"I've got to focus on other things."
"Work is keeping me too busy."
"I can't find the time to trade."
I hear these phrases a lot.
If you've got a full time job, it may feel overwhelming. You want to get good returns in the market, but you can't let your job performance suffer.
There are solutions to this. In the next few minutes you'll learn about some productivity hacks and resources you should use if you want to make money trading without sacrificing your performance at work.
Do the Work After Hours
Sitting in front of a trade screen for 6 hours a day doesn't really work if you have a job at the same time. If you try and spread out your focus you will suffer in both your trading and your primary career.
Consider allocating a single 30 minute block of time for trading. The first 30 minutes of the day tends to be a little hectic, but the second half hour of the day can provide some good trading signals. If you more of a swing trader, then using the last hour of the trading day to place orders would be a wise choice.
I would also highly recommend setting a 90 minute timer on the weekends to do your research for the next trading week. What this does is it forces you to prioritize exactly what information to process and what to leave out. Will reading 8 articles about how the Fed is ruining the market actually help you?
You may feel like you are missing out on something... that by not analyzing iron ore prices out of Australia may somehow affect your investment in Tesla. Or something.
Don't suffer from "macro overload." Instead, try to define the narrative that is driving risk and then just focus on the price charts.
Be Efficient With Your Time
I'm not a big fan of going through 3,000 charts every night to get you an edge. 80% of what you will look at is statistical noise and won't help you develop patterns.
This is where filters and scanners come into play. If you trade stocks, you probably don't care about stocks that aren't moving. That means you should have volatility filters on the stocks you look at.
You can also use liquidity filters. For example, if an options board doesn't have enough volume, I won't touch it... it's not worth it because if I'm wrong I'll suffer from slippage losses.
Want more on this subject? See our 5 Tips to Reduce Your Mental Load When Trading
Develop Triggers
Instead of keeping an eye on your 10 favorite setups for the day, figure out exactly what conditions you would need to see to put you in a trade.
Most of the time this is related to price triggers, and all brokerages have some sort of "alert" in one form or another. You can also consider advanced triggers like volume spikes and large option volume.
Use Mobile Trading
There's no reason that you have to be stuck in front of a computer all day. There's enough mobile technology out there for you to put a trade or two on during a boring business meeting or when your out to lunch.
At first you will feel at a disadvantage as you can't get much information from a screen... but if you do your homework before the market opens and have price alerts set, then it will be much easier than you think.
Do Income Trading With Options
While I personally trade a bunch of strategies, I tell my members that the best thing to do when starting off is to find a strategy that works for you and then focus just on that.
If you're short on time, Income Trading is a great way to start. This is a set of strategies that require no more than 15 minutes of work while the market is open and then 30 minutes of work to plan a new trade out.
Income trading is more statistically based and doesn't require you to go through 500 different charts every day. Instead you are trading the same assets with not a ton of risk when you put the trade on. These are the best "slow cooker" trades for busy people.
Get A Profitable System
To be honest, this is what it comes down to.
It's not that you are busy or can't find the time, it's that you don't think spending time on your trading is justified if you don't think you can make any money.
But here's the secret.
Doing all these things above will make you a profitable trader.
By focusing on the strategies that best fit your style.
By removing the noise from your trading and focusing in on only the information you need.
By building trading systems that eliminate a ton of the guess work.
And by using the resources given to you by your broker.
How IWO Can Help
Our goal at IWO is to make you a great options trader. Our service and trading strategies can be used even if you can't afford a ton of time during the day. Here's how:
Every night you get a 15 minute video going over the trading day and what setups to watch.
You get email trade alerts for when certain trades are about to trigger.
We do a lot of income trading, which requires less management than more active strategies.
And you get access to a chat room full of professional traders so you can jump in when you have the time and ask questions.
If you want to be a successful part time trader while you keep your full time job, this is the right club for you.
Give IWO Premium a Test Run. Receive a 2-week trial for only $14, then it's $79 per month. You can cancel anytime. Take advantage of this special offer here.