There are only a few full-time traders in the currency market. Those that trade forex during their work hours, lunchtime, or in the night after finishing their daytime job find that they can trade only sporadically and this causes them to miss out on buying and selling opportunities, especially due to market volatility. Further, the missed opportunities prevent part-time traders from making money through forex trading.

It is a fact, but you need not worry too much about it if you are a part-time trader. There are a few strategies that you can make use of to accrue profits. For instance, you may do currency trading only at night after you come home from your daytime job. In such a situation, you may have to just limit your buying and selling to certain specific currency pairs that are very active during the night times, of course, based on their trading volumes.

The concept is best explained by way of an example. When forex market in the U.S. closes, trading would start in the Asian markets. Therefore, you can consider trading the AUD/ JPY pair or the NZD)/AUD or JPY pair. However, it is important that you analyze the correlation between the currencies prior to choosing a pair. As and when you get time during the day, you must study the market situation and implement your most successful strategies when you trade at night.

As a part-time trader, the most important issue that you have to contend with is the time constraint. Here are a few strategies that you can employ to overcome the problem:

Know The Currency Market

If you are a U.S. resident and you work nine to five, then you can trade currencies either before or after your work hours. The best strategy that you can adopt in these time periods is picking the currency pairs that are most active during those times. If you have a clear idea regarding the times when the major forex markets will be open, then it will be of great help to you in choosing the right currency pairs for trading.

• New York: 8:00 a.m. EST to 5:00 p.m. EST
• Tokyo: 7:00 p.m. EST to 4:00 a.m. EST
• Sydney: 5:00 p.m. EST to 2:00 a.m. EST
• London: 3:00 a.m. EST to 12:00 noon EST

Trading will be in full swing from 2:00 a.m. EST to 11:00 a.m. EST in Europe and Japan. This means that you can trade the major currency pairs such as EUR/JPY, EUR/CHF, and/or those involving HKD or SGD. You can also consider the AUD/JPY pair which will be available from 5:00 p.m. EST to midnight. While it is essential that you understand the best pairs you can trade in the time slots you have allocated for currency trading, it is also equally important to do both fundamental and technical analyses before placing an order.

Make Use of Stop-Loss Option

You should consider your computer as your trading partner. This is to say that you can make use of a trading program to place a trade and also implement the stop-loss orders. This will be helpful in preventing huge losses if the market happens to suddenly move in the opposite direction of your position. This is because the forex market is highly volatile and hard to monitor.

Price-Action Trading Strategy

If you are a person that can snatch 10 minutes off work at specified intervals, then you may be in a better position to implement the price-action trading strategy. This strategy involves doing technical analysis using the Charts of currency pairs prior to placing trades. You can use the Up Bar (a bar with a higher high/ higher low than the previous one) and view the Down Bar (a bar that has a lower high/lower low than the previous one).

While the Up Bars indicate an uptrend, the Down Bars denote a downtrend. The price-action indicators may either be inside/outside the bars. The key to succeeding when using this strategy is to trade off a timeframe in the Chart that best suits your time schedule.

Additional Forex Trading Strategies For Part-time Traders

Some of the other strategies that you can use as a part-time currency trader are as follows:

Buy fewer positions and hold on to them for a longer period

You should have a clear idea as to what factors drive the prices of currency pairs that you want to trade. This is to say that you should have a good understanding of the forex market. After deciding the specific currency pairs that you want to trade, choose a few positions. Then, hold those positions for a longer time period. You can also place stop loss orders to minimize the losses.

Observe long-term trends

It pays to observe the long-term (daily/weekly) trends of currency pairs instead of just looking at hourly, or even four-hour, charts. This will be helpful in trading even though you get a chance to look at your PC only once in a day.

Set up your trading order

Make use of limits, stop-loss, and other such entry/exit order options to ensure that you do not miss out on the opportunities to buy and sell currencies. Most forex trading platforms allow you to do this without paying any additional fee.

Make use of technology

You can make use of systems that alert you through your mobile phone/email to keep you informed of the price movements of currency pairs when you are not trading actively.

Part-time traders can also trade the currencies as the market operates for 24 hours a day and is in flux all the time, providing opportunities to earn money. The volatility in the forex market makes it a risky affair, especially for part-time traders. However, you can easily overcome this problem by implementing the strategies explained in this post. Finally, part-time traders should also take into consideration aspects such as leverage, risk tolerance, and time horizon prior to implementing the strategies.