In the financial markets patience pays, literally. Mt trading personality is that of a swing trader. What this means is that I hold on to positions longer, this could take weeks to a month before closing out my positions. The beauty about this strategy is that I have a long term perspective on what and how the markets behave say on a currency pair or a commodity like gold and oil.
As opposed to scalping where momentum traders trade on shorter time frames like say under five minutes and cash out, swing trading for me enables one to follow the trend. If the markets for example are on a bullish or a bearish trend, I am able to determine my entry positions then patiently wait, my stop losses already in place before making an exit.
This is what makes a successful trader more often than not. Money is taken from the impatient investor and handed over to the patient investor. In every trade you place, your win is someone else's loss. You really do not want to be dishing out your money to someone else every time you trade.
One of my friend actually told me that day trading equals dumb money. As to whether that is true, I can only leave it to your judgement. Prop firms capitalize on day trading because they need too much activity on a daily for their operations. Frankly speaking, having identified my trading personality, I would not in a bit think of closing out my trades everyday.
Patience has taught me better. Look at this chart where we observed oil for more than one year forming a head and shoulders pattern.