The Part-Time Trader: Trading Stock as a Part-Time Venture, + Website

CHAPTER 6

Before You Clock In

We all hate it when that early morning alarm goes off. If you are like me, I have to set multiple alarms because I am such a heavy sleeper. If it were a Monday, I was almost certain to clock in late. I could get pretty bitter about the prospect of returning to work on a Monday. In fact, Sundays would more times than not find me in a dour mood because it was the last day of the weekend, and that meant the beginning of another five-day workweek, which always felt like an eternity until Friday came around again.

I became quite the nighthawk simply because going to sleep at night meant a quick passage to the next day of work. Instead of going to sleep at a respectable time like 11 P.M., I would extend my evenings to 1 A.M. or later. That way, I was able to extend my awake time from work by a couple of extra hours.

■ Your Research Must Be Done

One thing I learned as a trader is that I could not simply just “wing it” with my trading once I got to work. More specifically, I could not do all my premarket research while on the job (that is because I had far more important obligations I was required to address like my starting fantasy football lineups, the latest political scandal on the Drudge Report, and filling out my NCAA Tourney bracket). The time was not there for me to do my premarket research, and I needed to conduct that effort in a distraction-free environment. The confines of my home was the place to do that in order to make sure that I gave myself ...