There are three basic main styles:

1. Trend Following (Position Trading)

2. Swing Trading

3. Day Trading

Within these styles there are sub styles of trading, counter trend trading, momentum trading, low volatility style, and scalping.

I would say the most difficult style is day trading. Day trading can and will have the most emotional turmoil of all the trading and why I believe it is the most difficult style. It requires intense focus and processing of information to make decisions very quickly. One cannot stop to think about what they will do, they must know what they will do the instant they see the action and the discipline to act must be solid. There is very little room for error.

Trend following (Position Trading) is likely the easiest of the styles but it is the most boring and many find it difficult to have the patience to wait for trends to form and the patience to sit in trends while they work. It is also difficult to sit thru the drawdowns while trends pull back and one waits to see if the trend will end.

Swing trading is the most popular and personally is my favorite style. I would not say it is easy to master, nothing in trading is. It does tend interest most traders as you do not need to make lightning fast decisions and you can take time in the evening to set up trade plans. It can be rewarding quicker than trend following but not necessary to make lightning fast decisions that is required in day trading. I would say the difficult part is the time it takes to sort thru and find reasonable trade set ups. The danger is we get caught trading lots of mediocre trades and churn our accounts.

I prefer a mix of swing trading partial position and trend following the balance. I find it works and suits my personality well. I do day trade when the action becomes too volatile and we do not have intermediate bullish cycles in place that is more conducive to my personal style. Not all styles are conducive in all market conditions. There are times our style of trading and the particular system we trade will have us on the sidelines in cash, which can be the most difficult position to hold.

For the past several weeks I have been in day trade mode. This does not suggest I sit in front of the computer each day and crank out 10 – 30 trades every day. I use basically the same strategies just on smaller time frames. A the volatility rises we can get the same movement in markets in hours that could take days to occur when volatility is low and bullish cycles exist. This helps control risk by eliminating holding lots of positions overnight. During higher volatile markets we experience many more knee jerk reactions and larger gaps overnight. These gaps can erase existing profits fast or accumulate losses quickly.