I need some advise from people who have a full time job.
What time frames should I be focusing on?
how can I keep track of my trades and move my SL to BE and things like this if i’m at work?
Won’t I be missing all triggers if I’m at work for 8 hours and asleep for 8 hours?
I’ve been looking at 4 hour charts with 1 hour for triggers but even this seems to small a TF if I work 9-5.
I guess it can work but I beleive I would have to set my SL and “walk away from the computer”. So I wont be able to move my SL to BE or even touch my trade for 8 hours.
Is this not a huge problem? I’m quite confused. I understand the majority of people trade part time and also have jobs so how do you manage it? I feel the need to stay at my computer the whole time. Going to work would worry me. I would have no control after my trade has begun and I only have my SL to rely on.
Epidot… I have the exact answer to your question!!!
Unfortunately, it won’t tell you much, except what you need personally to look for.
You need a methodology and a type of analysis that allows you to find very high probability trades, and place “set and forget” type orders. Something that you could get away with just looking at once a day.
or, you could just foget the 4 hr and 1hr charts…a.nd move up to daily/4hr.
or weekly;daily. keep the same strategy your using…just extend the TF’s you use
I have no idea of your methodology, but I personally am a big fan of the set and forget style order.
Essentially, I identify a price zone where I think price is likely to turn around once it reaches that zone.
If it meets my criteria, I then place an order there, with a preset stop and preset target…and often rules for trailing
the stop. (MT4 allows this type of thing…so you can set it to manage itself automatically)
I check once a day, and cancel if the criteria is no longer valid. other than that…it’s just a once a day analysis, once a day check existing orders.
Look up Nial Fuller on the internet. He has videos on youtube as well as a helpful site (free material here). You can trade his system using daily charts and a set and forget strategy that if done correctly, only requires you looking at your charts for maybe an hour a day. You analyze, make your decisions, and walk-away. You may be in trades for a day or two, and usually have an opportunity to move you SL if appropriate.
I would recommend the 4hr and daily charts too like what Jay has mentioned. With 4 hr charts you only need to check no more than 3 times while at work. Each time prob takes like 5mins or so.
If not, go for the daily. You just need to check once at closing of the markets everyday.
Defintely sufficient time to move your stoploss to breakeven or set profit targets.
Trading around a 9 to 5 job can be tricky. But if you focus on the daily charts and “set and forget” your trades like the others have mentioned, it tends to work just fine.
I actually have found that setting and forgetting works best even if you don’t have a typical 9 to 5 job. I was one of the traders before who was meddling with my trades after they were live, thinking that I was “tweaking” them. Well, really all you do is interfere with the ability of your trading edge to play out over time. I’ve simply found that most of the time if you just let your trades go, you are better off. You are naturally going to be more emotional once the trade is on, so there’s no point in trying to make your trading decisions at that time.