Its all about Time

I work five to six days a week, 50 weeks a year. Monday through Friday are generally ten to twelve hours long. Saturday, three to five hours long. Add to this a family with whom I want to spend time and you've got a recipe for disaster when it comes to running a trading business. How to handle the time commitment has been an issue with me for several years (since the birth of my daughter - who is now five). I've found that, for me, trading in a longer term time frame works best because I don't have to monitor it during the work day. What do I mean? Well, with technology today you can trade just about every major market in the world (and some not so major markets) in real time and in time frames as short as a single tick. That sort of trading requires you to be tuned in to the market the entire time you are in it. Trading in time frames shorter than a day is, for me, too attention intensive. I needed to find a methodology which allows me to trade the markets in a way that does not require me to be watching it all the time. Hence, I trade in daily and weekly time frames. This means when I am looking for a trade, I examine the daily and weekly charts (sometimes the four-hour charts to help find entry points). I plan my entries and exits using these time frames and so I don't need to watch the markets until the new daily bar is generated. This minimizes my time spent planning and executing my trades and allows me to maximize my time in other areas of my life.

Of course, this does not mean that I do not spend significant amounts of time looking for opportunities and preparing for the next trade. I estimate that I spend ten to fifteen hours a week on my trading business. Sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less. I have found that having regular business hours helps. I know when I am working on my trading business and I can plan accordingly. For me, the first two hours of the morning (usually from 5 am to 7 am) are used for my trading business. On the weekends (especially Sunday as the Australian and Asian Forex markets open on late Sunday afternoon) I let my wife sleep in and I get a couple of hours of planning in.

There is no substitute for time. You've got to put the hours in if you want to be a successful trader. There is no other way. You can (and when you are ready, probably should) spend some time reading what other people believe the markets will do, but you can't rely on others to do your thinking for you. No one cares about your money as much as you do. If you remember that, you'll have a greater chance of getting out of the market with a profit.

Good luck, and good hunting.