Trading can definitely be unproductive, and there are a couple of reasons why. Unless you are consistently profitable, you probably have a job, a business, or studies going on too.
The truth is trading itself is not a profession. It is an income-generating skill, meant to grow the income you already make elsewhere.
Key takeaways
Even the most successful traders have other businesses and professions producing their core income.
Staring at the screen from morning to night drains your time and your energy for everything else.
Use alerts, pending orders, take profits, and stop losses so trading runs closer to autopilot.
Big risk means stress, and stress keeps you glued to the chart for the illusion of control.
Closing trades manually because you have no stop loss does not work in the long term.
Risk only what you can afford to lose so a bad trading day does not eat your salary.
Trading was always meant to add to your income
Most traders are occupied with something productive, whether a job, a business, or university. Even traders making millions are busy with other ventures.
Trading was never designed to generate income from scratch. The idea was to take income you already made and grow it with compounding.
So your profession is where your productivity lives, along with self improvement, working out, and other things. Trading gets unproductive when it gets in the way of those.
“Trading itself is not a profession. Trading is an income generating skill.”
The two things that drain your time and energy
The first is watching the charts all day. You have alerts and pending orders available, so let them do the work instead of managing everything manually.
The second is risking too much. When too much is at stake you are scared to look away and you want control, even though you are not really in control.
The bigger issue is trading with no stop loss so you have to close manually. Automate your take profits and stop losses so you are not tied to the screen.
What over-risking cost me at my old job
Back when I had a full-time marketing job earning around $2,500 a month, I traded about an hour a day in the office. Some days I would risk too much and lose $2,000.
So my energy was drained, I could not focus on the job, and worse, my whole month of salary was going to cover that loss. I was working against myself.
I should have just risked what I could afford to lose. Then I would not be stressed, I could focus on the job, and trading would work to my advantage instead of against me.
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