I can't watch screens all day, and several of the trading strategies discussed on this site seem to focus on plays that require a lot of attention. I don't have attention, I have meetings. Up until now, I have been a buy and hold investor. This is the easiest mode of trading, but I am getting more and more conscious that a non-bull year would probably set me back. What I am looking for are plays that work on a weekly or daily cadence. Aside from selling monthly strangles, what are some other low effort (and lesser return) ways to participate in trading? I can put in a lot of time after hours to learn and understand these approaches, but I can't really watch charts all day. What do traders here do? (or, what positions would you leave open while you went on vacation?)
I like OTO conditional orders.... Buy stop 100shares AAPL $144 Trailing stop $3 type of approach .... automatically trails a stop once initial order is filled
Leaving a position open while you go on vacation is really a matter of bet sizing. There is a bet size that would cause you stress and there is a bet size that would cause you no stress. I find these markets incredibly boring to be honest. I have 5% in a trading account to satisfy the animal spirits that want action. With rates so low and there is basically no doubt the government has several synthetic puts here ready to go in a correction, just nothing to do besides buy and hold the NASDAQ. I think it is a good time if buy and hold just doesn't work for your mindset that you have to examine what are you trading for. You have to be really careful that the part of your brain that wants action doesn't overwhelm the part that actually wants to make money.
I'm in the same boat. The day job is the primary income and takes my focus. Too many meetings to sit through on zoom and travel every week in a non-covid times. I've gravitated to trading weekly flies in a basket of stocks. Put them on early in the week and carve out some time on Friday for the exits. Buying flies I know my risk and it is defined. I do some other stuff in options as well but are longer term plays. I would feel trying to day trade futures or swing trade would just not be possible If I'm also honoring my commitment to my employer and colleagues.
If you know "Price TA", you can swing trade from the daily charts with stocks/ETFs. Very productive if done well.
Suggest you position trade and use stop losses to protect your position, align your trade with the trend and ride the trend till it ends by being stopped out. Risk no more than 2% per trade and not more than 5 positions at one time. Maximum risk on a worst case scenario of losing all 5 trades is just 10% of your capital. Upside is huge, of course when it works. You will have your losses too. This is longer term and look to hold for maybe, 6 months or over a year or even longer.