So I recently accepted a job. Hence the extended absence from the blog. Pretty much whole of the first month went into complaining how hectic this job was, and how I had practically no time to do anything else. Then one day I had to travel with my manager from one site to another. Being coordinator of a large region, he was almost constantly on the phone. Interesting part was that pretty much every single minute he wasn’t on an office call or replying to a work mail, he was on a video call with his daughters. I don’t think he ever got to talk to them for 10 minutes continuously. But a two or three such opportunities during a three hour journey would be enough to refresh his mind.
And then it struck me. If instead of thinking of this journey as one chunk of time of 2 hours, if I thought of it as 24 slots of 5 minutes each, I suddenly seem to have a lot of time. Here are some of the things I could do in one or two slots each:
- Check several charts for positional trades.
- Read an interesting blog post.
- Watch a relaxing video on YT.
- Think about a blog post (!)
- Write a blog post.
- Study a small topic for CFA.
The list will grow as I remember more and more things that I am supposed to do. And granted, not everything can be achieved this way. Playing an instrument comes to mind as an example. But there are other times when we have such slots but we barely utilize them since we do not think of our time at that granular level. Once you train your mind to notice such slots, you will see them everywhere.
And I understand that there is no replacement for long periods of focused work, but when your day ends at 9 in the evening and all you want to do is crash on the bed and submit yourself to sleep, you will have to get your other activities done this way.
Swing trading in particular is for suitable for people like me who have very little time to monitor the positions. All I can do is see the charts once in a while and find out the supports or demand zones. Then simply putting GTT orders at suitable prices would get the job done.
Trading options this way is possible too. But hedging will be the order of the day and one would have to be ready to accept max loss since you may not be able to adjust the position in time if the market moves against you. I recommend sticking to index options only since those are more liquid than the stock options and can be safely exited on a market order. Index options are cash settled as well so positions will be automatically settled upon expiry. Not the case with stock options which will be physically settled. Read You dont know what you dont know for more such things to look after while trading.
Practically everything in life can be gained again except time. So why while it away? Use it as much as you can…