Many people message me privately, and the first thing they say is:
"Brother Peng, I have to work, take care of my child, and run my business during the day. I simply don't have time to monitor the market. Does that mean I'm not suited for trading?"
What was the reality?
I dare not admit that I don't have time for short-term trading.
And unwilling to admit that they should have slowed down.
So he traded by slacking off at work by scrolling on his phone, checking stock charts in the bathroom, and randomly placing orders on the subway.
In the end, it turned out like this—
Work is not going well, home life is unsettled, and transactions are in complete chaos.
This article is specifically for those of you who "don't have time to monitor the market, but don't want to give up trading":
How exactly should you play?
What should be done? What should be abandoned altogether?
First, let's face reality:
If you're not a professional player, don't play like one.
Most people have their own main job:
At work, you have to attend meetings and write reports.
To do business, you need to meet clients and keep an eye on the store.
There are still a lot of things to worry about at home.
You already have a lot of responsibilities in the real world.
But you want to play the kind of short-term trading on the charts: 1 minute, 5 minutes, or even keep a close eye on it all day?
This is like:
During the day you work as an office worker,
I also want to sing at nightclubs tonight.
In my spare time, I'll also practice some professional boxing.
In the end, you'll only exhaust yourself.
First, memorize this sentence:
Not having time to monitor the market ≠ not being able to trade;
But not having time to monitor the market means you have to switch to a different approach.
The first sacrifice you have to accept is:
Abandon fragmented high-frequency short-term trading
Give up the illusion of "being able to take out your phone anytime, glance at the screen, and place an order".
Give up the impulse to "use spare time to make a living as a professional gamer".
You can't have everything—
Wanting the most exciting pace without spending the time is gambling mentality.
II. Four common pitfalls for people who don't have time to monitor the market.
I'll circle the mines for you first, then you can check how many you've been hit by 👇
Pitfall 1: Sneaking a peek at the stock market during work hours, then regretting it afterwards.
Looking down at the candlestick chart during a meeting
While the customer is speaking, you're mentally calculating your stop-loss.
A large bearish candlestick indicates a lack of focus or concentration.
result:
Decisions were all interrupted.
Instead of "making a purchase after careful analysis," they "get scared by the price and click randomly."
Pitfall 2: Making decisions that take hours to complete during a few minutes of downtime.
Going to the toilet for 3 minutes
Waiting in line for 5 minutes
10 minutes by subway
You are holding your phone:
"Hey, this looks like an opportunity. I'll make a move first."
By the time you return to your workstation, the situation has completely changed.
You've even forgotten why you placed this order in the first place.
When it comes to trading, the worst thing is to "do it as a side project".
Pitfall 3: Not knowing how to use pending orders, stop-loss and take-profit orders, relying entirely on monitoring.
Many people don't set stop-loss orders, place pending orders, or set alerts at all.
I feel like I always miss the lowest point when I place orders.
It's infuriating to have your stop-loss order triggered.
I feel that setting a take-profit order will cause me to "sell too early."
So they had no choice but to:
Stare
Cut by hand
Relying on intuition
The question is:
You're not a professional trader who watches the market all day long.
Going completely manual means putting yourself in the most vulnerable position to market crashes.
Pitfall 4: No time to study during the day, so you lie in bed at night scrolling through "trading signals and screenshots".
You don't learn things systematically, you just:
Looking at other people's profit screenshots
Seeing all sorts of claims like "XX indicator guarantees victory" and "Follow my strategy for the high-volume main upward trend"...
His blood pressure rose due to the stimulation, and he continued to do the same thing the next day.
This isn't trading; it's using someone else's emotional screenshot as a backdrop.
III. Correct Approach:
For those who don't have time to constantly monitor the market, it's important to learn to "trade time for frequency."
In short:
You can't make money through frequency; you can only make money through "less is more + planning".
It's cruel, but it's true:
You can't compete with day traders on who makes more trades.
You can only try:
Who has a better chance of being chosen?
Who makes clearer decisions during their available time to monitor the market?
This means three things:
The trading cycle needs to be extended.
Primarily based on 4-hour and daily charts
Don't waste time on small, short sessions of 1 minute or 5 minutes.
The time for watching the market should be fixed.
For example: 20 minutes in the morning + 40 minutes in the evening
This hour is for "careful review + drawing diagrams + creating a plan".
Don't constantly take out your phone to browse the cloud.
Write your plan before the market opens, and only execute it during trading.
At what price and in what form are they willing to enter?
Where to place the stop loss?
How to take profits in batches
What you should really be doing is planning ahead:
Then execute the order using: pending orders + stop-loss + take-profit + price alerts.
[A phrase I often say in my live streams: Plan your trade, execute your plan.]
