‘You should write a book’ she exclaimed, commenting about my last article; Three reasons why you must learn an online skill
I cleverly rubbed that part off, because a book and an article are two different animals. The conversation turned to forex trading, and said that she would love to start online Forex trading as a side ‘hustle’.
“Not a hustle, it’s Forex trading as a side business”, I quickly interject. Because I personally don’t relate too well with the term ‘hustle’, same way I don’t like being ‘busy’. (Story for another day). I promised her that I would write more, but not a book yet, for her and other people who want to get into forex trading, but it would be up to them to redefine what they need from it. But I also told her that there’s simply no excuse, no fear too insurmountable, for not acting on it if it is what she wants to do, regardless of her schedule.
So this here is a piece for you, Freya, and for everyone who, like her, have busy daily schedules, whether in employment or entrepreneurship, and your only reason for not starting Forex trading as a side business is that you feel there isn’t enough time in your days yet.
The common analogy that most people with a day job, or busy daily schedules hold is one of a lack of time to trade, and to sit in front of a computer watching markets all day. Most people think that they have to watch the markets from their computers all day to be traders, which is simply not true. You don’t have to sit in front of a computer all day to trade and make returns. I, for instance, don’t stay fixated on the screens the whole day. As a matter of fact, it is unhealthy for trading, and has negative effects on the trading results, as I will explain later on. I am a trader, a consultant, and an entrepreneur, I have busy working schedules. Today, in this article, I will share with you my personal approach to trading, a significant strategy that allows me to maximize from trading the forex markets, and at the same time freeing up my day to take care of other business affairs. It’s called the END OF DAY TRADING. You get to keep your day job, run your daily business errands, and maximize from trading the forex markets. Working smart, as opposed to ‘being busy.’ Let’s get into it already, shall we?
Normally, the Forex markets have various timeframes, which gives traders the freedom to choose particular time-frames that fit the nature of their schedules and trading plan. Day traders may choose to analyze the charts and look for price action trading patterns using the 30 minutes and the hourly time-frame. In the same manner, The practice of end of day trading requires a trader to check through the various pairs on their watch list, i.e. the currency pairs that they choose to trade, and analyze the forex charts for clearly marked out price action patterns that may be available to trade using the ‘Daily Time frame’. What this means is that for End of Day traders like myself, we only open our laptops to look out for clearly marked out price action trading opportunities at the close of the day, i.e. around 11pm, just before jumping into the next day.
With this trading approach, I only need about 30 minutes to screen through my currency pairs, (because I already know what I am looking for). In case I find nice setups that offer me a good Risk to Reward ratio, I then set up my stop loss and take profits targets as guided by my trading plan. Once all parameters are set, I execute the trade(s) and close up my laptop for the markets to do the work.
I know it sounds simple, but ideally, that’s how it should be. That’s how most of life’s missions should be, if only we checked our attitude and committed to learning instead of trying to cheat the process and be heroes. Anyone out there trying to complicate trading by clustering their charts, timeframes, and complicated trading approaches is only prolonging their journey to attaining meaningful success and consistency in making money from the markets. For new traders or anyone reading this piece and you’re totally green to trading, worry not for our online comprehensive course that comes with one on one consultations/mentorship polishes you on all the aforementioned pillars of trading, ranging from Price action patterns/signals/ market analysis, risk management, trades execution and management, amongst other integral topics and principles of successful Forex trading. For new traders, I covered what it takes to be a profitable trader consistently and for the long-term in a recent article that we published on our blog. You can catch up on it right here.
All I am left to do is to open my laptop/android phone the following day to check on the progress of my trades that I set up the previous night. At this point, I am not looking for other trading opportunities/setups, which means 5 minutes or less are enough to check that all is running well with my trades. Timewise, I am totally free to run other errands, and in the case of those with day jobs, your work is already done as far as trading is concerned. You would only need to spend about 10 minutes or less, for a maximum of twice a day to check on the progress of your trades. That is if your price targets are close to being hit, or have already been hit, which would mean that you have banked some profits for the day.
Other times, a trade might take a little longer to hit your price targets, maybe an additional day or two, which is fine as long as the trade is going in your direction. This is the real definition of professional trading, i.e. approaching trading as a business . Our sole goal as traders, which is how we approach trading, and our training our traders at Fourthstreet Consultants, is to make money, as opposed to ‘making a lot of trades.’ Big difference.
Interestingly, unlike what most new traders think that day trading and executing too many trades in a day equals profitable trading, this particular approach of trading has all the benefits, and has been proven to greatly improve trading results and simplify the entire trading process. I have marked out three ways as to how End of day trading using end of day price action trading affirmations/patterns stands out as the best approach to trading & will ultimately improve your results, even for existing traders;
1. Eliminates Overtrading
One of the biggest predicament for both new and experienced traders is overtrading, and the ability to overcome it thereof. The urge to constantly check through the markets arouses the excitement and the greed to open more illogical trades, sometimes due to the mere sense of boredom, resulting in overtrading. Money in Forex trading is made by sitting, not by trading. Take a second to ponder on that point. Contrary to the common economic concept of more input equals more output that applies in other businesses, less is more in trading.
A trader that picks only four of the best price action trades in a month with a proper Risk to reward ratio (say 1:3), for instance, stands to make a great deal of profits compared to a trader who executes 20 random trades (scalping) out of fear and greed, that in most cases have very low or even negative risk to reward ratio. This is the logic behind practicing end of day trading. It helps traders to avoid falling into the temptation of overtrading by constantly checking through open market charts. Once you set up your trades at the end of the day, you forget them and let the market do the hard work. You avoid overtrading which is one of the main downfalls for most traders.
2. Proper Trading Psychology
You have probably heard that adopting the right trading psychology contributes to more than 40% of one’s trading success. From the word go, you’ve got to have the right expectations about the markets. For instance, understand that losses are part of the business, the same way no business out there doesn’t encounter its streams of losses from time to time. Your job as a trader, therefore, is to manage losses and keep them small, as opposed to trying to avoid them. By adopting the End of Day trading approach, you only get to set up your trades at the close of day, and leave them to work out. Consequently, you are able to detach yourself, and basically your emotions from your running trades. It is an easier way to manage your emotions and grow a strong trading psychology that enriches your trading skills and results thereof. We call it the ‘set and forget’ approach, whereby you follow your trading plan in choosing the best trades, and once they are executed, you exit the charts and let the market do the hard work. You only check on how your trades are performing at long intervals of say 5 hours or so. Easy, calm, and collected.
3. Keep Your Day Job/ More free-time
It goes without saying that adopting end of day trading allows you to comfortably keep your day job, while adding another source of revenue in your bucket. For those trading full time, they are able to free their day time for other engagements such as doing market research, back-testing more trading strategies, engaging in other business ventures, and spending time with family. This is how I am able to trade and attend to other calls of business and varied life commitments. With this incitement, No one has any excuse whatsoever for not learning an online skill such as trading the markets, to create an additional source of revenue, especially in the current internet world of information overflow. Convenience is the real value in the current day, and the future. This is the very awakening that inspired us to put forth a comprehensive Forex course that is online-based, making it available for everyone on our website for easier and flexible accessibility. Basically, you have no excuse for a lack of growth, only a call of action and commitment awaits you. Good luck!
