Folks who know me personally still think I'm an absolute nut for what I did 6 or so months ago. Basically, I had been a full-time trader for the previous 4 years.....started daytrading with a little beginners luck before coming within a gnats ass of blowing out. Then, I decided it would be to my benefit to find some sort of edge. That's when I ran across TA. Over the course of a year, I charted the top 100 gainers & losers on a daily basis. Fortunately, I found "my edge" and started making good $. Unfortunately, I went 2 years without buying a tank of gas for my vehicle......I drank a case of cokes every day.......I never changed my drawers.........etc, etc.. I finally decided a change was in store when I couldn't see my dong anymore. To make a long story short, I went to work chunking tires at CTB 12 hours a day and my pecker has reappeared. AND, I still make money trading but I'll admit I miss more opportunities than I did before.....particulary option plays. I simply scroll over the 600 charts I have annotated at stockcharts.com and load GTC orders for the one's I like. At lunch I call my broker and see if anythings been executed and I adjust my stops accordingly. Yep, it sounds ridiculous and a bit crazy but it's worked so far.
Making MORE MONEY TRADING working full time?
- Thread starter Speakingout
- Start date
I started out trying to trade and work at the same time and let me tell you, DON'T DO IT. I'm even on the west coast here, so I got to trade mornings full-time and guess what, it still doesn't work.
Swing trading doesn't mean that you don't pay attention to daily action....your entries and exits must be paid attention to and they tend to happen at the worst times. The LAST thing you want to be worrying about is your trade that you just put on while you are working. Its hard enough to trade without any outside factors; when you add other responsiblities you are setting yourself up for a disaster.
On another note, I'd imagine that once you got good enough you could probably pull it off. But no way if you are just starting out. Save up your money like me and find a way to spend a year figuring it out. You'll be glad you did. I know many people that have swing traded 'off and on' for many years (read...traded while doing other things more important to them) and just lost money. Trading is an art, and you must master it. Its a full-time job.
Swing trading doesn't mean that you don't pay attention to daily action....your entries and exits must be paid attention to and they tend to happen at the worst times. The LAST thing you want to be worrying about is your trade that you just put on while you are working. Its hard enough to trade without any outside factors; when you add other responsiblities you are setting yourself up for a disaster.
On another note, I'd imagine that once you got good enough you could probably pull it off. But no way if you are just starting out. Save up your money like me and find a way to spend a year figuring it out. You'll be glad you did. I know many people that have swing traded 'off and on' for many years (read...traded while doing other things more important to them) and just lost money. Trading is an art, and you must master it. Its a full-time job.
Don't know about swing trade, since I day-trade but I would imagine it can be done if your strategy and buy/sell signals are based on daily charts. You might miss out on a little profit by selling early or not at the perfect time, but I'm pretty sure it can be done.
I currently day-trade the first hour of the market and then go to my full-time job as a software developer. It's working out pretty good. The first hour is enough to meet my goal of $400/day. Now, this might not happen every single day but since I'm not relying on trading profits for income, I have no pressure to make money in the markets every single day. I think once I get better as a trader, I'll be able to pull $1-1.5K in the first hour and still continue with my career/business.
Regards.
-FastTrader
I currently day-trade the first hour of the market and then go to my full-time job as a software developer. It's working out pretty good. The first hour is enough to meet my goal of $400/day. Now, this might not happen every single day but since I'm not relying on trading profits for income, I have no pressure to make money in the markets every single day. I think once I get better as a trader, I'll be able to pull $1-1.5K in the first hour and still continue with my career/business.
Regards.
-FastTrader
If you really want to have another vocation (e.g. if you truly wanted to remain a graphic designer) cos you love it as much as you love trading, switch time zone so that you can do your vocation without touching the New York timezone... this way you can give your trading the full focus it deserves... an additional upside to this is that you don't have the inconvenience of having to frequently withdraw from your account to live on, since your other love, your vocation, would take care of the day to day living costs...
Have you been following me after the market?
Having gone through this experience (working full time then swing trading futures full time) let me add another perspective.
Swing trading and working full time can be accomplished very successfully if you develop/use a good system which considers reward-to-risk prudently. Stop & stop limit orders get you into the market effectively but the key is to get stops entered once you're in the market. Even though I'm full time trading, I still would rather use my IB who understands my trading style. Most times I prefer to get away from the screen so as not to influence my trade by second guessing my system.
There are some days where early action is key to stop decisions and reduction of risk. On those days I adjust, then let go. But if I wasn't available to adjust stops, I would've been in the market at slightly larger risks or may have taken a slightly less profit.
I do take larger risks, but gains are greater as well. Make
5 to 8 trades a month.
So it can be done, but study well and continue to seek good advise.
Much Success to All,
IF you trade to augment your wages or retirement accounts then yes, you could do this part-time: lots of people do this through online brokers. This is not their career though.
If you are a serious, full-time trader, then there is no-time for other jobs. To excel requires your full, or nearly full attention.
If you are successful in this business then you dont need another job.
I do have other business responsibilities but I have had these for several years now and they take only a few hours per day and I have hired exceptional people to take over most of the day to day stuff in my other ventures. During trading hours I am in the trading room running the business and I dont see any way to do this successfully unless I am able to focus my attention on the markets. It takes a lot of work to make trading a successful venture. If you know what you are doing then this business can be better financially than most other small ventures and much better than even very well paying professional salaried positions.