Trading with a full-time job can be a challenging venture but also a rewarding one. Being able to trade part-time while you’re at work can be a great way to generate passive income or build up your retirement portfolio. But depending on what your job entails, it may dictate how you trade. 

For instance, you could be working a standard 9 to 5 at a company, or you could be a stay-at-home parent who takes care of the household. Both have their difficulties and will require a different strategy and approach to trading. If you want to start trading, the first thing you’ll need to do is learn how to trade. That’s why in this article we’re going to teach you what to consider and how you can enhance your chance for success. 

Video Guide To Trading with a Full-Time Job

How to Trade with a Full-Time Job 

With anything in life you have to learn the basics before you can start advancing to more complex things. We all know that we have to learn how to crawl before we can walk. And with trading, it’s no different. There is a process traders must adhere to, and the first thing you should do is set up your brokerage account.  

Luckily, here at Simpler Trading, we have a few brokerage firms that we can recommend. They’re platforms that our very own traders love otherwise we wouldn’t recommend them. We recommend using thinkorswim, tastytrades, and TradeStation. Personally, I prefer the tastytrade trading platform because of its user-friendly interface and straightforward choices for new traders. But there’s a little more to trading than just opening up a trading account. And below you’ll find the steps that need to be taken in order to trade with a full-time job. 

Determine your Time Commitment

With a full-time job, you have to be realistic with your time commitment to trading. That means you need to really look at what your job requires of you, your ability to access technology such as your smartphone and computer, and of course the work schedule you have. Depending on these factors you may have to get creative with your trading.  

For example, are you inundated with meetings that require your full attention, are you tasked with constant assignments, or are the chores around the house getting chaotic? Only you can answer these questions, because you’ll need to set aside time to trade, and that may have to happen on your breaks or lunch-time. Depending on the time that you’re allowed to trade, it’ll have a heavy impact on the strategy that you decide to choose. 

Educate Yourself in Trading 

Trading with a full-time job will have its struggles, but that’s why learning how to trade is so important. Here at Simpler Trading, we understand what traders go through. And those struggles can plague even the most experienced trader. But before you start to actually trade you need to educate yourself in trading first. That’s why I created my Profit Recycling Mastery.

My Mastery’s ideal for traders looking to make short-term moves while being able to bypass the pattern day trader rule. The goal of my Mastery is to help you not only learn one of my bread-and-butter strategies but to take it and make it your own. Plus, as a Mastery member, you have exclusive access to monthly live trading sessions with me and push alerts sent directly to your phone when I open or close a trade. If you don’t have time to sit in front of the markets all day due to your job, this might be perfect for you as I do all the heavy lifting for you!

Develop A Trading Strategy

Once you’ve figured out your schedule, the next step is to figure out the strategy that you’ll utilize. There are various types of strategies that you can use, and to fully grasp the concept of each strategy you may have to experiment. See a list below of the most popular types of strategies you can choose from. 

• Day Trading – Short-term strategy used for stock and options trading
• Scalping – Short-term strategy, mainly for option traders
• Swing Trading – Short to mid-term, traded by stock and options trader
• Position Trading – long-term, could be held for weeks to months, mainly for stock traders

Determine Your Risk

In any sense of trading, you’re going to need to be mindful of your risk and find out what you’re comfortable trading with. A good rule of thumb is to only trade with what you’re willing to lose.

But because you aren’t going to be monitoring your charts and setups all the time, you may want to trade a little less than what you normally would. This is a good principle to follow until you understand what you’re doing and gain confidence in trading while you’re at work. 

Develop A Trading Routine

When it comes to trading, consistency is key, and developing a routine to ensure your best chance at success is going to be vital. Depending on your schedule and strategy you’ll have to check your charts and scan setups frequently. 

You’ll have to make time for that because if you don’t, it could lead to unintended losses within your account. You’ll want the best possible chance to find new opportunities and possible pitfalls with certain trade positions, and the only way you can do that is by routinely checking your charts and setups.   

Create Alerts for your Trades   

The market’s going to be traded Monday – Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 3: 00 p.m. and closes on the weekend and major holidays. Unfortunately, that’s most people’s workday, right? So when you’re at work and unable to monitor your trades, setting alerts is recommended.

As a trader who has money on the line, you’re going to want to know about unexpected market news, major shifts in the market, and anything else that needs your attention immediately. That’s why alerts are so great, you can set them for anything that you can use to your benefit.      

Have Trade Orders Prepped

If you’re a swing trader, or even a day trader, and have conducted an extensive amount of research, you may want to look into prepping your trade orders (in particular closing orders) for the next trading day. Especially, if time is of the essence and you aren’t sure when you can execute a buy or sell a trade. You can make most orders when you have free time, so that way you aren’t bogged down by time. 

Is Trading With a Full-Time Job Too Stressful? 

If the steps above are becoming too much of a burden for your career and trading journey, then make it easier on yourself and join my Profit Recycling Mastery. You’ll get immediate access to live trading at least once a month, real-time text alerts, and my very own spreadsheet so you can follow along on the trades that I make. I can help traders with limited time to trade whose style is to day trade and swing trade in the market. So what are you waiting for, sign up today only at Simpler Trading?   

FAQs Trading with a Full-Time Job

Q: Are there indicators that can help me trade? 

A: Yes there are many indicators that you can use, there are free and premium indicators. The Squeeze Pro is one of the best premium indicators you can buy on the market. Some good free indicators are the Ichimoku Cloud, Keltner Channels, and the AwesomeOscillator. 

Q: How do you gauge your risk tolerance?  

A: To determine your risk tolerance you need to answer the question of what kind of trader you are. And what your focus is when making decisions about strategies and position sizing. There are strategies out there for every risk tolerance. 

Q: Why is there a pattern day trader rule?

A: The Pattern Day Trading rule was created as a safety rule to limit the risk associated with day trading.