Becoming a full-time forex trader is the dream of almost all the traders who trade forex with their full-time job.
If you are one of those people trading forex with a full-time job, you must be finding difficulty managing your schedule. After spending 8-10 hours of the day working, it can be a bit tiring to spend a few hours of the day trading forex.
For most people, it is the dream to make forex trading a full-time career. If you are also one of those people, then, first of all, you should focus on learning more and more about this market.
Without having sufficient knowledge about the market, how you can expect to make huge money from it.
It is not a good idea to start trading forex full-time before gaining proper knowledge and sufficient knowledge in the forex market.
When you do so, you are obviously going to lose money trading. So the best way to enter in forex is by trading part-time with your full-time job.
Trading forex for part-time can help you make a great amount of money.
So how can you trade forex with a full-time job?
Having a full-time job can be tough but it is doable to trade forex since the markets are open 24 hours a day 5 days a week.
Pick a market that works for you around your schedule then break down a pair that you can follow that moves while that market is open.
Start by using a scalping strategy so you will have more available trades to get your practice in. Set a plan and stick with it.
An example would be let’s say you work the typical 9-5 job in the East Coast in the USA. Unless you want to wake up at around 3am to trade the London session then you may want to look at the evening Asian session.
The Asian session is considered 7pm EST to 4am EST. So you can get home, eat some dinner, hang with the kids and start trading after they go to bed at around 9pm.
Pick a pair like GPB/JPY to research. Setup some trades and trade alerts then maybe work on your training for a couple of hours while you do that.
Keep consistent and you can make this into a full-time job. It will take time and a lot of VOT (Volume Of Trades) via demoing. Don’t be in a hurry to go live as you are learning a lifetime skill.
Tips to Trade Forex With A Full-Time Job
Learning forex trading successfully normally takes a few years. The time duration varies from one person to another and how the person is learning.
Before you start trading full-time, make sure you have gained enough knowledge and experience in this market.
Becoming a professional forex trader with a full-time job can be a bit challenging. And, you can’t quit your full-time job when you don’t know anything about this field.
This is when you should consider trading forex with your full-time job. Here are some tips to trade forex with a full-time job:
1. Trading Style
The first important thing you should keep in mind is choosing the right trading style. Make sure you choose the trading style that is ideal for your schedule and personality.
Depending on your schedule and personality, you can choose from two major trading styles – swing trading and day trading.
Swing trading strategy will require less time as compared to day trading strategy. Day trading is the strategy that requires the trader to spend long hours sitting in front of the computer.
So, swing trading is for those traders who have limited time and limited access to the charts throughout the day.
The best thing about swing trading is that the forex trader will not have the pressure of closing the position before the day ends.
The day forex trader cannot hold the position at the night, the trader has to close the position before the day ends.
In short, you have to figure out which trading style is ideal for your personality and schedule. After considering that, you can decide whether you want to go with swing trading or day trading.
2. Right Pairs
Another important thing is selecting the right currency pairs for trading. Choosing the right currency pair for forex trading may bring you huge profits. Similarly, when you choose the wrong currency pair, you may face huge losses.
Top tradeable currencies in the forex are – USD, EUR, JPY, GBP, CHF, CAD, Australian/New Zealand Dollar, and ZAR. The forex currency pairs with strong liquidity are:
USD/EUR
USD/JPY
USD/GBP
USD/CHF
USD/CAD
USD/AUD
Before choosing a particular currency pair for trading, there are certain factors you need to keep in mind. Before choosing the currency pair, first of all, you need to check out whether the pair is trending or not.
Another factor to consider is what type of strategy you will be trading. Last but not least, another thing to check out is the true range of the currency pair you have selected.
The true range of the currency pair will give you an idea about how much your selected currency pair moves on a regular basis.
So the steps included in choosing the right currency pair are – identifying the trend, pairing the trend with the strategy, and considering the average true range of the pair.
This way, you can select the right currency pair for trading. You can’t neglect this factor as selecting the wrong currency pair may lead to huge losses.
3. Use Your Time Efficiently
When you are doing forex trading part-time with your full-time job, it is important to use the time efficiently. When you are trading forex with your full-time job, you may find difficult to get enough time.
It is important for you to utilize the time you have available efficiently. You can also use your weekends for trading forex. In order to become a successful and experienced forex trader, you have to sacrifice during the initial days.
When you have a full-time job with you, getting sufficient can be difficult.
In such a situation, you need to keep track of how and where you are spending your time and effort. Hence, it is important to be organized and manage your time efficiently.
