost a huge amount of money with swing trade #3. And currently in the red with #5. You win some you lose some 😉
With the money you gained from these trades do they count as Capital gains when you report your income taxes?
For the most part, yes. Last year I actually had an overall loss due to a careless trade that costed me $2,000 haha. But sometimes like with swing trade #4 I bought and sold in a TFSA so I don’t report the gains or losses when it’s time to do the income tax 🙂
Are you still swinging?
Nothing mentioned for 2014
Sorry for the delayed update. I’ve brought this page up to the latest information now. I’m swing trading a lot less these days because stock market valuations are very high so it’s harder to find cheap stocks now than before. 🙂
I’ve been swing trading SNMX between $5.10 and below to $5.50 and above. Always pick a stock you wouldn’t mind holding even if the pattern broke down.
any swing trades planned for now? lots of oil, airlines etc on sale right now.
Not at the moment. Oil is a good buy at these cheap levels but there is no sign they will recover any time soon so it’s a good time to be long in oil stocks but not necessarily for trading.
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I did few swing trades last year with VRX for maybe 200 or 300 usd.
This year i did the same with CMG for 2/300.But as you mentioned even i lost bigtime in recession due to swing trade investing in Freddie mac
Looks to me like a terrible run overall there man. I looked up your AVO today and it is at 12.39 which is a little less than half of what you bought it at. In total if you add up everything on your page here you made $133 total on all these trades and I am not sure if all taxes and fees are included in your reporting. Do yourself a favor, stop trying and by and index.