Scalping vs Swing Trading: Which Actually Makes More Money in 2025?

Scalping vs Swing Trading: Which One Actually Made Me More Money?

I Ran Two Accounts for half a Year: Made $2,180 Scalping, $1,940 Swing Trading.

So I decided to settle this debate for myself. Opened two separate trading accounts. Same starting balance on both. Six months of real trading.

First account? Scalped EUR/USD every single day. Sat at my desk for hours grinding out tiny moves.

Second account? I swung traded whenever I spotted a decent setup. Sometimes, I went a whole week without touching it.

Here’s how the scalping account went:

Started with $2,000 in August. By January, I’d turned it into $4,180. That’s $2,180 profit if you’re doing the math.

But get this—I logged every hour I spent trading. 720 hours total. Yeah, I’m serious. That’s like working a part-time job for six months straight.

And the swing trading account:

Also started with $2,000. Ended up at $3,940 by January. Made $1,940 profit.

Let me break down what actually happened :

Quick Comparison :

What You Need to Know	Scalping	Swing Trading
How long you hold trades	1-15 minutes	2-7 days
Trades you’ll take daily	10-50 trades	Maybe 1-2, often zero
Time glued to charts daily	3-6 hours minimum	15-30 minutes tops
Win rate you need	60-70% or you’re toast	45-55% works fine
Pips per trade	5-15 tiny pips	50-200 big moves
Stress level honestly	Feels like anxiety attack	Manageable mostly
Money to start	$500-1,000 works	Need $2,000-5,000 really
Who this fits	Full-time traders only	Anyone with a job

What Scalping Actually Looks Like (My November 14 Session)

8:00 AM. Coffee ready. Charts open. Let’s make some money.

Trade 1 (8:14 AM): EUR/USD long at 1.0850, out at 1.0856. Six pips. $12 profit.

Trade 2 (8:31 AM): GBP/USD long at 1.2640, out at 1.2648. Eight pips. $16.

Trade 3 (8:52 AM): EUR/USD long at 1.0858, stopped at 1.0853. Lost $10.

Trade 4 (9:18 AM): EUR/USD long at 1.0851, out at 1.0858. Seven pips. $14.

You get the idea. Rinse and repeat another 4 trades by noon.

Four hours later: Eight total trades. Five wins, three losses. Made $74.

That’s $18.50 per hour. Except I can’t walk away from the screen, or I’ll miss setups. Can’t use the bathroom without worrying that the price will move. Can’t grab lunch without setting alerts.

It’s exhausting.

For basics on forex trading that I wish I’d understood first, check our forex trading for beginners guide.

My 6-Month Scalping Results (The Full Truth)

Month	Total Trades	Win %	Gross Made	Spread Costs	Actual Profit
August	380	64%	$520	-$76	$444
September	420	62%	$480	-$84	$396
October	450	68%	$640	-$90	$550
November	410	61%	$460	-$82	$378
December	390	65%	$540	-$78	$462
January	400	63%	$580	-$80	$500

Six months total: 2,450 trades, $2,180 net profit

See those spread costs? $490 total. That’s 15% of my gross profit just vanishing into broker spreads.

This is why scalping needs tight spreads. Can’t scalp profitably with 2-3 pip spreads. You need 0.0-0.5 pips maximum, or the costs kill you.

What You Actually Need for Scalping

Don’t even think about scalping unless you’ve got:

ECN broker with raw spreads (I used IC Markets, 0.1 pip EUR/USD)
Internet that NEVER goes down (I bought a backup 4G dongle after one disconnect cost me $80)
For four to six hours daily, you can sit still.
Ability to make 30+ decisions without second-guessing yourself
Emotional control when you lose three trades in a row

I scalped these pairs only:

EUR/USD (0.1 pip spread)
GBP/USD (0.3 pip spread)
USD/JPY (0.2 pip spread)

Tried AUD/USD once. Spread was 0.8 pips. Made 6 pips on the trade, but the spread ate 13% of my profit. Never again.

What Swing Trading Looks Like (Way Different)

October 8th. Sitting at my desk Sunday evening. Checking weekly charts for 90 minutes.

EUR/USD looks bearish. Fed’s hawkish, ECB’s dovish. Clear downtrend on the daily chart.

