The advancement in technology has ensured that anyone with a working internet connection can one day start trading. But while it is possible, how easy is it and how on earth do you do it? This page looks at the benefits of day trading for a living, where and where people trade, and offers you some valuable tips.

 

 

Is day trading possible for a living?

The first thing to note is yes, making a living from day trading is a viable career, but it is not necessarily easier or less work than a regular day job.

Rather, the advantages are that you are your own boss, and can plan your working hours any way you want. Trading on a laptop also means you can do it anytime, anywhere.

Beware – there are many people who claim to make a fortune day trading, but usually these people are trying to sell you something. Don’t believe the hype or that there is such a thing as ‘easy money’.

However, there are ways to make it easier – for example, you don’t have to earn as much if you live (or move) in a low-tax country. Cutting living costs can also make a big difference, because ‘earning’ at something means that income covers expenses.

Advantages vs disadvantages

Despite the problems, there are some obvious advantages to day trading for a living. To name just a few:

  • No boss – you are your own boss. No more to the needs of demanding and unreasonable bosses. You can work exactly as you want.
  • Hours – You set your own working hours. In today’s world, there is always an open market. So you can choose when you want to work and how long it fits in with other commitments. If you want a four week vacation, there is no HR department to navigate first.
  • Overheads – No more expensive train ticket to get to work. No more gas and parking costs. No more expensive suits. You simply need a computer, an internet connection and some capital to get started.
  • Convenience – While everyone is ironing their shirts for the day ahead, you can throw on some comfortable clothes and commute to your desk with a fresh cup of coffee. No more stuffy office or distracting colleagues to deal with. You work from the comfort of your own home.

Disadvantages

Despite the obvious attractions, the comments about day trading for life also have some disadvantages. The most common of these are:

  • Lonely Lifestyle – Sometimes your coworkers have driven you up the wall, but sometimes it’s comforting to have people around. Day trading for a living can get lonely. If you don’t like your own, think twice.
  • Inconsistent salary – your salary varies a lot. You might make $3,000 one day and lose $2,500 the next. You probably won’t have a stable salary that you can rely on. In addition, if you take the working day, you will not pay a cent.
  • Career Advancement – All you can improve are your tasks. You may also find it challenging to get back into the business world. A day trade for a living fora suggested that you will be less employable towards the end.
  • The battle against bots – Algorithms, automated systems and bots are all taking over the market. They now account for a massive 60% of all market volumes. There will always be a place for humans in the market, but you must find new ways to adapt and evolve if you want to maintain an edge.

What is Human Trafficking Day?

One of the most important decisions you will make is what to start day trading. So what are the popular securities and markets among those who trade day-to-day?

  • supplies
  • Penny stocks
  • Forex
  • Cryptocurrencies
  • Futures
  • Eminis
  • CFDs
  • commodities
  • Gold
  • options

Whether you trade penny stocks for a living or currencies, the volatility and volume in your chosen market will seriously affect your potential profits. For example, the cryptocurrency market is very volatile, which allows some to make a good living.

While day shares for a living can be more challenging. It’s already a saturated market. In addition, a relatively high amount of start-up capital is required and losses can be more financially devastating.

Again, day trading products or futures will present its own challenges. Everything points to the need for effective

 

 

Regional differences

Whether you earn it today will also depend on where you live and the market you choose. Day trading for a living in India, Indonesia or South Africa not only offers volatile markets, but you also have a very low cost of living, which makes it viable.

Day trading for a living in the UK, US, Canada or Singapore still offers plenty of opportunity, but you have plenty of competition to contend with, plus high costs of living. It’s not about volatility or volume, but you need to sit down and calculate how much you need to earn on average each week or month to live.

How to Make a Living

It is not easy to make a day trade. You have a number of potentially expensive hurdles to overcome. Below are the top tips to keep you in the dark.

Configure

The question on many aspiring traders lips is, how can you start making money day trading? The answer is that you only need a few fundamentals. Get those fundamentals right, and you’ll be in the strongest position to earn a generous salary.

