The way we trade: Changing circumstances

Thursday, 30th July 2009 11:17 - by Boredmum

I think that the way we trade or invest is pretty much determined by our ‘day jobs’ and how much time we have on our hands. Take myself as an example. I was doing rather a lot of day-trading as I’m a stay-at-home Mum. This worked well for me until I found my baby was wanting more attention, then making day-trading difficult as I couldn’t be exclusively tied to the computer looking for opportunities or quick entry/exit points. I had some plans to attend college for study this year, so I decided to get my long-term plays set up. You see, if I was to attend college, I wouldn’t want volatile stocks. I would want some relatively safe ‘slow burners’. Royal Bank of Scotland (TIDM code: RBS) is one that fits this bill perfectly for me. Well, I set up some long-term plays and then received a letter stating the college nursery unfortunately didn’t have a place for my baby. Now I’m probably not allowed to use the word ‘nepotism’ when I say that 15 members of staff have their babies there. The college, in their infinite wisdom, give you a list of nurseries in the area. I called another three, only to be notified that all places for babies have been taken and even if I was lucky enough to find one that had places at this late stage, the fact that the college has not yet furnished me with a timetable is another challenge. How do you find a nursery place when you don’t know what days you require each week? So, plans of study this year have been abandoned, but it leaves me with the dilemma of what trading style I should now adopt. It would be rather boring to just have my long-term plays, so maybe I should create a small pot for trading opportunities. How do you all trade/invest? Do you have day jobs? Are you retired or a full-time Trader? What’s your style? Does it vary to circumstance?