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Trading style can require different levels of involvement based personal preferences that include: 

holding periods, risk tolerance/temperance and speed.

Forex trading styles can be broken down into two types: long term and short term. Short term trading styles include scalping and day trading, while long term trading styles include swing trading and position trading.

It is vital for every trader to determine which of the four primary trading styles – day trading, position trading, scalping, and swing trading – suits them, and their long-term needs and goals.

Scalping

Scalping is the most short-term form of trading. Scalp traders only hold positions open for seconds or minutes at most. These short-lived trades target small intraday price movements. The purpose is to make lots of quick trades with smaller profit gains, but let profits accumulate throughout the day due to the sheer number of trades being executed in each trading session.

This style of trading requires tight spreads and liquid markets. As a result, scalpers tend to trade major currency pairs only (due to liquidity and high trading volume), such as EURUSD, GBPUSD, and USDJPY.

They also tend to trade only the busiest times of the trading day, during the overlap of trading sessions when there is more trading volume, and often volatility. Scalpers look for the tightest spreads possible, simply because they enter the market so frequently, so paying a wider spread will eat into potential profits.

The fast-paced trading environment of trying to scalp a few pips as many times as possible throughout the trading day can be stressful for many traders and is hugely time-consuming, given the fact you will need to focus on charts for several hours at a time. As scalping can be intense, scalpers tend to trade one or two pairs.

Day trading

For those that are not comfortable with the intensity of scalp trading, but still don't wish to hold positions overnight, day trading may suit.

Day traders enter and exit their positions on the same day (unlike swing and position traders), removing the risk of any large overnight moves. At the end of the day, they close their position with either a profit or a loss. Trades are usually held for a period of minutes or hours, and as a result, require sufficient time to analyse the markets and frequently monitor positions throughout the day. Just like scalp traders, day traders rely on frequent small gains to build profits.