Is day trading a realistic part-time career

Increasing numbers of people are starting to pursue day trading as a side activity. Find out whether it can be a realistic part-time career.

One of the most fascinating parts of day-trading is the freedom to decide your working hours. Stock markets are open at different times around the world. Currency markets trade 24/5. Cryptocurrencies even trade on weekends. Day trading has become very popular among part-time individual investors, who account for 97% of day trading. 

Part-time day trading has soared in popularity in the last couple of years. However, people are still skeptical about its success. It is a widely held belief that day traders can only make decent money if they trade full time. Contrary to popular belief, most full-time traders end up trading part-time anyway as they find that a few specific hours of the day yield the best results for their trading strategies. 

Being an independent full-time trader is not a lot different from being an independent part-time trader. As far as the profits are concerned, both full-time and part-time day trading have the same potential if the investors are equally experienced and follow solid risk management practices.

How to make money through day-trading

Day trading might a realistic part-time career if you trade regularly and are willing to spend time learning how it works. Although, if you casually dabble in the trading business, it’s quite unlikely that you’ll make consistent or worthwhile profits, as you won’t build up enough experience.

You can only pursue day-trading as a side job or a part-time career if you devote time to learn the business in the beginning. Once you have mastered the strategy, you can day trade part-time and make as much money as full-time independent traders. You will have to work full-time in the beginning and decrease hours as you gain expertise. 

The potential profitability of day trading greatly varies depending on what you are trading. Stocks, for example, historically yield higher long term returns than bonds. This is because all the investment of the stockholders will be lost if the company fails but a stock’s price will go up despite the risk. 

In addition to trading stocks and bonds, you can trade CFDs or contracts for difference. However, you may struggle with CFD trading if you experience difficulty dealing with losses. When it comes to CFD trading, less than 40% of all trades are profitable according to successful traders with decades of experience. 

The basic differences between a contract for difference and stock are ownership and leverage. When you trade CFD online, you can gamble on the price of a security without owning the asset. The security or asset underlying the CFD can be a currency, cryptocurrency, stock, stock index, or commodity. 

Many people fail to make a success of trading part-time because they casually dabble in it, instead of approaching it as a serious job. People also fail because they do not devote enough time mastering the skill in the beginning. 

Day-trading can turn into a realistic part-time career for you if you commit to trading at least thrice a week. To become a successful part-time day trader, you must have a business plan and stick to trading like a professional trader for a few hours three days a week.