How Your Day Job can Make Money as a Trader

Did you realise that working in your day job could actually help you make money as a trader? Yes, I know that sounds like a paradox, or like I partied too much over the weekend - but it's a Lazy Trader Fact of Life!

Can this be true?  Absolutely!  And if you stick with me for two more minutes, I'll show you how to make money as a trader...the lazy way!

First, I'm aware that few of the people who read my articles are full time traders.  Most have a day job (or even two) or a running a business that has nothing to do with trading.  So does a trading model that allows you to get the most from your trading in 30 to 60 minutes a day sound like something you could sink your teeth into?

If your day job can actually help you make money as a trader, it's a win-win, right? Let's discuss...

If you think about a day's trading as a battle between the bulls and the bears (after all, what else would it be), when do you know who won? The closing price tells us who won, and whether we're included in the winners or the losers. Candledstick patterns can help you in this regard. This applies to any time period - daily, weekly, 4 hour or hour.  As you're probably aware, the Forex market opens each day in Asia and Australia, and finishes off with New York at 5:00 their time.

I want you to think about the importance of the New York market.  The close there is the culmination of the entire global trading day.  Forget about politics and concentrate on the accumulation of 24 hours of data.  The end of the New York trading day will give you a very clear choice:  is there a price action signal on the daily chart...or NOT!   

Once you get some practice under your belt for price action trading, your only duty is to analyze the daily charts after the close and take a quick run through your favorite charts.  Are there price action signals, YES or NO?  Once you know what's going on, it needn't take more than 30-45 minutes.  Don't you wish all your other responsibilities and decisions were this straightforward?

What You're Giving Up to Make Money as a Trader (End of Day)

• Stress:  Trading shorter time frames exposes you to lots of trading "noise" and miniscule price movements that really have no meaning, and offer limited payoff.

• Over-trading:  It's easy to look at a small movement and want to trade, especially if your emotions (like greed and fear) are engaged instead of your analysis. Amateurs who often have an insatiable appetite to make money as a trader often deceive themselves into taking too many trades and ones of poor quality.

• Losing money:  If you feel that to make money as a trader you need to be sitting in front of your computer all the time, making trades because you need to prove something or need to be constantly trading - the odds are extremely high you will end up losing money, whether the bears or the bulls have won on that particular market day. Remember, it can often be the trades (poor set-ups) that you don't take which actually make money as a trader - from staying out of those low probability set-ups that end up losing you money!

• Resentment:  It's easy to look at your day job as the major obstacle to making money as a trader and untold wealth in the trading market.  After all, it's keeping you from taking all those great trades that slip by 15 minutes (or an hour) at a time while you're slaving away keeping the lights and heat on.  The sooner you learn that this is a fantasy, a trading myth, the sooner you can see your way to a Forex trading model that makes common sense.

• Over Analyzing:  If you've learned nothing from my learn to trade articles - and your own trading experience - you know the market ebbs and flows like waves on the shore.  Sometimes the movements are gentle, sometimes they're like fierce waves crashing in.  If you're sitting at the screen watching all the movements, it's going to be hard to resist being pulled around like so much seaweed in the tides.  If you're caught in the middle of this frenzy, how can you possibly avoid the frustration of analysis paralysis?

The Lazy Trader Way to Trade

What trips most Forex traders up and sends them into a self-defeating spiral? They are not using their day job as a distraction from meddling with the trades which make money as a trader. They will typically cut winning trades early while taking full hits as losses! If you are sitting in front of the computer all day, it takes iron discipline not to get dragged into a trade.  After all that time, there must be something to trade, right?  Not necessarily.  That need to trade, that expectation of a trade lurking in the weeds puts an end to so many trading accounts. The more trades placed does not mean you will make money as a trader. Usually, quite the opposite is true!

Here's How Your Day Job can Make Money as a Trader!

• Smash the time = money trap in trading

  You trade end of day

• You use your price action trader analysis skills.
• This analysis should take 30 to 60 minutes - at the maximum!
• You only look at the markets twice each day.
• You escape the emotional trading traps that swamp most traders.
• Your view of the market is more realistic and actionable - at the right times.
• Your odds of successful trades and lower losses are dramatically higher!
• You are peaceful and clear on your trading priorities and protocols.
• You and your trading account are here and sustainable for the long term.

Therefore, your chances of survival in trading forex are greatly accelerated! Here's one model for how your trading day and your work day can flow together.

7:00am - You've showered, eaten and are ready to rock.  NOTE:  You are not half asleep, praying for your coffee or tea to take hold soon.  Fully alert, you review what happened overnight.

Have any of your price action setups formed in line with the trend?  How have the price action of your favorite markets reacted near key chart levels?  Are there any new setups?  Are the markets doing anything meaningful?

If nothing meaningful is going on, you get to close your charts and get on with another glorious day!

9:00am - 5:00pm (or whenever your day job wraps up) - Your day as usual. Gym, work, lunch, other dailies

10:00pm (or sometime before lights out) - You've eaten, relaxed for a bit.  You are, like this morning, alert and present.  You scan you charts (daily),  asking the same questions and performing the same logical, not emotional, analysis that you did this morning.  Any key changes while you were at work?  Any obvious set ups formed?

If New York closed while you were occupied during the day, or while you were asleep, be certain to check your price action analysis.

This is the trademark laid back style of The Lazy Trader

Yes, it takes as given that you have a solid mastery of a few key price action trading patterns, as well as an overall understanding of price action strategy.  This is easily obtainable because we trade the daily and weekly charts only. Is it worth finding out the elements of this strategy if the strategy frees you to trade once each day, make more money, and stop resenting your day job?

Try not to be shocked that all my trainings and tutorials are based on this trading model.  My years of experience have made it crystal clear that the longer time frames (daily and weekly charts) using end of day and price action analysis give the highest odds of long term Forex trading success.

If you want to make money as a trader with as little effort as possible, try this model!

This model also gives you:

• Higher probability of clear Forex signals
• More free time for life in your day
• Mental clarity
• Peace of mind
• A trading account that hasn't been turned into a desert by high frequency trades

You, too, can have the strong mental stance of the professional trader, free from obsession and anxiety, and the positive cash flow to prove it. Put simply, this is a great way to use the distraction of your day job to make money as a trader.