Trading is an activity that can be rewarding, exciting, and challenging. Trading is also considered to be the hardest game in the world. However, it also requires time, attention, and discipline. For many people, finding the time and energy to trade can be difficult, especially if they have a busy lifestyle.
How can one fit trading into a busy schedule without sacrificing their quality of life? Here are some tips and strategies that can help.
Choose the right market and time frame
One of the first steps to fit trading into a busy lifestyle is to choose the right market and time frame that suit your availability and preferences. Different markets have different characteristics. Each one has its own unique amount of volatility, liquidity, trading hours, and fees. For example, the forex market is open 24 hours a day, five days a week, and offers low transaction costs and high leverage. However, it also involves high risk and requires constant monitoring of currency movements and news events. On the other hand, the stock market is open only during specific hours, depending on the country and exchange, and offers a wide variety of instruments and sectors to choose from. However, it also involves higher transaction costs and lower leverage.
Similarly, different time frames have different implications for trading. For example, trading on shorter time frames, such as minutes or hours, requires more frequent analysis, entry, and exit decisions, as well as more stress and emotional pressure. On the other hand, trading on longer time frames, such as days or weeks, requires less time and effort, but also less opportunities and slower returns.
Therefore, you should choose the market and time frame that match your goals, risk tolerance, personality, and schedule. For instance, if you have a full-time job that occupies most of your day, you may want to trade on longer time frames in the stock market or the forex market during off-peak hours. If you have more flexible hours or work from home, you may want to trade on shorter time frames in the forex market or the futures market during peak hours.
Plan your trades ahead
Another way to fit trading into a busy lifestyle is to plan your trades ahead of time. This means doing your homework before the market opens or after it closes, depending on your chosen time frame. You should conduct your technical analysis, fundamental analysis, news research, and risk management to identify potential trading opportunities, entry points, exit points, stop-loss levels, and position sizes ahead of time. You should also have a trading plan that outlines your trading strategy, rules, and objective – all of which should be in sync with the time and effort you can realistically give.
Planning your trades ahead can help you focus on just executing the trades onces the opportunity appears. It can also help you stay focused and disciplined on executing your trading plan without being distracted by market noise or external factors.
Use Technology Wisely
Technology can be a great ally or a great enemy for traders who have a busy lifestyle. On one hand, technology can help you access the market anytime and anywhere through various devices and platforms. You can use online brokers, trading software, mobile apps, alerts, signals, indicators, charts, and other tools to facilitate your trading process. You can also use automation tools to execute your trades automatically based on predefined criteria.
If automation isn’t suitable for you, alerts can be the better alternative. Even when you’re in the office or somewhere else, alerts will help you find out if significant moves are happening in the market.
Is it possible to trade successfully while being a busy person?
The answer is most definitely yes! Many well renowned traders have achieved success even as they have other responsibilities to attend to. The Market Wizard Tom Basso perfectly explained it in the Investa Summit 2023 that trading doesn’t need to be all-consuming. According to him, the best strategy will always be the one that you can execute based on your circumstances. Finding that strategy means figuring out what your edge is in the market, and developing a set of rules that will help you turn it into profits.
