Short-term Trading Tactics — “The Core of Intraday Swing Trading: Discipline Matters More Than Prediction”

Many friends think short-term trading is just “buy fast and sell fast, buy low and sell high.” It sounds simple, but when you actually do it, it all falls apart. When I first started short-term trading, I could make more than ten trades a day, and I ended up paying a lot in fees. When I finally added everything up, I was still losing. Later, I calmed down and studied, and then I realized the core of short-term trading isn’t whether your predictions are accurate—it’s whether your discipline is strict or not. Below are a few practical tips I summarized.

First, only trade strong coins, not weak ones. Short-term trading is all about “riding the trend.” You should look for coins that show clear volume expansion on the 30-minute or 1-hour timeframe and have bullish moving average alignment, rather than trying to catch bottoms of coins that keep sliding. Strong coins usually attract capital, have bigger volatility, and offer more short-term opportunities; weak coins, even if they bounce, often lack strength and are easy to get stuck in losses.

Second, set strict stop-loss and take-profit levels. This is the lifeline of short-term trading. I usually set the stop-loss at 3%-5% below the entry price. Once triggered, you exit unconditionally—no hesitation. Take-profit is set based on resistance levels or prior highs, generally in the 5%-10% range. Short-term trading isn’t about making money on every single trade; it’s about “small losses for big gains”—losing small when you’re wrong, and winning big when you’re right. If you don’t have stop-loss discipline, one big loss can erase all the profits from your previous ten winning trades.

Third, control position sizing—never go all-in on a single trade. Short-term trading has a high level of uncertainty, so the position you commit to each trade must never be too large. I usually use only 5%-10% of total funds per trade, so even if you get several trades wrong in a row, it won’t damage your account. Never convince yourself you’re right and then go all-in—that’s gambling, not investing.

Fourth, watch key time points. In crypto markets, short-term price fluctuations often cluster around specific periods, such as around the opening of the U.S. stock market (around 9:30 PM Beijing time), when important economic data is released, or when the project posts favorable announcements. Around these time points, market sentiment tends to swing more, and there are more short-term opportunities. Conversely, in early mornings in Asia or on weekend afternoons, liquidity is weaker, prices are prone to range-bound movement or wicks/spikes, so it’s better to reduce trading.

Fifth, make good use of technical indicators to support decision-making. The indicators I commonly use are: Moving Averages (MA) to read trend direction, MACD to observe momentum changes, and RSI to gauge overbought/oversold conditions. When RSI is above 70, it indicates overbought and there’s a risk of a short-term pullback; below 30 indicates oversold and there may be a rebound opportunity. But keep in mind these indicators aren’t 100% accurate—they’re only for reference. Your final decision should still be based on candlestick patterns and trading volume.

Finally, remember this: the ultimate goal of short-term trading isn’t to catch every single move, but to build a probabilistic edge through repeated trades. As long as your risk-reward ratio and win rate can support positive expectation, long-term consistency will make you profitable. If you feel short-term trading is too exhausting, you can always switch to medium- and long-term investing—what suits you best is the best.

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