Recently, many people have been asking a question: why not do short-term trading when long-term positions are not moving? I believe this idea deserves serious consideration because short-term trading seems simple but actually requires high discipline, quick reactions, and risk control.

The core logic of short-term trading is actually rapid capital turnover and making profits from price fluctuations. This means that when selecting stocks, you don't need to rely on fundamental analysis; even companies that are viewed favorably for the long term may experience pullbacks or consolidation phases without obvious volatility.

So, what characteristics should stocks suitable for short-term trading have? From my observations, the three most important conditions are: having a theme, high trading volume, and large price fluctuations. Themes can include industry trends, policies, corporate developments, financial reports, etc. These pieces of information often attract market attention and speculation. For example, NVIDIA, as a leader in AI chips, draws high market attention because of AI and semiconductor themes that are easy to chase, with ample trading momentum.

I want to emphasize the importance of sufficient trading volume. The biggest risk in short-term trading is being able to buy but not sell. Stocks with high trading volume have several advantages: narrow bid-ask spreads so your entry and exit won't impact the stock price; quick price reactions allowing you to seize opportunities or cut losses in time; transparent prices that reflect other investors' opinions. If the stock you choose lacks trading volume, you might find no counterpart to sell to or suffer significant price losses when selling, which completely contradicts the purpose of short-term trading.

Large price fluctuations are also key. Some stocks, despite having themes and high trading volume, show small price swings and tend to move steadily upward or downward. These are actually more suitable for long-term investment. In contrast, Tesla (TSLA), due to Elon Musk's posts, delivery data, and autopilot progress, often experiences 5% to 10% swings within a day, which is the rhythm short-term traders prefer.

I categorize stocks suitable for short-term trading into five main types. First is the AI/semiconductor sector, currently the clearest main capital flow in the market. Chip design and server-related stocks have high volatility and fast capital flow, with NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, and SMCI worth watching. Second are high-volatility theme stocks, which tend to have explosive volume gaps, relatively clean technical signals, but less liquidity than leading stocks, so watch out for slippage when entering or exiting.

The third category is cryptocurrency concept stocks. If you don't want to trade Bitcoin directly but want to participate in crypto volatility, Coinbase and MicroStrategy are the most direct alternatives. They tend to rise with Bitcoin and fall with it, with very consistent rhythm, suitable for trend-following short-term trading. However, note that their volatility is usually even larger than Bitcoin's.

The fourth category is high-popularity leading stocks like TSLA and Palantir. These stocks don't rely on fundamentals for price movement but on retail capital concentration bringing "popularity." The advantage is they won't suddenly lose attention; they have sufficient daily liquidity and discussion, making technical signals relatively reliable.

The last category is event-driven stocks. Oracle may not move much normally, but once earnings are released, it instantly becomes the focus of the market. Before and after earnings reports, implied volatility often surges, and the stock can gap up or down more than 5% on the same day. Besides earnings, major contracts, new product launches, and regulatory rulings are also triggers. These stocks are suitable for positioning before earnings to capture volatility or waiting for confirmation of direction before following the trend.

I've observed a clear market change in 2026: semiconductor stocks are now more favored by capital than software stocks. For the same AI theme, chip design and server-related stocks have higher volatility and faster capital flow than application software. If you can only choose one main line, this one offers the highest efficiency.

Regarding specific stocks suitable for short-term trading, SMCI is a core supplier of AI servers, with very large price swings. Its daily volatility around earnings can reach over 12%, far higher than typical stocks. NVIDIA, as a GPU giant, is widely used in gaming, data centers, autonomous driving, etc., with high volatility. Tesla, due to Musk's influence, often exhibits rapid rises and falls.

The most important aspects of short-term trading are discipline and transaction costs. The US stock market has high trading volume and no transaction fees, making it the most popular market for short-term trading globally. It also allows multiple trades of the same stock within a day, providing greater flexibility. If you're looking for stocks to practice short-term trading, it's recommended to first use a demo account to familiarize yourself with their volatility rhythm, then consider small capital operations. Set stop-losses and treat these stocks as trading tools rather than beliefs, so you can maintain steady profits in short-term trading.