  • Hardware – You need at least a medium and computer connection. Any hardware or internet crash can cost you dearly. Many people suggest having two monitors running, just in case of emergency.
  • Broker – make sure you choose a broker that suits your needs. They should offer competitive prices, reliable customer support and an easy platform.
  • Strategy – you need a strategy that suits your trading style. It must rely on charts, patterns and technical indicators. This should enable you to earn regular profits on high volume, low value trades.

Trade Office

Location is an important topic. Will you have an office at home or will you be trying to trade on a laptop in different locations? You may have seen the images of a lone trader sitting behind 6 or even 9 monitors, watching all kinds of information – but is it necessary? One alternative to dedicating the house to home trading is to use a rented desk.

There is also a service that takes things a step further. ETrading HQ offers rented desks and office space, but also data for day trading and collaboration. Like minds, traders can exchange ideas and strategies face-to-face. The concept is thriving in both London and New York and could make day trading viable for a living for those concerned about market data, solitude and office space.

Capital

One of the first questions from prospective traders’ lips is ‘how much capital do you need?’ The one requirement of day trading from home to live is capital. Roll the dice back a few years and you need a minimum of $25,000 to start the day in the US. Not only that, but you always had to maintain at least the amount in your account.

These strict regulations meant that most people could not take up trading, but it was not financially feasible. However, globalization of the financial industry has led to the development of numerous platforms outside of US regulation. Today you can start with as little as $1000 in your account.

How much capital you need will depend on what you want to start trading.

Education

If you want the best chances of day trading, you need to use a wide variety of sources. Fortunately, you can now find free educational tools with just a few mouse clicks. Some of the most effective sources worth considering are:

  • Books – see our list of great reads, including easily accessible Google Books.
  • E-books – e.g. ‘New Trading for a Living eBook’, by Alexander Elder (Effortless Download)
  • Prosperity
  • Blogs
  • PDFs
  • Video tutorial
  • Forums – ideal for those looking for a lively day to trade stocks, futures, forex and cryptocurrencies.
  • Study Guides
  • Podcasts and MP3s
  • Flipkart

You’ll find advice from experienced traders on forums, blogs and chat rooms. You can benefit from detailed strategy examples from books, PDFs and tutorial videos. Many of the day trading for a living ebooks, epubs and PDFs are also available for free and can be accessed via Kindle.

If you are looking for specific guidance on how to day trade forex, you should consider the forex page. Alternatively, see the stocks page if you are interested in trading stocks at home.

Risk management

When looking at how you can make money day trading, one of the most important components is how you manage risk. As Larry Hite rightly asserted: ‘Throughout my financial career I have constantly seen testimony from other people I knew who were ruined by a failure to respect risk. If you don’t look at risks, it will take you.’ You need a system that ensures you have enough to move on, while maintaining enough capital that you don’t have to go back to the day job.

A good system deals with stop-losses and profit. This allows you to plan ahead and prevent heightened emotions from taking control of decisions.

  • Stop-loss – This is simply the price at which you will sell a share and take the loss. It will exterminate you by holding on to the hope that ‘it will come back.
  • Take Profit – This is the point at which you will sell a share and take the profit. This will help you retain the profit by allowing you to sell before entering a period of consolidation.

Psychology

When trading live, consistent and stable profits are the goal, which will require a disciplined mind. As Victor Sperandeo underlines: “The key to success is emotional discipline. If intelligence was the key, there would be a lot more people trading money.

” It may sound straightforward now, but when you have $2,500 on the line and you’ve been staring intently and intently at the screen for the past six hours, it’s not so easy to keep the fear at bay. An effective way to limit your emotional liability is to use as much technical assistance as possible.

If you keep your emotions in check, you will practice, many mistakes and more mistakes. A neat trick that helps many traders is to focus on the trade, not the money. Take it from experienced trader Alexander Elder, “The goal of a successful trader is to make the best trades. Money is secondary. ”

Final Word

The number of people trading for a living has increased since 2014. However, is this realistic? The answer is that it totally depends on your ambition and commitment. It will not be an easy ride. But if it suits your work style, you choose the right market and you use the mentioned tips, then you can win one of the few.