The term “side hustle” has been on the lips of lots of different people in recent weeks and months. Even country music star Dolly Parton recorded a “5 to 9” variation on her hit “9 to 5” in honor of the emerging side hustle economy. From pop-up beauty salons to freelance writing, the side hustle is becoming ubiquitous in American life. But where does trading fit into that?
Trading is appealing as a side hustle for a whole host of reasons – not least because it’s flexible enough to fit around an existing job and other responsibilities, or at least it is during the week. And in more good news, there’s a lot of emerging technology designed to streamline the forex trading process and make it possible to do it on a side hustle basis rather than a full-time job. This article will delve into the specifics and look at what tools are out there to help you get started. You could also look into a free forex signal indicator to get more up to date information quickly.
Mobile applications
Full-time traders often have a massive suite of technology and kit at their fingertips, including monitors for every different pair they plan to trade and sophisticated price chart analysis tools with all kinds of different timeframes. If you’re trading in the context of school drop-offs, grocery store runs and even a main job in an external office or elsewhere, it’s very unlikely to be worth investing in such a complex array of computer hardware.
The good news is that the humble mobile app is here to help. Many online brokerages now offer a mobile phone trading app: these aren’t always as powerful as the terminal or web trading equivalents, but they can potentially offer enough to keep you in business. The MetaTrader 4 mobile app, for example, offers a range of features: the Android version has three different types of chart, while there are almost 10 different timeframes to pick from. Technical indicators and analytical objects are all available, too, and there’s also a mobile chat function and a trading history section.
Although the terminal version offers more features, this is still a respectable offer. It means that you can place a trade, add stop losses and monitor your open positions no matter where you are, as long as you’re able to connect your device to the web. The trade-off between the range of features and flexibility, then, is one that is very much worth it for a lot of side hustlers.
Articles, calendars and news
If you’re starting a foreign exchange trading career as a side hustle, it’s highly likely that you’re coming at it from a position of relatively low knowledge. The internet means that there’s a whole realm of forex trading content out there, which is good news. It means you can find the content that works for you and use it to educate yourself about the way the markets work. One such way, for example, is to check out the Forex for Dummies guide available from the experts at ForexTraders.
One way of learning is through the use of educational articles provided on may sites. These articles are often focused on demystifying some of the more complicated forex market principles, such as leverage, yield, carry trades and more. It’s well worth spending time delving into this side of the business before you place your first trade, or else you might quickly find that you don’t have the knowledge you need to be in with a chance of success.
Many brokers – and, indeed, other forex websites – offer news stories. These can focus on everything from the latest action in a particular country’s stock market and the consequent effect on its currency value, to intricate analysis of particular price chart movements. Economic calendars are also a handy tech-fuelled tool to have on side, as they flag key forex market issues in advance of them happening and allow you to base your speculation around key events like elections, central bank meetings and more.
In the age of the side hustle, there’s nothing more important than ensuring that the kit you’ve got working for you is making your second job as easy and efficient as possible. The effectiveness of your technology and tools could make all the difference between a successful trading side hustle and a failed one – so it’s vital to get it right. With mobile apps, economic calendars and web news content all available, now’s the time to do some extra research to get your tech profile just right for your needs.
