Recently, many people have been saying that long-term positions are not moving, so they start thinking about short-term investing to make quick money. Honestly, short-term investing is indeed attractive, but the barrier to entry is quite high. I have explored for a while and summarized a relatively feasible stock selection approach.

Short-term investing usually involves buying and selling within a few days, profiting from price fluctuations. The core of this approach is not about whether the company's fundamentals are good, but about technical analysis, market sentiment, and current hot topics. Capital turnover is fast, and the rhythm is clear, making it easier to find opportunities in volatile markets. But the cost is a high demand for discipline and risk control; once a judgment is wrong, losses can come quickly.

To maintain stable profits in short-term investing, stock selection is the first hurdle. I found that stocks suitable for short-term trading usually have three characteristics: they are related to current hot topics, have sufficient trading volume, and exhibit large price fluctuations.

Let's start with topics. Stock prices are formed by investors' buying and selling behaviors. Hot topics at the moment tend to attract trading volume. For example, AI and semiconductors are currently the hottest sectors, with high market attention, naturally generating continuous trading momentum. NVDA is a typical example because it is closely related to AI and GPU hotspots, so short-term traders especially favor it.

Next is trading volume. The biggest risk in short-term investing is being able to buy but not sell. Stocks with high trading volume have several advantages: small bid-ask spreads, so your entry and exit won't impact the stock price; quick price reactions, allowing timely opportunities or stop-loss; transparent prices, with high reference value. If you choose stocks with low trading volume, you might find no counterparties to sell to after buying, or suffer significant price losses when selling.

Finally, the magnitude of fluctuations. Some stocks, even with good topics and trading volume, have small price swings and tend to move steadily upward or downward, making them more suitable for long-term investing. Tesla (TSLA) has much larger fluctuations than Walmart, so TSLA is more suitable for short-term trading. Around earnings reports, there are often gaps, which are also favored by short-term investors. For example, Netflix's earnings beat expectations with a gap-up, while Meta's earnings below expectations cause a gap-down—these are the kinds of opportunities short-term traders love.

Based on these characteristics, I divide the currently suitable short-term investment targets in the market into five major categories.

The first category is AI and semiconductors. This is currently the clearest capital mainline; as long as the AI story continues, semiconductors will be repeatedly traded. Core stocks include NVDA, AMD, INTC, and SMCI, among which chip design and server-related stocks have particularly high volatility and capital flow speed.

The second category is high-volatility thematic stocks. These stocks are prone to explosive gaps and have relatively clean technical signals. Many people treat them as junk stocks, but that's not true—it's just that their volatility is amplified by market sentiment. Manage your stop-loss well and treat them as tools rather than beliefs.

The third category is cryptocurrency concept stocks. If you don't want to trade Bitcoin directly but want to participate in volatility, Coinbase (COIN) and MicroStrategy (MSTR) are direct substitutes. Generally, when Bitcoin rises, these stocks rise; when Bitcoin falls, they fall, with very consistent rhythm. Whenever there are regulatory news or macro events, these stocks often show smooth one-way trends.

The fourth category is high-popularity leading stocks. Tesla (TSLA) and Palantir (PLTR) are typical examples, relying on retail investor popularity rather than fundamentals. The advantage of these stocks is that they are always watched, with sufficient liquidity every day, and technical signals are relatively reliable.

The fifth category is event-driven stocks. Oracle (ORCL) and Marvell Technology (MRVL) may not move much normally, but when earnings or major news come out, they become focal points. Implied volatility around Oracle's earnings can surge, often jumping more than 5% overnight.

Specifically, TSLA, as a leader in electric vehicles, has large price swings, often due to Musk's posts, delivery data, or autonomous driving progress, with 5% to 10% big jumps or drops within a day. NVDA, a GPU giant, is widely used in gaming, data centers, autonomous driving, and other fields, with high price volatility. SMCI, as a core supplier for AI servers, can have daily fluctuations exceeding 12% when earnings are announced, making it very suitable for short-term traders to operate quickly within support and resistance zones.

The most important aspects of short-term investing are trading discipline and cost control. US stocks have high liquidity and no commission fees, making them especially suitable for short-term trading. Moreover, US stocks allow multiple trades of the same stock within a day, providing higher trading flexibility. If you want to test these stocks' short-term strategies, it is recommended to start with a demo account to familiarize yourself with the volatility rhythm, then consider small capital operations. Maintain stop-loss discipline and treat short-term investing as a trading skill rather than gambling.