Thanks to technological advances, more and more people now have access to their own forex trading platforms.
Nowadays you can open your own trading account with only a small deposit and a few days of waiting. This has led forex enthusiasts to include trading as a source of income while others are inspired to trade full time.
Today we’re taking a look at the more common struggles of trading from home.
Before you venture into home-based trading – whether part time or full time – you should know that there are significant differences between trading from an office and trading from home:
1. Establishing an office space
The first thing you need to work on if you’re planning to trade from home is establishing your personal work space. Trading from home doesn’t have to mean trading from your bed or the same dining table that your kids just spilled their spaghetti on.
Since you’ll be dealing with the same markets that office traders are battling with, you’ll need to establish an OFFICE space.
Start with your personal space. Get a room or a corner where your housemates can’t easily disturb you. Next, acquire trading essentials like a fast internet connection, a wide trading desk, comfortable chair, and however many monitors you need for your trading strategies.
2. Distractions, distractions everywhere
home traderThe biggest difference between trading from an office and trading from home is that your office doesn’t have your TV, your bed and whatever comforts and distractions that you have at home.
You can’t focus on your usual trading news if you’re watching a season finale on Netflix. Similarly, you won’t be able to execute your trades if your mom is asking you to do errands or if your pet is demanding his/her play time.
Consistently profitable trading requires focus. Minimizing distractions is key if you want to execute your trades flawlessly.
Limit distractions by establishing and sticking to a trading schedule. Find out which trading sessions agree with your schedule and measure the time you need to do your trading-related activities. Allocate a “me-time” if you must, but make sure that you’re doing nothing but trading during your allotted trading period.
3. Adjusting to time zone differences
Not all traders have the luxury of trading their desired trading session. Many home-based traders are part-timers who can only trade forex after they’ve finished their full-time jobs.
This becomes problematic when a change in schedule (e.g. DST adjustments in other countries) affects their home trading routine.
One possible solution is to plan ahead of the time changes. Establish a new routine for days when you have to wake up a little earlier or sleep a little later to trade the events that you want. If that doesn’t work, then consider finding other strategies that would work with the trading sessions that correspond with your trading time.
4. Adopting a trading-friendly environment
Office-based forex traders have the advantage of working in a trading-friendly environment. They have fast internet connection, complete sets of monitors and a TV that displays trading-related news all day. More importantly, they have fellow forex traders in the room that they can bounce their trading ideas or be competitive with.
This type of environment is a bit difficult to replicate in a home setting. As important as it is to establish an office space and trading schedule, it’s more important to foster an environment where you can get into the trading zone.
One way you can work on this is to include your trading environment in your journals.
Does it help when you trade while no one is around? Does solo trading work for you or do you perform better if you get opinions from other traders first? Do you focus better when you take short breaks or should you get all of your trading activities done in one sitting?
Bottom line is that trading is a business whether you’re making your trades from an office or from home. If you can’t get around the distractions from home or you can’t get into the trading zone outside of an office setting, then home-based trading is probably not for you.
Give it a try if you’re just learning about forex trading. Ask for tips from other home-based traders if you need them. But if you’re a home-based trader and you’re reading this, then feel free to share your daily struggles on the comment section below!
