Recently, I’ve noticed that many new traders are asking how to get started with short-term trading, so I’ve organized my years of experience and shared it with everyone.

To be honest, short-term trading looks simple, but the threshold is actually not low. Many people think short-term trading is just quick in-and-out trades to profit from the price difference, but the real core is to identify buy and sell opportunities at the right time while also controlling risk. Short-term trading usually comes in two forms: day trading (completed within the same day) and swing trading (holding positions for several days to several weeks). The difference lies in the holding time and how you adjust your strategy.

I’ve found that many traders who lose money have one thing in common: they get carried away by the news. You see a piece of financial news and think it’s an opportunity, but the market has already reacted long ago. So the first step is to learn how to look at the technical side. Moving averages are the tool I use the most. They can help you judge the direction of the trend and identify support and resistance levels. If the price is above the moving average, it basically indicates a bullish signal.

Next, you need to understand the market’s cycle patterns. Usually, there are four stages: first comes range-bound consolidation (prices move within a certain range), then a breakout (a clear trend starts to form), followed by moving up or down, and finally entering an uncertain period. In my experience, it’s best not to act during the uncertain period, because even the best technical indicators are hard to give clear signals at that time.

Choosing the right instruments for short-term trading is also particular. Don’t just look at whether a company’s fundamentals are good—short-term trading can go either long or short. The key is to find instruments with strong themes, high trading volume, and extremely volatile price movement. Usually, it’s when a company has major news or when the market is highly volatile that this kind of stock has room for short-term operations.

During actual trading, the most effective strategies I’ve used are:

**First:** enter when the stock price has just started rising and the increase isn’t large yet. Check whether the moving average system has formed a bullish alignment. If the turnover rate is around 3%, then wait for the price to pull back to the 5-day moving average and buy decisively. This situation tends to have a relatively high success rate.

**Second:** contrarian opportunities. When the overall market is falling, some stocks can rise more than 5% against the trend and come with an increase in trading volume—that’s the signal. You can enter either at the day’s close or on a pullback the next day. There’s an old saying here: “If it doesn’t drop when it should, it will rise.” That’s what it means.

**Third:** the rebound opportunity after a quick surge followed by a rapid drop. If the trading volume shrinks and the decline exceeds half of the prior rise, you can enter to catch the short-term rebound.

There’s also a case where both the monthly (month K) and weekly (week K) candlestick charts are at low levels, with volume building up, and the 60-minute line shows a bullish golden cross with rising volume. This usually means a certain hot-sector theme is starting to activate, and you can prepare to take a short-term entry.

But the most important point is mindset and risk management. I’ve seen too many people lose money out of greed. If your judgment is wrong, cut your losses immediately; if the price reaches your psychological target, take profit right away—don’t think you can earn a little more. Many people do quite well in simulated trading, but once they go live, everything falls apart. The fundamental reason is that they haven’t adjusted their mindset.

The essence of short-term trading is to accumulate returns through higher trading frequency and more accurate timing. This requires you to have a real understanding of technical analysis—not to rely on luck. The market always looks forward, so keep learning, backtest your strategies, and control your emotions.

To sum it up simply: identify potential trading opportunities, effectively manage risk, and make good use of technical analysis. If you master these three points, short-term trading can go the distance.