STT Weekend thread 28-29th

Originally posted by Orwell ↑

Tempy, re solutions for trading whilst working full time:

Don't put your job at risk by having your head in the markets when at work, there is no need to.

Forget DT and STT (less than 4weeks as applied on this forum), it's not suitable for your situation with work and study.

1) Make trades on longer timeframes. Short term trades for me are typically 3months (Ranging 6wks to 5mths) in my company trading account. Medium term trades are 12 to 18mths in my personal name to take advantage of the CGT 50% tax discount.

2) If applying TA, you need to move up in timescale to analyse and trade on the Monthly and Weekly charts only, and don't bother looking at the daily charts. I do this anyway and I'm quite experienced, it's good practice and is a better way to trade when your still developing your skills as the daily chart is more volatile and hence needs more experience to trade successfully.

3) Stick to a limited number of positions. 5 to 12 stocks overall is enough for diversity and all you could reasonably handle anyway in your situation. I will have a concentrated portfolio of 4 or 5 medium term positions and then 2 to 4 short term trades (as defined above) open at any one time. Maximum.

4) Do all your analysis after market hours (and after your work hours). There is no need when doing points 1), 2), 3) above to watch the market during the day. I'll still tend to look at my watchlist and my positions once only a day at lunchtime when I'm full time working, just to keep in touch with the market. That's all that's needed.

5) Determine your decisions on entry and exits after hours, its better for your psychology/stress anyway. Then just place a buy or sell at lunchtimes. Can be done on your mobile phone in 5mins. Always buying and selling at the same time of day, lunchtime, reinforces trading routine and makes execution mentally easier to pull the trigger.

The above approach is easily achieved with full-time work, whilst keeping you engaged with markets and learning and you'll make plenty of money this way.

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Hi Orwell,
I just had to reply as while reading this I had multiple light bulb moments - points 2/3/4/5. Point one is over my head haha.

In regards to point 3 I have multiple free carried positions which take up a lot of time when reviewing my portfolio (I can't seem to let it do its thing in the background). I guess what I'm asking is do people prefer free carried positions or just take profits and look elsewhere? I love having free carried shares but it's probably not the best use of capital and is just another stock to watch and follow taking up time.

Hope this makes sense and thanks again for the quoted post Orwell.

Thanks,
Nick