Trading with a full time job just may be impossible

You missed good opportunities of Forex market because you are a part time Forex trader! But I don’t mean, all of full time Forex traders are profitable! Even I see, so many profitable traders but they are part time or news trader! Knowledge is the main key point here! If you are knowledgeable enough, then everything would be possible for you!

Sorry, I’m not following you. What is a part time forex trader?

When you are confused about the full time trading and are not able make any decision about the possible implementation of your Forex strategies. Take time to plan. According to most of the traders, it is very much possible to trade while holding a full time job. You should be going for long term. If you work off the Daily charts then your signal could come at the same time. If your signals involve waiting for closing prices, you could set up signals to be sent personally to give you alerts of price levels.
If possible, you can look for the trading hours during the night time. If the night time is possible for you, you have a good chance of seeing decent movement in the market.
Do check for support & resistance levels for the specific times. The trades that break those levels by setting entry price in platform beyond some specific points. You would need to spend your time to look into the charts when market is quiet to find the price levels. You can do this anytime when you are at home.
The bottom line: you can trade as you work full time. However, planning is required to find the limitations of the job places for your trading strategies.

The forex market is 24/5.
If a wannabe trader with a full time job has time to watch tv, play computer games, or fritter away hours on social media, he/she has time to trade part time

You see I’m now curious - the way I trade would be the same regardless of having a full time job or not.

As already mentioned, I personally trade the European Open (I live in the UK, also). During this time I place my orders within 15 minutes and then close down the PC. They have been placed and are being managed by a simple script [should they be triggered]. So the important point to take away is that by 6am GMT I am effectively finished for the day with regards to my ‘trading’ endeavors.

Because I go to work at 8am GMT, does this make me a part time trader? Do I have to sit on my hands in front of my PC and watch PA rather than go to work; just for the pleasure of being called a ‘full time trader’?

I average 6r per trading month with this approach - that’s a fine result in any traders ‘view’.

I don’t even remember what the question was. Can you trade and work? Trade and sleep? Trade and eat? Work, trade and eat? Who knows? Does it matter? You can either find a way to do it or you can’t.

This may be true FF, however my point was to revoke the previous comments; especially concerning the assumption that ‘part time trading’ relates to missed opportunities. This is not the case, but a narrow minded personal opinion.

You’re very much correct there Jezz…I only spend a few hours at night (Australia time) trading…and this is always interspersed with a thousand other things I have to do. And my husband spends much, much less time. And trading “part time hours” does not necessarily equate to a part time income.
My comment was more about the thread itself…people are always coming up with all kinds of problems that often don’t exist.:slight_smile:
That’s why you have to switch off from everything and operate from inside your own bubble:)

The solution to your problem is Swing Trading or Position Trading. If you trade the 4hourly or even the daily timeframe, all you need to do is check your charts a few times a day or once a day respectively. That is easily possible even if you work long hours.

People need to get away from thinking they have to day trade in order to make money. The actual fact is that the majority of day traders will fail. If you swing trade or position trade your chances to survive long term in this business are much higher.

Good luck to you!

I go right along with tradingmakesmoney - the majority of day traders will fail. I’ve said before, if new traders were to be barred from day-trading, the percentage who get quickly knocked out would drop drastically. They should then have time to learn about the markets and money/risk management - who knows, they just might make some money.

The only reason ‘swing traders’ don’t blow their accounts as quick as ‘day traders’ is because the frequency of trading in a given time period will clearly be less.

The underlying approach to being successful is surely the same, regardless of trading tactic or frequency. I wouldn’t say that longer term trading increases your chances to survive long term, at least from a profitability view. Essentially, a slower death if used with the same level of experience?

With good planning and focus you can balance it off…but 15 minutes sleep is not good…for your health too.

Not really - as lexys suggested above, if you’re trading continuously daytime and possibly evenings, when do you learn? And how do you learn faster than you are losing.

But in addition, its more about attitude than time. Day-trading attracts action-focused get-rich-quick newbies - they’re likely to gamble and follow hunches and tips, go way too deep on a good looking position, and all without a proper exit plan. They will get excitement from screen-watching and tracking live news and will feel compelled to constantly play with their open trades. Day-trading also causes an inevitable focus on daily P/L, and a pressure to have more wining days than losing days.

You’ve misinterpreted what I’m trying to say here, but each to their own :slight_smile:

Well I believe you’ve actually misinterpreted the difference between day-trading and longer-term trading. Its not frequency of trading, its attitude. The difference is not as simple as making the same trades in the same way but in a shorter time period. I say the two types of traders are different types of people.

But maybe there’s something else you mean?

I’ve not attempted to define the difference between day trading and longer term trading, tommor.

I was however suggesting that with the same level of experience, or perhaps inexperience, the end result will be the same.

So to suggest to new aspiring traders that you have more ‘chance’ of longer term success by choosing ‘swing trading’ is, quite honestly, totally ludicrous and opinionated. It is not objectified, or proven to be true.

You just love promoting your own website, don’t you.
If you want to advertise it, why not pay for a proper advert?

I agree Jezz,
Something else to concider, is the risk put into these trades. a trader using the 4Hr TF, should of course expect larger drawdowns and there for, need " More Rope" to let wrong trades run further, without great risk. hence, 1-2% margin per trade.

And note i said “Expect Larger Drawdowns” because I personally think 4H and even daily, get more traders in trouble then what is made aware of. You really have to know and understand Fundamentals more clearly then a swing trader, or shorter term trader.

I probably have it all mixed up, as I think Swing, Day, scalper, longterm, shortterm are all misinterpreted in the forex world.

There reasoning for long term survival as per tradingmakesmoney referance, is again, the less risk PER MARGIN TRADE, using less risk thru very little skin in the game to begin with.

All comes down to time, Because Jack (ex) got in on Monday, risking 1% on a 2% Margin useage, can let his trade run 300 pips negative, then rebound half, then consolidate, then run 50 pips, then consolidate, then run against him again for 50 pips, by this time, its Thurday, he’s 120 pips negative, Then Friday, he gets in the positive by 30, moves to break even, spread gap at 4pm, hits his breakeven, been in trade for a week, and gained NOTHING.

But, at least he lost nothing, and to top it off, He took a week to prove his system is at least breakeven, even tho 1,000’s of pips went both ways between his open, his drawdown, and ultimately the close.

but, at least he lasted a long time not losing money. So, is it a gain of time, or is it a lose of time?

Absolutely right. Impossible is nothing but yea it’s very hard to both trade and work simultaneously also if you have a full-family. It takes just a second for some uncertainty to happen and also even in seconds you can lose a one good trade, so to make choice at that time it is very difficult. That is why I say it’s not at all an easy task.

Impossible is an Opinion