Trading with a Full Time Job
People ask me if it’s possible to trade with a full time job and the answer is YES, absolutely! In fact, for people starting out trading, this is ideal. One should never give up their full time job for trading as it just adds added pressure if you’re relying on trading to pay your bills. I personally think that you only have a chance in making it as a trader if you are able to trade initially with money which ‘means nothing’. When I say ‘means nothing’ I mean, this money you’re not reliant on for rent, for bills etc.. it’s is spare cashflow which, if you lost it wouldn’t be detrimental to your life. Being emotionally attached to money particularly at the start of your trading career is a very dangerous thing and takes many years of deliberate effort to get right. I’ve redefined my relationship to money over the many years and it was very difficult to do and still is a continual process.
Anyway, I’m digressing.. another advantage with trading and a full time job is that you will be forced to look at the longer timeframes for your trading. Company laptops and computers generally are locked down so you won’t be able to install your preferred charting platforms and you probably won’t have much time to look at the markets every minute. When i was working full time, I found that it was only really possible for me to look at the Daily charts and above to make trading decisions. The longer timeframes charts are better to learn from as there is less ‘noise’ and the signals for trading are much more clear. If you’re trading the 5 minute charts or 15 minute charts, you’ll often see many signals… count how many you see which are false signals… loads! As a beginner, you’ll soon feel completely demoralised as your account balance diminishes… a lot of people at this point crash and burn and never recover. Trading from the daily charts is much more relaxing… by default of not being able to check charts often, you’ll get used to not worrying about your positions when they go a few pips against you.. which happens all the time. It’s never possible to buy at the exact bottom and sell at the exact top. Daily charts and taking signals means that I place orders in every day.. I know my stop and my limit orders. Not every day my orders are triggered as I’m only going to enter the market if something happens the way I want it to… in other words, I’m only interested when the market comes to me and not the other way round.
The other thing that people say to me is that if you’re doing trading the Daily charts then I’m missing out on all the shorter timeframe signals and therefore all the potential trades and profit. That is true, if you are trading off the higher timeframes you are naturally going to trade less. This doesn’t mean that I am going to end up with less money.. in fact, it’s a known truth that the most profitable traders trade less. Each time you trade you have a chance of losing as well as winning and when you’re beginning your trading career, the chances are that you are going to lose more than you win… so, it’s important to note that the more you trade, the more chance you have of losing….. not only because of your skill as a beginner trader but because the lower timeframe charts have more false signals and noise. Oh, I almost forgot that each time you trade you are also paying commission to your broker!
So, in summary.. Trading with a Full Time job is great so long as you:
- Take trades off the Daily or longer timeframe charts – look at charts only when you’re home
- don’t watch the charts and meddle with your trade – hopefully at work, this is all blocked anyway!
- Set orders to enter the market with stop and limit orders – done at home, I used to set orders before i went to work
That’s it!!
I have had a hard time trying to keep up with a full time (60 hr) job and the blog… Trading will just take more time and can add risk to my savings.