A few years ago two of our best traders knocked on my office to chat. They had an idea. They were interested in trading a swing account with the firm. I suggested that they come up with a list of patterns they wanted to trade and come find me. They never reapproached me with specific enough set ups and worse yet I never followed up. Both of these traders were well ahead of the intraday trading curve. Going forward all of our best traders will trade multiple accounts including a swing account.

One of the greatest day traders on the Street made most of his money in 09 in his Swing Account and not his day trading account. GMan on Friday crushed the market in his swing account and not necessarily his day trading account. On Thursday he was having the best day of his month in his swing account and not his day trading account before the GS news.

I am not suggesting that day traders become swing traders. I am just sharing that there is a trend in intraday trading to allow your best traders to trade multiple accounts, one of them being a swing account. HFTs have forced all of us to remake ourselves as intraday traders. The day trading account gives the trader a feel for excellent swing trades. These swing account trades are options trades or longer term stock trades. The day trading account is needed to find these plays to exploit. Finding these great risk/reward opportunities exist because of the work done day trading.

……Then there will be trading the foreign markets. We are in the first inning of electronic trading. The one day trading account, trading US equities exclusively, may not be the model for the future of intraday trading.