Forex day trader lifestyle is often a topic of conversation. Many are desperate to swerve out of work in the office just to get freedom by becoming a daily forex trader.
However, there are also people who avoid this strategy as they fear that time will be spent to monitor the trading platform all day. So, what is the true lifestyle of forex traders who use this strategy?
Corry Mitchel, a former writer for The Balance website and a day trading expert, says that the lifestyle of a forex trader with this strategy is not "as exciting" as many people think. It all depends on each discipline.
Choosing the Right Time in Forex Day Trader Lifestyle
Apart from having the best forex broker, choosing the time to trade is the main thing that will determine the lifestyle of a trader. There are many choices, but 3 are the most common.
You can choose between being like a vampire, sleeping during the day and staying up late to trade; or be a normal human being with working hours in general; or will become a zombie by staring at the trading screen all day long. This depends on the time zone in our respective country of residence.
For traders in Indonesia who want to trade with normal working hours in Didimax forex broker, they can choose the Tokyo session, which market starts at 6 am. As for traders who choose the American session, they should be ready to start trading at night.
Making Your Trading Experience
If you're working from home, it allows you to do whatever we want. Maybe this is what makes some people interested in the forex day trader lifestyle.
In fact, the discipline issue is up to us. A day trader can wake up at least an hour before trading. Have your breakfast and prepare yourself mentally. The steps are as follows:
1. Do a short "trial" about your trading strategy; the trick is to create a trading plan scheme.
2. Check the trading account balance, in order to determine risk management. It’s recommended to place risk of 2% or below, of the total balance on the trading account as a whole. However, for new traders who have not been able to make consistent profits, 1% is the recommended risk management.
3. Monitor the forex calendar and mark major events that will occur on that day. You should also make it in the habit of getting out of the trade at least three minutes before the event takes place.
4. Ensure the trading platform is working properly and quotes are smooth.
Carrying out the Trading Plan
The best opportunities usually appear an hour before the opening of the US market until the first hour or two thereafter. The estimate is around 21:30 WIB to 22:30 WIB if we want to trade stocks or forex.
As for futures trading, 1 hour before the market opens, from 08:30 pm to 09.30 pm, is also a good time to trade. For forex, you can start few hours earlier, especially when trading GBP/USD or EUR/USD.
Finally, in forex day trader lifestyle, a day trader will end his trading day by conducting a review. You can take a screenshot of his trading chart for the day. Then mark the trading levels, wrote down the profit or loss of each trade, and made a final note containing the following descriptions:
1. Trading time (in hours).
2. Number of positions opened.
3. The number of profitable trades and the total amount of all profitable trades (can be in pips, points, or currency; the same applies to losing trades.
4. Net profit or loss (can be in pips, points, or currency).
It doesn't matter which style you use, as long as you master the strategies and market trends, then collecting profits is not impossible. Know the forex day trader lifestyle before you decide to use this style.