What kind of trader am I?

A million traders will have a million varying styles of trading. One's own personality, patience and risk appetite can combine into a unique trading style that is specific to you. Today we are going to be looking at the different ways one can trade as well as the different tools you will need to prosper with your trading style.

The general types of traders are scalp traders, day traders and swing traders. Scalp trader aim to make little trades taking 15 to 20 pips at a time. They mainly trade on the 1 to 15 min charts. The aim to take several little trades a day, accumulating your wins for the day and ending all your trades at the end of the day. This type of trader has an appetite for fast action and can recognize several opportunities through out the day.

Next we have day traders. These are people who are looking for 50 to 80 pips during the day taking only one or two trades they primarily spend their time from the 15 min to the 4 hrs. charts for entries. Sometimes trades can last over a day but generally they are out for the market by night time. This type of trader is one who wants a little less time on the charts but cannot wait days on end for a trade to go their way

Next we have swing trader. This is a person who is willing to take a single trade and hold it for days on end, even weeks. Their objective is to capture big long moves, taking 100s of pips at a time. This is for the patient individual who has other life commitments they want to engage in but still want to be in the market. They can spend days without entering a trade waiting for their set up.

Pros and Cons of each

Scalpers can get a lot of trades in a day. With a good trading strategy with over a 50 percent success rate, a scalper can really make a good earning for the day. Remember one can leverage pips so its not to say that you cannot make money with 15-20pips. The issue is if your risk management is not right you can pips away your account very easily. Not to mention that for every trade you enter you may have to pay commission plus cover the spread making it the most costly per trade out of the trading style

Day trading is the strike between the two styles. It means you dont have to be glue to your screen the whole day. Things move slower that scalping so you are able to think deeper into your trades. Cons are that sometimes your trading set up may not present itself throughout the day and your impatience may lead you to trade setups you are not familiar with. It takes discipline to stay off the charts when you are meant to.

Swing trading is great because you can capture a lot of pips. It also is the least costly as one trade which is held for days will cost less commission and spread that opening twenty trades in that same period, that is the broker does not charge overnight and over weekend fees. Con is that the stop losses for these kind of trades are also huge so you must have quite the massive trading account to survive these long winded draw downs.

Whatever style you come to choose you also need to consider a last important step. Find the broker that suits your time. As a scalper you will need to find a broker with very little spread and low minimum deposit requirements. So that you are able to enter the market with as little cost as possible. They should also have very fast order speeds with no required as your entries and stops losses are very tight. The same type of broker would work for you as a day trader but be careful to stay away from brokers that charge overnight fees for those trader that may go into the next day. For the swing trader you best look for the broker with the least overnight and over weekend costs. Those will eventually add up so best protection your capital as best as you can.

Finding a broker may seem daunting but you really only need to use WikiFX. This app will help you compare brokers and find the one best suited for your trading needs. They even tell you the speeds they offer as well as the minimum deposit requirements so that u dont have to spend all day looking for a broker. They also tell you which fraudulent brokers to stay away from so it is best to put your trust in WikiFX when it comes to looking for a broker. You will not regret it.