Is It Possible To Trade Alongside Your Day Job?
As a full-time employee, you may be thinking of day trading as an activity that is only for the rich and wealthy; those that can afford to trade instead of working a full-time job, and take trading from a hobby to a full time career.
This also may come from the idea that traders are always available to monitor their investments at all times, which makes the idea of trading alongside your day job seemingly impossible.
However, if you're looking to get into trading while keeping your day job, then fear not! It's true that you can trade alongside your current job and achieve success if you're willing to put in the hard work and effort. Let's go over how it's done!
What is day trading?
First of all, day traders are mostly full-time traders who spend their whole day trading. Day traders make their profit from the price difference between their buy and sell prices. This small difference is known as the "swap spread".
How can you trade alongside your day job?
Making a decent wage from day trading alongside your current job is possible with the right mindset and strategy.
To be successful as a part-time day trader, you must be extremely dedicated and willing to put in the time and effort, even once your day job hours are over. As a part time trader, you'll have just a little time spent on trading each week, meaning that it's important for you to make use of every second you have.
While you don't have to be glued to your computer screen throughout the entire day, it's essential for you to monitor the markets periodically so that you can act quickly when an opportunity arises. This will certainly help with keeping up your performance as a full-time employee while still giving yourself enough breathing room to take care of any other responsibilities you may have.
With the right combination of dedication and work ethic, you'll be able to experience levels of success that will truly make it worth your while.
Things to remember when starting to trade alongside your day job:
Always put your day job first, especially when starting out. It's vital to remember that your day job is your main source of income, so losing it would have horrendous consequences on your finances.
Make sure trading doesn't take over your life. Despite trading in your free time, you should also make sure that you still have time to socialise, exercise and relax. If you're trading every second that you're not working your day job, then it's likely that you will have a poor work life balance. This could lead to mental health issues as well as strains on relationships.
Only trade what you can afford to lose. This is an essential aspect to remember, as trading with money that you need in the short term can lead to devastating results.
Avoid high-risk assets until you're fully experienced. Trading too much can be detrimental to your day job and your mental health so it's best not to trade with high risk assets until you've got adequate experience under your belt. It’s important to work on risk management strategies to ensure that you don’t lose too much money. This will also allow you to gather enough experience in trading before tackling riskier assets.
Getting started is often the hardest part, but if you follow these tips and always put your day job first, then you'll soon be on your way to becoming a successful part-time trader.