Before I started trading Forex full time, I used to work a 9 to 5 job. I was literally spending about 50 – 60 hours at the office every week because there were days I had to be at work on weekends. Apart from that, I was given the responsibility to head one of the departments where I worked.
With all of these tasks and responsibilities I was saddled with, I was learning how to trade by the side.
In fact one of the major reasons I took to learning how to trade seriously was because I wanted to live life on my own terms.
So when some people say it is not possible to work a full time job and trade Forex at the same time, I just laugh at them because it means they do not really know that anything is possible to do if you put your mind to it.
While you work your 9 to 5 job, you can trade Forex part time. The question is, are you willing to put in the work? The Forex market is open 24 hours 5 days a week. You do not do your office work 24 hours daily, do you?
Let’s look at it this way, the school system gives one the chance to work and study at the same time. Some of you are students who go to school during week days and you have a part time job which you attend to on weekends, right?
So if you can work and study, you can also work a 9 to 5 job and learn how to trade part time.
In this lesson, I will show you how you can use the opportunity during your free time to invest in learning how to trade part time.
To successfully combine trading with a full time job, here are some tips to help guide you on how to handle both.
1. Cut Down On Time Wasters 
For some of you, weekends are when you have some good time to study. Take advantage of your weekends to study and prepare for the week ahead.
I had to cut down on partying, aimless scrolling through social media, unnecessary gist and gossips about people , watching movies and soap operas, etc. I replaced that time with studying the charts consistently, reading through the economic calendar to understand the impact of fundamentals on one’s trading, back testing the strategy I learned at the time and also going through my performance record. Instead of going to the casino to play games, my trading view account was my playing ground. I would just sit and draw trendlines, support and resistance zones, channels and use other basic tools on the charts. Even though at the beginning all the drawings were not making much sense, I chose to stick with it rather than spend time playing on social media.
If reducing the time you spend in engaging in activities that do not add up to your skill is the price you have to pay to be successful at trading, then I think it is worth it.
Go through the educational content in the Forexlyfe course over and over again, read books on trading psychology, backtest and reach out to members in the trading community to help keep you accountable. The little time you have got to spare outside of your office hours should be spent on building your own skill not on pressing phone aimlessly.
An anonymous writer once said,” Don’t work 8 hours for a company and then go home and not work on your own goals…”
2. Focus On Trading One Strategy
Because you are learning to trade part time, remember that you do not have all the time to be on your screen, due to your job. So it is best to learn one or two profitable strategies and stay with it. You will prolong your progress if you keep changing strategies week in week out.
Apart from that, an inconsistent approach will result in inconsistent results. You will notice that you keep having so many losses but you are not able to trace the source of the losses because there’s no clear structure on how you trade.
When you learn a strategy or trading pattern, your job is to do a thorough back testing on it first to confirm its profitability in the long term. Practice using that same pattern regularly. You may not make sense of it in the beginning but as you continue, you will begin to see positive results and growth in your trading account. You can watch this video to learn how to back test like a Pro
3. Stick To Trading A Few Pairs
In trading generally, less is more. Greed is what makes traders want to chase all markets. You cannot catch all the moves in the markets, so there’s no point trying.
The market is open 24hrs, 5 days a week. Depending on the time you are available to trade, pick 1 or 2 currency pairs that have high liquidity during the session. There’s the Sydney, Tokyo, London and Newyork sessions. You can refer to forex factory to get the different trading sessions/time. For instance EURUSD has higher trade volatility during the London session but has low volatility during the Sydney session.
4. Swing Trading Or Day Trading
Take a good look at your job schedule. What time are you free to look at the chart. Do you have the time to look through your charts on a daily basis or would you rather apply the swing trading method where you can set your trade and allow it to run for more than 2-3 days?
Due to time constraint, most traders who work full time jobs prefer the swing trading approach. This way they do not necessarily have to stay glued to their chart screen all day looking for trades.
Apart from that sef, sitting in front of the chart all day is not even healthy for your trading psychology. It can cause you to begin to overtrade and overthink your analysis.
5. Don’t Demo For Too Long
One mistake most traders make is that they stay too long on demo trading. Of course it is good that you paper trade for a while before going into live trading. Once you have learned and backtested your strategy on your demo account, then it is time to trade live.
The aspect of trading that deals with your emotions can only be experienced in the live markets.
Live trading exposes the emotions that control you as an individual. Some of which may include fear, greed, impatience, anxiety, worry, confidence issues and so on.
Some people say that they feel hurt when they lose on their demo account but I do not buy that.
There are no real emotions attached to demo trading but when real money is on the line, you will sit up.
6. Track Your Trades
If you had a business running, how would you know what your profit or loss ratio is if you do not keep a record of your income and expenses.
Even at your place of work, does your boss not require that you give reports every now and then so that they know how to track the progress of the company.
If you have days off work during the week or if you are free on weekends, spend time reviewing your trades.
You can use a journal to keep a record of your trades. I personally like to keep screenshots of my before and after trades in a folder. That way, I am able to go back and review to know what’s working and what I should do away with.
I’d like to hear from you. What’s your takeaway or lesson from this article? Please share them with me in the comments below. If you have questions, please contact me here.