IV. "Daily Templates" That Office Workers Can Directly Copy
Here's a daily schedule you can copy directly; just adjust it to suit your own schedule 👇
Template: Two market reviews + one post-market analysis
✅ Morning / Late Morning: 15–30 minutes
Objective: Define direction + identify key levels; minimize or eliminate order placements.
Open the daily and 4-hour charts and take a look:
Is the market currently trending upwards, downwards, or fluctuating?
Where is the price located near the key moving average/important high/low points?
Draw it on the diagram:
Clear support and resistance levels
What is the approximate range you would consider for going long/short?
Write down today's principles:
"Today, we're only considering going long if the price retraces and stabilizes around XX."
"Do not short sell as long as it doesn't fall below XX."
"Prices are too far from key levels; we'll just observe and not make a move."
for example:
👉 During this period: Try to place fewer orders on a whim.
✅ Evening: 30–60 minutes (Your most valuable "trading session")
Objective: Review and create a detailed plan.
Take a look at the daytime trend:
Did the price touch on the key area you drew this morning?
Is it a strong breakout, or a surge followed by a pullback?
Compare with your own plan:
Are there any opportunities you have planned for today?
It's perfectly normal to have no position or a small position if you don't have any.
If available, then we'll consider placing an order.
When placing an order, please note three things:
Use limit orders/pending orders, don't use random market prices.
At the same time, set a stop-loss level (don't talk about sentiment, talk about price).
Based on the structure, pre-set the profit-taking/phased profit-taking.
Set price alerts for key price levels:
For example: Notify me when the price reaches XXX level.
See the alerts during the day before deciding whether to take action, instead of rushing in blindly.
👉 Key points:
Evenings are for "making plans + executing plans".
This is not the time for "revenge orders placed after being stimulated by daytime market movements".
✅ Weekly review session: 30–60 minutes
There is only one purpose:
Ignoring the wins and losses of one or two trades
Take a look:
How many transactions were completed this week?
How many were planned purchases? How many were impulse buys?
Which trades were stopped out/take profit according to plan?
Which orders were placed on a whim?
You will be surprised to find:
What's really dragging down your account is...
It's often not the direction you're looking in.
InsteadThose few ill-advised orders that were completely out of the blue。
Fifth, those who don't have time to constantly monitor the market should actually be "more ruthless" than others in these three aspects.
1) Position sizing should be more conservative, not more aggressive.
Many office workers would say:
"I don't have time, and I can't afford to take things slowly, so I want to go all in as soon as I get the chance."
This is the most dangerous idea.
What does it mean if you don't have time to monitor the market?
There might be unexpected earnings reports or black swan events tonight; you might not be able to react immediately.
The intraday price fluctuations are so large that you can't even see them.
What you should do is reduce the risk, not increase the difficulty.
Lighter position size than professional traders
More honest about stop-loss than professional players
Don't gamble on "maximum returns," gamble on "long-term survival."
2) Only issue "slower signals".
For those who don't have time to monitor the market, the most suitable signal is:
In 4 hours, daily online
It will take some time to get through this.
The pullback, breakout, and structure are all relatively clear.
Do not touch:
A sudden surge in trading volume within 5 minutes.
A dramatic plunge and surge within a minute
Things that require you to make a decision within 30 seconds
Simply put:
It gives you the opportunity to draw lines, think things through, and write them down.
That's the opportunity that's right for you.
3) Include "no new orders" in your rules.
You can set yourself a very simple rule:
A maximum of X planned transactions per week.
If it exceeds the limit, a forced cash position will be opened for observation.
On a day when I was in a bad mood or particularly tired from work, I wrote a sentence:
No trading today.
You will gradually discover:
What will truly save your account is...
It's usually not a single miraculous deal.
It's not the few times you managed to avoid getting carried away.
6. If you're extremely busy: Sometimes, the smartest choice is to "not rush into live trading".
This might not sound like a sales pitch, but I'll say it anyway:
If you're so busy right now that you can't even find 30 minutes to properly look at pictures...
The best option is to hold off on real-money trading for now.
Here are some things you can do first:
Practice drawing lines, analyzing trends, and writing trading plans using a demo account/small capital.
First, finish reading the entire set of "(Trading for Beginners 101)".
learn:
What is a trend?
What are support and resistance?
What is the profit/loss ratio?
What does "not placing an order is still considered an operation" mean?
When you can do it:
I only check the charts a fixed number of times a week.
Can write the plan clearly?
Being able to accept that "not taking action is also an option"
You can gradually increase your position size and frequency later.
The market won't close just because you arrive six months late.
But they might kick you out early because you rushed in and did things haphazardly.