4. Automated Trading System
When you are a part-time trader, it is the best idea to set up an automated trading system. When you are at work, you can’t trade.
This is when the role of automated trading comes in.
With the help of a forex automated trading tool, you can easily keep going your trades without having to spend time trading manually.
There are so many forex automation tools out there in the market. Among these tools, make sure you select a reliable and trustable tool.
Depending on the tool you select, you will get different features and benefits. Your selected automated trading program may help you monitor currency prices, place market orders (like stop-loss, market if touched, or impose limit), etc.
Hence, using a set-and-forget program for trading forex could be the best way to manage your full-time job with trading.
Automated trading programs can be a great choice for part-time traders who are just getting started.
Depending upon the automation you set, your trades will be placed automatically. The best thing about automated forex trading is it helps to place disciplined and unemotional trades. Apart from this, it also a great time saver.
5. Keeping A Trading Journal
Another thing you need to keep in mind as a part-time forex trader is keeping a trading journal.
Keeping a forex trading journal is important to make sure you don’t lose track while working for a full-time job. In your trading journal, you need to note important aspects like markets, currencies, etc.
By keep a trading journal and keeping the track of your trades, when you will make mistakes, it would be easy for you to learn from mistakes.
Making mistakes in forex is common, but repeating the same mistakes over and over again can be dangerous.
In the trading journal, you can list down the mistakes you have made while trading so that you can avoid them in the future.
When you are already working as a full-time employee, you must avoid making mistakes.
So this way, keeping a forex trading journal and noting down different trading aspects can help you.
6. Know the downsides of demo trading accounts
The majority of new forex traders get started demo account for learning forex. Using the demo account is beneficial to some extent but there are so many disadvantages of using them.
It is not a good idea to learn forex totally from a demo account. As a forex trader, you should understand the key differences between a real account and a demo account.
The trades in a real forex account is totally different than the demo forex account. The major downside of learning through a demo forex account is it generates negative behavioral patterns in the minds of traders.
As forex demo accounts are funded with fake money, with forex demo trading, you do not get real experience.
When you trade some time with a demo account, your trading behavioral pattern would be affected negatively.
Now, it doesn’t mean you should never learn from forex demo accounts. In fact, for a complete newbie, trading on a demo account helps to learn different concepts and terms of the forex market.
The thing lacks in trading with a demo account is fear of losing money. Because it is funded with fake money, you don’t think twice before entering into any trade.
Getting these behavioral patterns leads to losses when you trade on a real forex account.
The best thing you can do is get started with a micro or mini forex trading account.
The best thing about a mini forex trading account is it is funded with your real money. So if you want to learn by trading, a micro or mini forex account is the best choice.
7. Use of Stop Loss
As forex is constantly changing the market, you can’t correctly predict when the market will fluctuate. When you enter into a trade, you can set a level after which, you will stop losing money.
Stop-loss is one of the best ways to stop losing more money in your trade.
For new forex traders, it is important to get mastery in using stop-loss. When you are doing a full-time job, learning to set stop loss helps to avoid losing money.
This feature stop losing more money after reaching the particular level you have selected.
For you, as a part-time forex trader, you must learn to master using stop-loss so that you can have profitable trade and avoid losing money.
8. Decision Making
One of the important signs of a successful and knowledgeable forex trader is discipline.
If you want to become a successful forex trader, make sure you take disciplined decisions. Many times, traders make decisions in pressure or emotions, which results in big losses.
In such a constantly changing market, it is important to have good decision-making.
The major reasons why most traders fail is due to emotional trading and poor decision making. Make sure you do not make decisions due to your emotions.
You need to have a proper strategy and trading plan to follow. You must be knowing how you are going to take decisions in different situations.
For a part-time forex trader, it is advisable to take profits after the price reaches a great level.
Instead of willing for more profits, you should exit the market and take your profit in. When you wait for the market for more profit, the greediness may result in losses. Hence, decision making plays a major role in the success or failure of a forex trader.
9. Keep Learning
Forex is the largest and most liquid market in the world. But, do you know over 90% of new forex traders lose their money and end up quitting?
The major reason why most people fail in this market is that they want to become a millionaire overnight, without putting time & energy on learning.
In order to start making good enough money through forex and make it as a full-time career, you should never stop learning.
Conclusion
If you are a part-time forex trader, it is advisable to get started with a mini or small forex trading account.
This is important when you have little or no experience with the forex. This will make sure you will not lose a big amount even after making mistakes.
When you feel that you have sufficient knowledge, you can switch to the standard trading account.
To grow the forex account as a part-time trader, you need to have patience, consistency, and discipline.