The essence of successful swing trading is to put oneself in positions where one has limited downside risk but significant upside potential. Many times, (in order to achieve these conditions) traders use options due to the extra leverage involved. However, the use of derivatives always brings a time element to the trade which adds risk. Why? Because, if the underlying stock does not move significantly within the duration of the option contract, the trade can end up being a large loser.
However, when utilising the actual shares of the underlying instead of option contracts, one