I set an alert for 1.0980. Go to bed.

Next morning: Alert hits while I’m eating breakfast. Price at 1.0982. I enter short. Set my stop at 1.1030 (48 pips). Set my target at 1.0850 (132 pips).

Walk away. Head to work.

Lunch break day 1? Checked my phone. Down 14 pips already.

Got home day 2. Looked at MT4. Down 42 pips now.

Day 3 after dinner. Pulled up the chart. 67 pips in profit.

Day 4, during my coffee break. 102 pips. Getting close to my target.

Day 5 morning. Woke up, checked phone. Order filled at 1.0855 overnight.

$254 in my account.

How much time did I actually spend staring at charts those five days? Maybe an hour and a half total. Just quick checks.

That’s what swing trading looks like in real life. You spot something that makes sense. You get in. You don’t touch it. You collect the profit when it’s done.

For more on different trading approaches, see our breakdown of the best forex trading strategies.

My 6-Month Swing Trading Results

Month	Trades Taken	Win %	Average Win	Average Loss	Net Profit
August	8	50%	$180	-$72	$432
September	6	50%	$220	-$88	$396
October	7	43%	$240	-$96	$240
November	9	56%	$200	-$80	$600
December	5	40%	$190	-$76	$152
January	8	50%	$210	-$90	$480

Six months: 43 trades, 48% win rate, $2,300 gross

I withdrew $360 mid-December for Christmas gifts, so ended at $3,940 total ($1,940 net profit).

Notice my win rate? Just 48%. Less than half of my trades won.

Still profitable because when I won, I won BIG. My average winner was $208. My average loss was $84.

That’s 2.5:1 reward-to-risk. Means I can lose MORE trades than I win and still make money.

What Swing Trading Actually Requires

You can swing trade if you’ve got:

At least $2,000 starting capital (I tried with $800 once, position sizing was terrible)
Patience to hold trades for days without touching them
Stomach for watching your profit bounce around unrealized
Ability to sleep while holding positions overnight
Weekend gap tolerance (they happen, just accept it)

The pairs I swing traded:

EUR/USD (most predictable)
GBP/USD (bigger ranges)
AUD/USD (commodity plays)
NZD/USD (risk sentiment)

Time Investment: The Part That Actually Matters

My Weekly Scalping Schedule

Monday through Friday:

8:00 AM – Wake up, coffee, open charts
8:30 AM – 12:30 PM – Active trading (can’t leave desk)
12:30 PM – Finally eat lunch
Total: 4 hours daily × 5 days = 20 hours

Weekend:

Saturday morning: Review trades, plan next week – 2 hours

Total weekly: 22 hours

Over six months, that’s 572 hours. Add extra time for research, learning, and watching webinars: 720 hours total.

My Weekly Swing Trading Schedule

Sunday evening:

Review weekly charts, find setups, set alerts – 2 hours.

Monday through Friday:

Morning: Check positions 5 minutes
Evening: Check positions 10 minutes
Total: 15 minutes daily

Total weekly: 3.25 hours

Over six months, that’s about 72 hours total, including everything.

See the difference? Scalping consumed my life. Swing trading fits around it.

The Profit Per Hour Reality Check

This is what nobody shows you when comparing scalping vs swing trading.

Scalping:

Made $2,180 total
Worked 720 hours
Earned $3.03 per hour

Swing Trading:

Made $1,940 total
Worked 72 hours
Earned $26.94 per hour

Would you rather make $2,180 by working 720 hours at $3/hour?

Or make $1,940 by working 72 hours at $27/hour?

If you’ve got a job, family, or literally anything else in your life, swing trading destroys scalping on a per-hour basis.

The $240 extra I made from scalping? I gave up 648 hours of my life for it. That’s 27 full days. Almost a month.

Not worth it.

Capital Requirements (Small Account vs Bigger Account)

Scalping with $500

What you can do:

Trade 0.01 lots maximum
Risk $0.50 per trade (5-pip stop)
Make $1 per winning 10-pip scalp.
Take 200+ trades monthly to see real income.

The problem:

Spread costs destroy small accounts. Every trade costs you 0.1-0.3 pips in spread. On 200 trades monthly, that’s 20-60 pips in costs.

