Title:
Part-Time Trading ˘ Making The Most Of Your Time Word Count:
587 Summary:
It seems like I am always answering the question as to whether trading can be done meaningfully on a part-time basis. My answer is always the same ˘ ˆAbsolutely!˜
Somehow people have been convinced that you have to spend hour upon hour in front of computer watching the markets in order to have a chance at success. That is simply just not true. Part-time trading can be extremely worthwhile ˘ in some cases even more so than trading more actively. I am proof of that. Even tho...
Keywords:
part-time trading, part-time trader, trading part-time
Article Body:
It seems like I am always answering the question as to whether trading can be done meaningfully on a part-time basis. My answer is always the same ˘ ˆAbsolutely!˜
Somehow people have been convinced that you have to spend hour upon hour in front of computer watching the markets in order to have a chance at success. That is simply just not true. Part-time trading can be extremely worthwhile ˘ in some cases even more so than trading more actively. I am proof of that. Even though I sometimes do have the opportunity to trade more frequently, my best trades always seem to be the ones I do on a more part-time basis ˘ the ones that only require an occasional check of the markets. This may sound strange coming from someone who used to be a professional analyst and really does enjoy the markets, but I really have no desire to spend all day in front of the trading screens. It´s a grind, and I have a lot of other things I enjoy doing a whole lot more than watching price quotes tick up and down. I´m sure you could say the same.
Effective part-time trading is simply a matter of maximizing the time you have available. That might be an hour a night, or maybe a couple hours on the weekend. Maybe it´s even less than that. It doesn´t matter. If you make the most of what you have, you can do good things trading part-time. Doing so is a matter of developing a method for your work and applying it consistently. I´ll use myself as an example.
My schedule is somewhat convoluted. I travel frequently and my activities have a seasonal nature to them. There are points in the year when I have almost no time to devote to the markets. At other times I can maybe put in an hour each morning. Then there are also times when things are more open and I can be a bit more active. Regardless of my time availability, though, I always do the same thing. I scan the charts for the markets I´m interested in trading and look for something specific. If I don´t see it, I move on to the next. If I don´t see anything good, I don´t trade. It´s as simple as that.
My available trading time will dictate which timeframe charts I look at when doing my scan. If I´m at a point where I can be more active, I´ll perhaps look at the hourly charts. If I can only check in on things once or twice a week, I´ll look to the daily and/or weekly charts to find possible trades with longer holding periods. In that way, I can choose the best timeframe for me to operate in for my schedule at that point. What is more, I don´t ever have to trade. That´s a major advantage for part-time traders. Unlike our full-time peers who are under pressure to produce results every day, we can pick our spots and only go after trades likely to be big winners. I´ll take that relaxed approach any day!
Let´s face it. Full-time trading is a commitment most of us will either never be able to or never be willing to make. That doesn´t mean we cannot make excellent use of the markets to better our financial situation. Part-time trading can certainly provide the opportunity to do just that.
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