Swing trading sits between day trading and long-term investing: a swing trader typically holds a position for anywhere from a few days to several weeks, aiming to capture a shorter-term price swing — a rally or a pullback — rather than either the single-day moves a day trader targets or the multi-year trend a long-term investor rides.
Because positions are held overnight and across weekends, swing trading carries exposure to news and events that happen while the market is closed, which day trading (flat by the close) avoids. It requires less continuous screen time than day trading, since a position doesn't need to be watched minute to minute, but more active management than a genuinely long-term buy-and-hold approach.
Swing traders typically lean more on technical analysis — chart patterns, moving averages, momentum indicators — than fundamental research, since the holding period is usually too short for a company's underlying business to change much.