Looking for how to find stocks to swing trade? Having a solid scanner will be your best friend. You could use a HOD volume scanner, breaking news, stock sectors, and unusual options activity as some of your filter settings. Scanners help you to find the plays that are running that other traders are watching.
Swing trading has you holding stocks at least overnight up to a couple of weeks. You want and need max profits on stocks that have good movement. There a couple different tools you can use to scan for swing trade stocks.
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How to Find Stocks to Swing Trade
When you’re learning how to find stocks to swing trade there are some things you should consider. How long do you want to hold a stock? Swing trading usually lasts 2-6 days but can last up to 2 weeks. You can also go long term and hold a stock for much longer. You can pick swing trading techniques that work for you. If there’s certain criteria you’re looking for using something like the barchart stock signals screener is a good tool to have. It allows you to look for specific trading signals; hence you can set up a screener that fit’s your style.
If you’re more long term, you can set it up to look for plays that will happen over a period of time. If you want to hold just overnight, set you your screener to find that.
Having a tool like the barchart signal screener can set you up to have good success swing trading.
Scanners
When you’re learning how to find swing trading stocks then find a good scanner. You can have those few stocks you trade over and over but it’s good to have alternatives.
What happens if you only trade certain stocks in a sector and it’s trading sideways? You’re not going to find any good plays. If you have a good scanner you don’t have to worry about finding good plays.
Thinkorswim has scanners you can set up for swing trading. Set up the scanner to the criteria you’re looking for. You can scan each night to find plays for your watchlist.
The Trade Ideas scanner is also one that you can use. Trade Ideas can save you time if you’re looking for something quick. You can set your scanner to look for the kinds of plays you like best.
While you can use Trade Ideas for swing trading, there’s a scanner that’s even better. It’s called Market Club. Market Club has a system that uses a mix of different signals to help confirm success.
They’re big into triangles. If you know anything about patterns and triangles then you know those are pretty profitable. Their green triangles give you a strong signal of a daily, weekly or monthly trend. While their red triangles can be used if you’re into trading put options or shorting.
How Long Should a Swing Trader Hold a Stock?
- How long should a swing trader hold a stock? Typically, between a few days up to a few weeks. There are several ways that you can swing trade. You can trade shares of a stock or use targeted options strategies such as credit spreads, debit spreads, iron condors, and calendar spreads.
Technical Analysis
When you’re looking for stocks to swing trade, you need to know technical analysis. Knowing support and resistance is extremely important! These are levels that trades pay particular attention to; especially knowing how to find stocks to swing trade.
You can find support and resistance through candlesticks and moving average lines. Candlesticks also tell a story. You can use candlesticks for buy and sell signals along with moving avenge lines.
MACD and RSI can help you in determining what direction is stock is headed as well. it’s important to be able to draw trend lines. Learning how shorting works is a great way to profit when the market is heading down.
Trend lines map out a stocks direction as well as drawing triangle patterns or pennant patterns such as bull pennants and bear pennants.
Patterns
Patterns are really important when you’re looking for swing trading plays. Traders are creatures of habit and they look for patterns.
You have the overall large patterns but inside those big patterns are smaller patterns. You can trade those smaller patterns as you’re waiting for the big pattern to break out.
Remember that patterns break down all the time. Look at what the candlesticks are telling you. If a pattern is at a breakout point but doji candlesticks are forming, wait for confirmation of direction.
Practice
As you learn how to find stocks to swing trade, practice using scanners and trading in a simulated account. Practicing allows you to work out the kinks and fix any problems and mistakes you see.
If you need more help, take our swing trading course.
