I'm curious, whether or not its feasible if your a swing trader to just go get a full time job...in corporate land. However, you continue to trade your account via swing trading (holding 1-5 trading days). Do you believe that you can make more money combined working full time and swing trading than just swing trading full time? Now with working full time your not giving up the opportunity cost of a salary however, it may lower your swing trading profits but net net both combined might add up to more yearly dollars to your bank account overall. Has anybody ever thought about doing this and what are your opinions? P.S. I understand that working a corporate job is added time and you could put a price on time. However, if you were just interested in the almighty dollar what would be your opinion?
I believe that if a successful swingtrader went out and got a daytime job, his swingtrading will suffer. I believe that inorder to be successful, you must give it your undivided attention. It would be difficult, especially if the other job wasn't directly related to taking positions in the marketplace. I'm not saying it can't be done, just saying that one of the "jobs" will suffer.
I respect the post above but IMHO... There is no reason for you not to get a job...swing trading can easily be done with the right order management software. Time is your most valuable commodity. Active daytrading requires sitting in front of the screen, swing trading does not. Actually, I am on the West Coast and we tell all of our new traders to get another job after the trading day until they are making enough money trading. One of the benefits of being on the West Coast.... Keep (or get) the job. Good luck!
I don't speak from personal experience on this case, but I would imagine that if you could work in some form of sales and had the ability to schedule your appointments, etc at your convenience you could trade simultaneously. I don't believe that you could do this as effectively if you were tied to the office or tied to a schedule not of your own making. In other words, I think you would need to still retain some form of entrepreneurialism in whatever primary career you chose...
working full time and TRYING to trade blows. I do it now and hate it cause i get no news while at work, all the action is happening while im stuck in a cubicle. i think swing trading needs just as much attention as day trading(personal opinion)...firewalls suck balls, no TV, no 3 monitor set up etc etc...
Fabulous advice! Especially about the order management software. And from JWK's office it is a fairly short drive to Chart House in Del Mar, or Hotel Del on Coronado. The tips are so good there you might think twice about trading! Just kidding a bit, but where his office is, it is all good.
As long as you can ssh out, you should be able to set up some sort of proxy tunnel. No guarantees you're not going to get fired if they notice the bandwith, but I used to run my TWS + Quotetracker from work all the time. Honestly, my trading suffered because of it. I'd make some pretty random decisions while sitting on a conference call watching KLAC twirl around. Not to mention having to explain to your manager (a powerpoint freak) what all the pretty graphics on your 21in crt are. "How did you do that animation!! Can you put that in my presentation!!??!!" Regards, Laz
Yes, it is absolutely possible, assuming by swing trading you are speaking of multi-day holds. But of course you need to develop a workable system that will be based on only daily charts, with orders entered for the market open. Nothing wrong with that. You just won't make the same gains as you would full time, but your salary and benefits may more than compensate for it. From my own experience in the past before I turned to trading full time, I would strongly advise against trying to closely monitor the market or positions during your working hours. You will end up doing both poorly.