Trading full time. Some of the time.

J

joepippin

Well-Known Member
So in December, my job in the military is going to become very time consuming but I have saved enough leave (vacation) to kind of work the system a bit till I get out. I figured that I can basically take 3 days off, two weeks out of every month for 20 months which lines up when I plan to get out. Or I can wait about a year and take 3 days off 3 weeks out of every month for 10 months. These three days I take are strategically Tues, Weds, Thurs as they provide the best days to trade. What is your guys opinion on which route to take and what weeks out of the month do you think or the best? Id assume 2nd-4th week of the month. Sorry if this seems like a math problem it's not meant to be.
 
How stable is your consistency and execution at this point? What type of trading do you favor? What pairs do you trade? (i.e. how important is LO to your trading?)

I would probably suggest the 2nd option, and simply trade off the Daily/H4 charts in the mean time. Requires larger Stops, obviously, but you'll be building up before, effectively, going "full, full time".

As for weeks, skip NFP, as some months are just dead in the days running up. FOMC, BoE & ECB announcements are normally the 2nd or 4th weeks, right? They're the events that are setup for the biggest moves, so I'd target those weeks as wanting to be there for LO.
 
sqa said:
How stable is your consistency and execution at this point? What type of trading do you favor? What pairs do you trade? (i.e. how important is LO to your trading?)

I would probably suggest the 2nd option, and simply trade off the Daily/H4 charts in the mean time. Requires larger Stops, obviously, but you'll be building up before, effectively, going "full, full time".

As for weeks, skip NFP, as some months are just dead in the days running up. FOMC, BoE & ECB announcements are normally the 2nd or 4th weeks, right? They're the events that are setup for the biggest moves, so I'd target those weeks as wanting to be there for LO.
Click to expand...

I'm fairly consistent and ever sense I've determined that I've been trading more pairs. I trade LO and NYO almost everyday, but cant always trade through NYO. I'm comfortable trading all time frames. So swing trading the daily and 4hr isn't a problem. I generally base all my setups off Higher Timeframe's and work my way down.

Both options don't let me go full time. But they provide me the options to trade most the available trading days provided in a month.

I appreciate the post.
 
It's a really hard call. I'd almost suggest waiting the year so you can take more time off at once, but doing so might look bad career wise.

Before this point, what were your core trading hours and how did you manage them? One factor is going to be what keeps you consistent and how the hours change will also affect your trading.
 
That's a great situation to be in. I think that you should go for the first option if you can.
In your shoes I would not be able to wait the year!
If you consider the time-frame in ICT TPD series volume one I think the longer term would work well.
Good luck.
 
joepippin said:
So in December, my job in the military is going to become very time consuming but I have saved enough leave (vacation) to kind of work the system a bit till I get out. I figured that I can basically take 3 days off, two weeks out of every month for 20 months which lines up when I plan to get out. Or I can wait about a year and take 3 days off 3 weeks out of every month for 10 months. These three days I take are strategically Tues, Weds, Thurs as they provide the best days to trade. What is your guys opinion on which route to take and what weeks out of the month do you think or the best? Id assume 2nd-4th week of the month. Sorry if this seems like a math problem it's not meant to be.
Click to expand...
Do you need to take time off every month, or is the system flexible enough regarding the months you take time off?

If there is a level of flexibility, I would suggest take off 3 days (tue/wed/thu like you suggested) during times where there is more chance of some juicy setups.

Have a look at the seasonal charts for instance, link = GBP
http://www.seasonalcharts.com/future_waehrungen_pound.html

You can see that there are excellent opportunities as of Mid september, and also from March-May.

So I suggest taking the 3 day/week during Mid September-Mid December and also from March-May.
During summer holiday, volatility is low in general, so it would be a bummer to waist your hard earned holidays to a period which presents sub-optimal setups.

So I suggest a mix :)
 
kookie said:
That's a great situation to be in. I think that you should go for the first option if you can.
In your shoes I would not be able to wait the year!
If you consider the time-frame in ICT TPD series volume one I think the longer term would work well.
Good luck.
Click to expand...

lol Yeah it's a pretty sweet situation :)
 
I was thinking about trying to mix it up. I'll take a look at the seasonal charts and see if I can figure a better way to structure this haha Thanks Hopiplaka
 
Jack said:
It's a really hard call. I'd almost suggest waiting the year so you can take more time off at once, but doing so might look bad career wise.

Before this point, what were your core trading hours and how did you manage them? One factor is going to be what keeps you consistent and how the hours change will also affect your trading.
Click to expand...

That's the thing my Job is going to be changing my hour's that I trade normally. So to advert that I have Tons of vacation time I have to use before I get out. I do agree that If I try and mix the months up some with 3 weeks 3 days off and some with 2 weeks 3 days off I'll probably be a little more inconsistent.
 
Not sure why this thread is up near the top but having read through I'd love to know how it went if you're still on here Joe?
 
Also just stumbled upon this thread and I was hoping for an update? I love to hear other's success stories. Are you still in the military or did you become successful with trading? What kind of strategy did you decide on?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top