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The first step to trade stocks as a business and not a hobby

The first step to trade stocks as a business and not a hobby is to find an online stock broker like ShareBuilder.

By Marius DeniauPublished 2 years ago 4 min read
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The first step to trade stocks as a business and not a hobby
Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash

People love trading stocks. It's an excellent hobby, but many people want it to be a business. There's nothing wrong with that, because they want to continue doing something they enjoy. Trading stocks is a great way to make a living and very few people who have investigated it would argue that point.

But there's one big question that needs to be addressed within the first hour of investigating the idea of making it a career. And that question is, can trading stocks be a business?

Part-time - (s)he who trades part time can actually have a full time job and trade stocks on the side.

Can trading stocks be a business? If you have the passion for trading and you want to earn money from it, then yes, you can make it a business. However, this does not mean that you should quit your job and become a full time trader. Trading stocks as a business requires an extensive amount of knowledge and experience which will take years to acquire.

We know of traders who have been trading for over ten years and still cannot make money consistently. Therefore, if you want to start trading as a business but do not have any prior experience in the field, then it is better that you start with part-time trading first. Part-time - (s)he who trades part time can actually have a full time job and trade stocks on the side.

Full Time - (s)he who trades full time can only work in stocks as he/she has no other source of income except from his/her earnings from stocks.

Full-time - (s)he who trades full-time is jobless and has to make the most of his/her stock trading to earn a living.

What does it mean to trade stocks as a business and not a hobby? To answer this question, we need to first understand what trading is. Trading is the process of buying and selling financial instruments such as stocks, bonds, currencies and commodities by speculating on their price movement. Trading can be done for many reasons: To earn a living (for example, full-time traders).

To make money for short-term goals like paying off debt or funding an emergency fund. To invest in the stock market with long-term goals in mind like retirement savings or college savings. If you are trading stocks as a business, then you should have the following characteristics: You should have your own trading plan in place that will help guide your actions and help you stay consistent throughout the day/week/month/year.

A trading plan is essential if you want to trade with consistency and discipline because it will help ensure that you are making all of your trades based on solid, well researched information rather than emotion or greed. If you don't have a trading plan yet, then I highly recommend finding one that suits your personality here: https://www.themoneymakingmamma.com/free-trading-plan/.

Self-employment - (s)he who is self employed can trade stocks on the side too and possibly make it a lucrative business but its unlikely to be as lucrative as his/her main business.

Can trading be a business? The answer is yes, it can be. But not all traders are able to turn their trading into a profitable business. Trading as a business requires you to have the right mindset, discipline and knowledge. The first step to trade stocks as a business and not a hobby is deciding whether you want to trade full-time or part-time.

If you choose to trade full-time, then you will have more time to put into your trading and concentrate on growth opportunities. If you choose to trade part-time, then you will have less time and more distractions in your life that could affect your trading performance. There are plenty of different ways that you can make money from stock market trading but being able to trade stocks successfully is not easy at all!

If you’re serious about making money from stock market trading then it’s important that you know exactly what type of trader you are and what type of trader you want to become in the future.

Business - trading stocks can be a business in itself and one can take off quickly by learning from mistakes, keeping losses small, focusing on a few proper strategies, being persistent etc.

The first step to trade stocks as a business and not a hobby is to set up a separate bank account and make it a habit to keep all your trading funds separate from your personal funds. This is important because if you are not disciplined enough to keep your trading funds separate from your personal ones, then you will end up spending the profits of your trades on things that have nothing to do with your trading goals.

Secondly, you need to have a clear understanding of the risk involved in trading stocks. You should know how much time and money you can afford to lose before you start investing. If you don’t know this number, then make sure that your first few trades are small until you get a better understanding of how volatile stocks can be.

Thirdly, pick one or two strategies that work for you and stick with them for as long as possible! It is very tempting when things go well to try out new strategies but this often leads people into trouble because they don’t have enough experience with their current strategy so they don’t know what to look for when things go wrong and overshoot their target stop loss points which causes them to lose more money than they should have if they had stuck with their existing strategy.

In a nutshell

If I trade just this one strategy, every month I average 71% per year. Not too bad as far as businesses go. So while trading is not a get rich quick scheme, trading can be a business and your returns per month are determined by how long you have been doing it, the type of market you are trading in and a most important question-Do you understand what you are trading?

It takes time to master your craft or business.

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About the Creator

Marius Deniau

👋 I'm a Finance nerd and aspiring writer. Fan of the maths, outdoors, and rock music ! See you on Vocal !

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