The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed many people to work from home and businesses to switch to the online model. However, long before this Coronavirus crisis, a lot of people were already ditching 9-5 jobs to work from home.
Working from home means you work on your computer or handheld devices from the comfort of your home. Some of the jobs that you can do from the comfort of your home are virtual assistant, data entry, digital marketing, content writing, designing, teaching, coaching, or counseling.
Instead of selling your service and working for others, you can also start your own work from home business such as an launching your online store, online trading, or building a website.
While selling your service, you have limited earning options and you will have to depend on others for work, your work from home businesses like online store of online trading can let you generate better revenue.
Benefits of a Work From Home Trading Business
Many people now decide to ditch their 9-to-5 job and start their own home business. If this is what you want to do, chances are you’re looking to start an online trading business from home.
The reason why this is such a good idea is that you don’t need to spend a fortune on designing your office and buying equipment. Even when you launch your own online store and start to selling online, you need to manufacture or procure products which cost a lot of money.
You will also have to spend money on designing your store and marketing your store. However, when you start online trading, you can start trading right away. Still, starting an online trading business from home isn’t as easy as it may seem.
What is Online Trading?
Online trading is when you buy an asset at a lower cost and then sell it for a higher price. The difference between those prices, after all fees and taxes, is the profit that you can make.
Although you can trade a wide variety of assets, stock trading is the most common. Day trading is the practice of buying and selling stocks within very short periods of time, often within hours or days.
Trading stocks is easy to get started with relatively little money and there are plenty of trading platforms to use.
Lets Talk About Investment: You Need Money to Make Money
When you start working from home you have freedom to work when you want to work, choose the work that you truly enjoy, and also make good money. We mentioned above that you can start online trading right away, however, in order to start an online trading business from home, you’re still going to need money.
After all, if you don’t have enough cash to buy an asset, you won’t be able to trade. Also, bear in mind that there are some general startup costs you’ll have to deal with. We’re talking about things such as registering your home business and paying business taxes.
Your Workplace: Setup and Design Your Home Office
You need a workplace even when you are working from home. However, the best think about working from home is you don’t have to spend a lot of money.
You can set up your office anywhere, in your bedroom, right under the stairs, any convenient space. Instead of spending money on designing a real office, all you need to do when trading online is come up with a way to bring the office into your home.
The best way to do this is to get a desk and a comfy chair you’ll be sitting on while working. Of course, getting a good PC and investing in a good internet connection is a must.
Bear in mind that you’ll spend a lot of time in your home office, so getting a smart thermostat and a coffee maker is also a good idea.
Trading Assets: Choose What to Trade With
Setting up your home office sure is easy but choosing the assets you’ll trade with is what can make it or break it for your online trading business.
That’s why it’s very important that you do your research and figure out what’s the best way to get into the world of online trading.
This includes becoming familiar with things such as forward and futures contracts. Also, learning how options make money is a good idea.
If you don’t feel confident with these types of trades, stick to buying and selling standard stocks until you learn more.
Learn and Gain Experience: Get Enough Practice
When it comes to online trading, there’s a lot more to it than it meets the eye. If you want to succeed, you need to make sure your business makes the right moves from day one.
This is exactly why there are places where you can create demo accounts for trading online. This should help you understand the basics before you start using real money. This is especially a good idea if you decide to trade with foreign currencies.
Setting up a Strong Business: Build a Business Plan
Would you walk into a bank to ask for a loan if you don’t have a plan for paying it off? Probably not.
The same goes for starting a business. There’s no point in starting an online trading business if you don’t know where you want it to be in the next couple of years.
What is your financial goal? And do you want to increase the list of assets you’re trading with? Answer these questions and building your business plan will be a lot easier.
Business Expansion: Get Some Help
You may be able to do everything on your own while your business is still in its early days. However, once you start trading with more assets, getting some help might be a good idea.
Your assistant could handle less important tasks while you focus on your core operations. The best thing about this is that you can have an employee work from home as well. The more your business grows the more people you should consider including into your team.
Know How to Manage Risk
Just like in other businesses, the online trading business also comes with certain risks. You should not only learn about the common risks but also enrich your knowledge and skills on how you can minimize these risks or manage these risks.
While risks can hurt your business, not knowing how to manage that risk can be a bigger problem. That being said, you might want to put some time and effort into learning how to manage risk when trading.
This includes doing your research on both stop-loss and take-profit points. Becoming familiar with how to calculate expected returns is also a good idea.
Be Open and Stay Informed
When trading, it’s very important that you know what’s happening in the business world. Sometimes, even the slightest changes could affect your investments and require you to act quickly.
This is why you should choose a couple of financial journals and subscribe to them. We recommend opting for journals such as Wall Street Journal and Barron’s.
Succeeding in the world of online trading isn’t necessarily going to be easy. Create a schedule and stick to it, or you’ll have your private life interfere with your work. Also, surround yourself with people you can trust, think your every move through and you’ll have nothing to worry about.