I've done a little swing trading, but not much. I've been watching all of the strings here on allstocks for almost a year and have made some interesting observations. One thing I've found is that the few here on swing traders seem to be one's working with real money. Here's what I mean. Over on the penny stock boards they spend a lot of time talking about the "big play" or "huge gains" they made-- when in reality many held a half million shares of a stock trading at .0005--big friggin deal, 250 bucks. The "big play" was turn 250 into 350. Obviously this isn't everybody, but it's a trend I see often.

Anyway i'm curious about what is a realistic number of dollars to swing trade with with the hopes of making some real forward progress? Thoughts? Thanks

I have been swing trading for about 3 years now... I started with just $1000. I learned most of what I know from FST who used to post here. I feel that if you get in with $250 pos. and increase in increments of 1/3 pos. of $250... then you have a great chance to gain 10% and up on most of your trades. I don't like to talk in $$$ just in % increase of net worth. If you trade one stock and gain 10% then great... if you gain 5% that’s good to... and every now and then your going to hit it big and gain 25% - 100%. Keep an eye on this board there are a lot of great picks listed here. ART is a long time trader... and he always has great picks.

I'm now dealing with around $15,000