Can You Trade Whilst Keeping The Day Job?

Keeping the day job might not be everyone's idea of being a successful trader, but for others, it can be exactly what they are looking for. They might enjoy their job and not want to give it up simply because they are also making money with their trading. Or they might enjoy the additional money that trading brings - without them needing to do much - and use it as 'bonus money' on top of their usual salary. Whatever the reason, is it possible to keep your day job and trade as well?

You Can Have It All

It's true. If you want to continue keeping the day job while you carry out your Forex trading schedule, you can. If you want to concentrate solely on the trading, you can - although this might be a risky strategy right at the beginning. Whatever it is you are hoping to do, you can achieve it with some hard work and foresight.

That's the beauty of getting trading right. It opens up as many doors as you want and need it to, which is so exciting - it's no wonder that people love trading and enjoy their successes whilst batting away their failures because there is always something better - something more - around the corner.

Be Free!

That feeling of freedom when you can truly make a decision about keeping the day job or not to go alongside your trading is like no other. And whichever decision you make will be the right one for you. Just make sure that you are confident that you know what you are doing with your trading before you take that big step; a problem here could mean you don't have any income, and that might prove disastrous.

But Trading Is Hard Work - How Can Both Be Possible?

It's true, trading is hard work. Setting up the trades takes time, and understanding and creating the charts that will help you takes even longer. But once a trade is set, you can literally forget about it. Go about your normal, day to day life (which can include keeping the day job) and reap the rewards of a good, well thought out trade. It really does work. Or it can do when you put the groundwork in.

To discover whether both keeping the day job and successfully trading can be for you, you need to consider your lifestyle. Will it allow you to spend time doing both things or not? You really only need around 10-20 minutes a day to spend on your trading. This sounds perfectly possible for most people, but some cannot do it. And some will find that although they initially only want 20 minutes, they sit and stare at the screen for hours, missing out on important family time, or good old 'me time'. That's no good. If you're going to do that (we don't recommend it) then you'll need to choose between keeping the day job or trading. You won't have time for both.

Keep It Simple

Keeping your trading life nice and simple is one of the bedrock keys to keeping the day job when you are also price action  trading. Trying to do too much because it is exciting, or because you want to earn a lot more money can easily result in a pretty spectacular failure, and that work-life balance that you have been hoping for can disappear in an instant. So be wise, be careful, and be honest with yourself; have you take on too much?

One of the best ways to balance your job with your day trading is to be as flexible in your routine as possible. Your job will - possibly - have set hours, so your trading set up will need to take place outside of those hours. But exactly when could make the difference between a big win and coming away empty handed.

So think carefully and trust your charts - they will tell you what to do.