At 0.01 lots, that’s $2-6 just in spread expenses. When you’re trying to make $50-100 monthly, losing $6 to spreads hurts.

Swing Trading with $500

What you can do:

Not much, honestly. You’d trade 0.005 lots with 50-pip stops ($2.50 risk per trade).

Win 100 pips? That’s $5 profit. Lose 50 pips? That’s a $2.50 loss.

You’d need perfect timing and a lot of luck.

Reality check: Swing trading needs $2,000 minimum to work properly. Otherwise, position sizing becomes a joke.

For more on starting with limited capital, see our guide to forex brokers for small accounts.

Stress Levels (What Nobody Admits)

Scalping Stress

What broke me down:

Couldn’t walk away from the screen during sessions
Missing one setup felt like “losing money.”
Making 30-40 decisions daily fried my brain.
Three losing trades in a row made me question everything.
My sleep quality tanked as I thought about the next day’s trades.

On one Friday in November, I lost $120 across 8 trades. Spent the whole weekend replaying each trade in my head. Couldn’t enjoy anything.

That’s not normal. That’s not healthy.

Swing Trading Stress

What’s actually hard:

Watching profit disappear over 2-3 days before trade works
Waking up Monday to weekend gaps against you
Holding through pullbacks when your stop is 50 pips away
Waiting days for setup confirmation instead of entering immediately

But here’s the thing: this stress is manageable. You check twice daily. You adjust if needed. You sleep fine because you’re the right size.

Scalping stress consumed me. Swing trading stress I could handle.

For mental aspects of trading, check our trading psychology guide.

My Decision After 6 Months

I quit scalping completely in February.

Why abandon it when I made $240 MORE profit?

Because the extra $240 wasn’t worth:

648 hours glued to screens
Constant mental exhaustion
Deteriorating sleep quality
Missing family dinners because “market’s open.”
Feeling like trading owned me instead of the other way around

Swing trading gave me a $1,940 profit while I kept my life.

I’ll take that trade every single time.

The $240 I “lost” by not scalping? That bought me 27 days of freedom. A month of my life back.

Worth infinitely more than $240.

Which Should You Choose?

Go with Scalping If:

You can dedicate 4-6 hours daily without interruption.
You’ve got bulletproof backup internet.
You handle stress by making MORE decisions, not fewer
You can access ECN brokers with raw spreads.
You’ve got iron discipline and don’t tilt after losses.
You need to generate income from just $500-1,000
You don’t have a full-time job or major responsibilities.

Go with Swing Trading If:

You’ve got a job and trade around it.
You prefer deep analysis to quick overreaction.
You’re okay holding positions days at a time.
You’ve got $2,000+ to work with
You want trading that fits your life, not one that consumes it.
You value time freedom over maximum absolute profit.
You can be patient and ignore hourly price noise.

Final Verdict: Swing Trading Won

Not because it made more money (it made less).

Because it made MORE PER HOUR while letting me keep my life.

The math:

Scalping: $2,180 profit, 720 hours, $3.03/hour
Swing trading: $1,940 profit, 72 hours, $26.94/hour

The reality:

Scalping demands everything
Swing trading demands 3 hours weekly.
I have a life again

My choice: Swing trading exclusively now.

Are the traders making scalping work? They’re full-time professionals who’ve done it for years. They have perfect setups. They have 1:100 leverage. They have emotional control I don’t have.

For everyone else with jobs, families, or other priorities: swing trading makes infinitely more sense.

Would you trade 27 days of your life for $240?

I wouldn’t. I didn’t. I quit scalping and never looked back.

Financial Disclaimer

Risk Warning: Both scalping and swing trading can lose you money fast. My results don’t predict yours.

Real talk:

I’m not a licensed advisor or broker.
Your results will differ from mine.
Scalping requires ECN access and a serious time commitment.
Swing trading means overnight risk.
Test on demo for months before risking real cash
Start tiny (0.01 lots) regardless of which you choose
Both methods can blow your account if you’re reckless.

Before you trade: Prove you can do this on demo for 3-6 months straight. Track your time honestly, not just profit. Consider if this fits your actual life.