Maintaining a certain distance from the markets can be profitable
He wants to be a trader but between work, family, friends and hobbies it is almost impossible to devote the time that this requires, let alone pick up pace. Do not worry, many of the traders, if not all, when they start facing that problem.
Over the years I discovered that many traders believe that they need to be glued to the monitor throughout the day to make money and stay informed, but this can not be further from reality.
In fact, the focus of a busy trading day is probably the most difficult to master.
When people find out that I am a trader, they tell me compassionately how "stressful" my day should be. It's hard to blame them for those confusions since films like Wall Street or scenes deotrass like A good year for decades have done everything possible to give that image. However, the daily routines in the best hedge funds that I know are daily, though not "boring".
Having worked with many traders with different personalities in all these years, I can say that not many are prepared for the nervous and very hectic intraday trading style that they think they should use.
The intraday traders are constantly exposed to irrelevant news that move markets and algorithms that can stop a position instantly. This can frustrate the novice trader as the losses accumulate and, therefore, destroy any degree of confidence that the trader had in the first place.
A much more attractive alternative and I have found that it adapts to different personalities in different cultures is what I call "swing trading in the medium term". This style can be applied to instruments with liquidity from stocks to currencies, futures and others, in periods of time between two days to several weeks.
These periods of time can also be an optimal point for operations with few people since, by definition, intraday traders do not operate that way while institutional players use longer time horizons.
It is a much more reasonable approach for people with full-time or part-time jobs, retired people or those who do not find the time necessary to sit in front of the monitor all day.
Ironically, keeping some distance from the markets often also turns out to be a more profitable approach since the micro management of any operation is much more difficult and, therefore, premature stop-outs are avoided.
He wants to be a trader but between work, family, friends and hobbies it is almost impossible to devote the time that this requires, let alone pick up pace. Do not worry, many of the traders, if not all, when they start facing that problem.
Over the years I discovered that many traders believe that they need to be glued to the monitor throughout the day to make money and stay informed, but this can not be further from reality.
In fact, the focus of a busy trading day is probably the most difficult to master.
When people find out that I am a trader, they tell me compassionately how "stressful" my day should be. It's hard to blame them for those confusions since films like Wall Street or scenes deotrass like A good year for decades have done everything possible to give that image. However, the daily routines in the best hedge funds that I know are daily, though not "boring".
Having worked with many traders with different personalities in all these years, I can say that not many are prepared for the nervous and very hectic intraday trading style that they think they should use.
The intraday traders are constantly exposed to irrelevant news that move markets and algorithms that can stop a position instantly. This can frustrate the novice trader as the losses accumulate and, therefore, destroy any degree of confidence that the trader had in the first place.
A much more attractive alternative and I have found that it adapts to different personalities in different cultures is what I call "swing trading in the medium term". This style can be applied to instruments with liquidity from stocks to currencies, futures and others, in periods of time between two days to several weeks.
These periods of time can also be an optimal point for operations with few people since, by definition, intraday traders do not operate that way while institutional players use longer time horizons.
It is a much more reasonable approach for people with full-time or part-time jobs, retired people or those who do not find the time necessary to sit in front of the monitor all day.
Ironically, keeping some distance from the markets often also turns out to be a more profitable approach since the micro management of any operation is much more difficult and, therefore, premature stop-outs are avoided.
