I think the strategy of taking the small gains can work well as long as you also have short stops in place too, obviously.
Personally, I do a bit of both. I may take 5-15 point gains but when I think the market is clearly trending, as with FTSE futures last night, I ride the trend but manually trail my stop which gets me out at the first sign of a reversal without taking any major risk once I am comfortably in the black (30 points and above).
I also swing trade a few UK stocks where my signals tell me they are oversold/bought. Has worked great with a number of stocks recently (in general!).
I've only been full time a few months, and hit my weekly target this week despite (or because of?) the market turbulence, so I'm happy. I definitely don't miss the 9-5 toil!
I also think in the next few weeks, a longer term long position may be a good call, any thoughts?