Stock Market Trading as a Career Option: The trading world was viewed as a closed-gate industry, with only a few experts consistently ruling the market. In the 90s, it was much harder to invest in stocks than it is today.
Equity investments meant that shareholders would receive actual physical certificates for their holding. Sometimes, those certificates ended up being fraudulent.
To add to that, the lack of financial literacy, information, and reliable sources made it quite a risky bet. This was especially true when the chances of success were higher if you chose to go the conventional route and take a government job.
Today, the tides have turned and told a different story. Stock Market Trading as a Career Option, all one has to do is have a PAN Card, an Aadhar card, a bank account, and a Demat account.
And all of this can be done, in the palm of your hand through your smartphone or a laptop. The influence of the industry has expanded so far that people actively consider day trading as a career. In this piece on stock market trading, we’ll take a brief walkthrough of the potential prospects of becoming a full-time day trader, and compare it to a regular full-time job as well. Let’s dive into the things to know for stock market trading as a career option.
Day Trading – All you need to know
A full-time job as a trader is quite possible and fairly ambitious. But it requires a certain set of skills and mindset that comes with the role.
In India, we have two major exchanges, the BSE and the NSE. Together, they represent the largest volume of trading that takes place on a day-to-day basis. A majority of that volume is through trading equities of publicly listed companies.
Between market opening (9.15 am IST) and market closure (3.30 pm IST), a trader can buy and sell shares. He/She can either gain or lose from the price change in between that time. On market closure, all holdings are squared off. This is the gist of day trading.
To become a day trader, you need to have certain tools and documents. Here’s a list of things that can help get you started –
- A Computer or Laptop
- A Demat Account
- PAN Card
- Bank Account
- AADHAR Card
- Internet Access
- Brokerage
Full-Time Job Vs. Day Trading – Which is more suitable?
Just like a full-time job, a trader has to be knowledgeable in the stock market and informed before taking it up professionally. There are quite a lot of free courses across different platforms to teach you trading and most financial websites teach you paper trading at no extra expense.
The caution behind trading exists primarily because of a lack of stability and financial knowledge.
Through courses on FinGrad and other learning platforms, you could potentially bridge the gap between speculation and educated decision-making.
Investing Discipline
Some inevitable events in day trading are stock market crashes, bear markets, and market volatility. A day trader should be prepared for such situations as they could cause higher losses.
Risk Factor
A Full-time job is safe for the conservative professional. There’s low risk involved and at the end of the month, he is paid for his time. Which might be enough to satisfy most people.
But a day trader takes up a certain amount of risk upon his finances and thereby his family as well. Mistakes in trading could mean the difference between early retirement and premature bankruptcy. As a full-time trader, you should always set a loss limit on your investments and sell when your goals are achieved.
Getting greedy and timing the market are some of the most basic yet prevalent mistakes among new traders.
Flexibility
Traders have the flexibility to work whenever and wherever. IT and online trading have given a major advantage to day traders as they can start trading with little capital. Add to that the time flexibility as well, which is non-existent in a full-time job. You can take a day off whenever you please and working hours are as per your choice.
Stable Income
If you are actively considering trading as a career and not a passive income, then you must be mentally prepared to face losses and sustain through hard times, especially during market volatility, crashes, and bear markets. Here, your income is solely dependent on you and your skills, be it profits or losses. So the comfort of getting a steady income no longer exists.
Also Check Out What are the Different Career Options in Indian Stock Market?
Managing Trading & A Full-Time Job
A lot of jobs are proactive and require an active presence, especially with lockdowns ending. Most companies have recalled their employees to work from the office, so it is unlikely that a working professional will have the time to trade as well as work on a daily basis. The safer option would be to invest in learning about the markets before having a vested interest. Hopefully, you have got some insights from the article on stock market trading as a career option. Happy Investing!
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