How to Be a Part-Time Day Trader

Day trading is something that many individuals are interested in, but they don’t want to make it their full-time profession or quit their regular job to do it. In actuality, many professional day traders only trade on the side, doing so for one to three hours each day before moving on to something else. If you’ve thought about day trading part-time, the following tactics will help you get the most out of your time and efforts while preparing you for some potential dangers.

Relevant Lessons
The hour following market opening and the hour just prior to market closing are the optimal times to engage in part-time day trading of stocks and futures.
Forex can be part-time day traded at any time of week, depending on the pair you’re trading and when their markets are open.
Day trading in a casual manner is suitable for learning but not as a means of support.
Day Trading Stocks and Futures Part-Time
Approximately one to three hours per day are all that day traders need to trade equities or futures markets. Even though some day traders do trade continuously throughout the day, the best gains in the shortest period of time are often concentrated in the hours immediately preceding and following the official opening and closing of stock trading. These take place, respectively, at 9:30 and 4:00 EST. 1

When beginning to day-trade stocks on a part-time basis, concentrate on the opening of trading. By 9:00 to 9:15 a.m., be seated at your computer and getting ready for your first trade. The first 30 minutes of the day are typically the most volatile and offer the greatest possibility for profit, so if you don’t have much time, take advantage of this. If you have an extra hour, try to wrap up your trading by 10:00 or 10:30 EST.

If you have some extra time, continue day trading until 11:00 a.m. EST. As lunchtime approaches, fewer opportunities become available, and transactions take longer to complete as volatility begins to fall.

Consider day trading between 3:30 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. EST if you can trade only later in the day or near the open and close of trading. Since day traders close all positions prior to or at the closing bell, the trading day concludes at 4:00 p.m.

The same conditions apply to trading in futures at the same times as they do for the stock market. Just before and after the US stock market opens, you’ll probably notice the most trading activity taking place in the futures markets. The E-mini S&P 500 (ES), one of the greatest day trading futures contracts, and other stock-related futures are a good example of this.

Forex Day Trading: Part-Time
For day traders who only have one to three hours at odd times of the day or night to day trade, the foreign exchange (forex) market offers a flexible alternative if you can’t trade during stock market hours.
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Currency pairs are used in forex trading; the most common pair is the one between the euro and the US dollar (EUR/USD). GBP/USD, AUD/USD, and USD/JPY are three further prominent pairs. Every pair tends to be most active at particular times of the day.

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Trading the EUR/USD or GBP/USD, two pairings that are suggested for day trading, will see the highest action around the opening of the U.S. stock market and for a few hours afterwards, from 8:00 a.m. to roughly 11:00 a.m. EST. If that time doesn’t suit you, you can also day trade from 1:00 a.m. until 8:00 a.m. EST.

During these hours, Europe is open for business, and although this time frame isn’t the most volatile, you’ll find tradeable trends that frequently emerge during this period.

Additionally, this is a good substitute for those who just don’t like trading right before the U.S. market opens. Every hour of the day has a unique dynamic, and traders may eventually come to favor one particular hour over another.

Trading: Part-Time vs. Casual

Your mindset is one of the hazards of part-time day trading. For instance, many aspiring day traders do not distinguish between casual trading and part-time trading. Part-time employment is advised by many experts since, like them, you can trade every day during your most productive hours and then engage in other activities.

On the other hand, casual day traders engage in day trading whenever they have the need or the time. This isn’t advised because it usually shows you haven’t done any actual planning, your trading activity has no structure, and since markets behave differently at different times of the day, trading at random or casual intervals won’t make for a sound tactical move.

Even though they don’t trade all day, part-time traders do so frequently. Casual traders may engage in trading for a few days before taking a few days off. You become less alert, your reaction times slow, and you become more prone to errors as a result of these activity bursts followed by intervals of inactivity.

You can work as a day trader part-time, but not casually. Trade on a desktop or laptop over a designated period of time each day, not on your smartphone in the office restroom. You will lose money if you trade carelessly and without a plan, but those that take trading seriously and constantly improve their methods will steal your money.

Do it well, run your part-time trading as a business or as part-time employment, or don’t do it at all.

Part-Time Pay
Because only a few particular times of the day offer the best profits for their techniques, the majority of full-time traders who depend only on trading end up trading part-time. Due to this, trading independently on a part-time or full-time basis generally means the same thing. That entails not giving up much of the possibility of making money.

For instance, a part-time trader might discover that they can make $500 on average per day by trading only during the best two to three hours of the day. Even though they would end up with a very similar daily profit outcome if they forced themselves to trade all day, they would earn significantly less money per hour of trading if they were forced to sit and watch their screens during times when good trading opportunities typically don’t present themselves.

If you trade at the times of day when your method works best, you won’t lose much money compared to trading all day.

Lastly, regarding part-time day trading,
With stocks, futures, or currency, you can day trade with ease on a part-time basis. Discover what hours of the day give the best trading chances for your trading strategy. The optimal time to trade stocks or futures is close to the official open or closure of the U.S. stock market. The finest trading periods for the currency market are the day before the U.S. open or the European session.

If you trade frequently, part-time trading can be successful. If you want to casually experiment, it’s rare that you’ll become consistent, so you might make some money, but you’ll also give it back. It may seem like a full-time job to learn how to day trade properly, but after you’ve mastered your plan and method, day trading only requires part-time hours.