Scanning with a Day Job

“Can I still trade the markets around my day job?” is a question which we get asked all the time. The answer is always a resounding YES! The trick to successfully trading the markets while holding down a day job is to structure your trade scanning routine to work with a limited amount of time. We thought we would help you all out by outlining a scanning approach for those people with limited time on their hands. 

Let’s assume that you work a 9am – 5pm job. That means that during those hours you’re unable to check the markets. Don’t worry, that still leaves you plenty of time in the morning before you go to work and in the evening once you’re home from work to scan through the markets searching for trading opportunities. So give yourself 30 minutes in the morning before you head to work that’s totally dedicated to scanning through the markets and then another 30 minutes in the evening to do the same. It’s vitally important that you make this into a strict routine as to trade successfully you need a well structured approach.       

So you now have your scanning times set out and a daily routine created. Next we recommend that you reduce the watch list of products that you follow to a manageable size. This will depend on your experience but try to keep this watch list to fewer than 40 products. Pick products which have plenty of liquidity and tight spreads and products which you actually have a relevant interest in as it will give you the added motivation to follow these closely.   

Now that you have a daily scanning routine with a niche list of products traded, we want to outline a scanning technique which will allow you to find charts worth trading with a limited amount of time. In the morning, scan through the daily charts of your watch list and ask yourself the question, “Is there clear direction on the daily chart?” if the answer is no then simply move onto the next product. If the answer is a YES then work through the relevant timeframes looking for your trading strategy setup. Write down in a trading diary the products which are showing you clear direction and what you need to see to take a trade. If there is a trading setup ready, simply place your order into the market then head off to work. That wasn’t so hard was it?!

For your evening scan, open up your trading diary and start working through the charts which you noted down as showing clear direction that morning. Then drill through the relevant timeframes to see if your strategy has setup the way you wanted it to. This scanning approach means that you won’t have to waste time going through the products showing no clear direction in your evening scan as all that work was done in the morning.

Next.... repeat this process each and every day!

Happy Trading!

The TWP Team