Taking on the forex market as a part-time trader can feel like a daunting task. Deciphering trading strategies and terminology is difficult for most investors, but with the added pressure from time constraints, part-time traders face even bigger challenges. Not many individuals are available to trade foreign exchange full-time. Usually investors make their buys and sells at work, during lunch time or overnight. The trouble with this type of forex trading is that forex is a variable market, so buying and selling every now and again throughout the day will result in frequently missed opportunities to purchase and sell at the best prices. This will result in a loss of money if the desired situation does not materialize before the marketplace goes against it, or there is no opportunity to enter and exit at an appealing rate. These types of lost opportunities can spell catastrophe for the part-time forex trader.
However, there are many simple ways to overcome the obstacles and formulate a part-time-friendly trading plan.
Learning Time Zones of Markets
The forex market is open 24 hours a day, five days a week, which makes it one of the most appealing markets for part-time traders. Those who are committed to a standard nine-to-five working week can trade on the forex market early in the morning and into the night.
However, all currency pairs are not equally active throughout the day and night. As major currency markets open and close across the world, currencies will go through periods of greater activity. Matching your trading timeframe to market opening times is an effective way to decide on a currency pair.
| Forex market | Opening time (GMT) | Closing time (GMT) |
| London | 07:00 | 15:00 |
| New York | 12:00 | 20:00 |
| Sydney | 22:00 | 06:00 |
| Tokyo | 23:00 | 07:00 |
Find the right strategy and style
Part-time traders are usually unable to monitor the markets all day and respond quickly to small movements or market events. That means that long-term strategies and wider perspectives are more appropriate; traders might follow long-term trends and concentrate on holding a few, long-term positions.
Position trading
Position trading is a long-term trading strategy, where traders look at daily and monthly charts to determine trends. Once they have found a prevalent trend, they may keep a position open for weeks, months, or even years. This alleviates the pressure to continually monitor trades and allows position traders to potentially make steady gains.
Avoiding Losses by Stop-Loss Orders
If you are only able to buy and sell for a nominal time frame throughout the day, say for 60 minutes, the perfect trading strategy is to let forex trading software do the work for you. Since the currency markets are highly volatile in nature, your time schedule should have enough flexibility to avoid missing any new buying and selling opportunities. So, utilizing an automated forex trading system where you can let your laptop do the right job might be the ideal strategy for you. A commonly used technique is to incorporate stop–loss orders. Using stop-losses is a safe and good safeguarding technique in case the marketplace takes an abrupt move against your position and you are not around to manually intervene.
Use trading apps
Trading apps are useful companions for the part-time trader, allowing them to use all of their free time wisely. With trading apps, keeping track of trades on the go is simple and many come with additional market features. Economic calendars, included in the Forex app, give indications about what may sway market sentiment in the future.
The currency markets are probably the most suitable markets to deal with since it is a 24-hour market that is continuously changing. This constant changing offers a lot of opportunities to generate a profit at any time during the day. Thanks to these trading technologies and features, the foreign exchange market welcomes part-time investors and offers great opportunities for them. However, in spite of these beneficial features, it has to be stressed that the currency markets are very volatile. This makes it very risky for all traders, but especially for the part-timer. That is why it is critical for the part-time forex trader to select the most appropriate trading strategy to help mitigate the risks associated with this market.