If you’re working a full-time job, a good way to supplement your income is to trade forex. Contrary to what most people think, you don’t need to spend a great deal of time on doing your research and identifying opportunities when it comes to trading in the foreign exchange market. With as little as a half hour spent per day or even per week, you can already leverage a few good trends without having to “babysit” them. You might experience a few losses every now and then, but that’s how trading forex works.
Being successful in the forex market is all about specializing in the currency pairs that trade best when you’re available and that don’t require round-the-clock monitoring. You can make use of an automated platform to help make the process easier to manage, especially if you’re a beginner or have limited experience in forex trading.
There are also some tips you can follow that can help you improve your skills as a part-time trader:
- Identify the right currency pairs to trade.
While forex trading goes on 24 hours a day and 5 days a week, it’s best that you trade during peak volume hours so as to guarantee greater liquidity. It will be much easier to sell a position at the time when the market is most active. If you’re working a regular day job, your trading hours will most likely be early in the morning or late at night. You’ll have to find currency pairs that are available for trading at either time.
Moreover, if you lack experience or have a limited trading window, experts recommend the USD/EUR currency pair as this is the most frequently traded pair and you can readily find available information on these currencies anywhere. Avoid trading pairs that require more advanced knowledge or extensive experience.
- Make use of an automated trading platform.
You can always choose to trade on your own, but it’s easier and safer to choose an automated program that can make trades for you. There are lots of available options in the market that boast a full spectrum of functions. For a beginner trader, you’re best off with a “set-and-forget” program that offers a “plug and play” capability via a software that can make automated decisions. As you gain more experience in forex trading, you can move on to programs that provide more programmable functions.
- Be disciplined and decisive when making trades.
Like all professions in life, discipline and decisiveness is essential if you expect to prosper & make money from part-time trading. This is why many experts recommend that you take profits when they materialize instead of waiting around and hoping for bigger profits and wider spreads. It’s advisable to do this especially in a fast-trending market because a certain trend can easily turn around due to unexpected external factors. To minimize the risk, part-time traders with little to no previous experience are advised to start with trading small amounts of currency. There are risks that come with taking in a greater amount of leverage than you can easily control.
