I’m going to say it upfront – please do not quit your job to day trade right away. Keep your job and grow your small account slowly by trading following these 3 important steps:
In this blog, I’m going to talk about how I traded part time, while working a full time job. Not only am I going to talk about the specific trading strategies I personally used, but most importantly, how to manage your time, prepare yourself financially, mentally and properly allocate enough effort to build your small account from trading part time.
Have you ever wondered what time those day trading folks roll outta bed to start their trading day? If you’re thinking about jumping into day trading or just curious about the lifestyle, understanding the morning routine of successful traders can give you some valuable insights Let’s dive into the world of day trading wake-up calls!
The Brutal Truth About Day Trader Wake-Up Times
I’ve been in the trading game for quite a while now, and lemme tell you – the stereotype about traders waking up at crazy early hours? It’s mostly true, but there’s more to the story than just setting your alarm clock super early.
Most serious day traders wake up between 4:00 AM and 5:30 AM, depending on which markets they trade and where they’re located. But the wake-up time isn’t just about being awake – it’s about being mentally prepared before the markets open.
Why So Darn Early?
You might be thinking, “Why would anyone torture themselves like this?” Well there’s actually some good reasons
- Pre-market preparation – Reviewing overnight news, checking futures markets
- Creating a trading plan for the day
- Analyzing pre-market movers
- Mental preparation – Some traders meditate, exercise, or follow specific routines
- Technical analysis of potential trades before market noise begins
Wake-Up Times by Market
The time you need to wake up depends hugely on which markets you trade. Here’s a breakdown:
| Market | Opening Time (EST) | Recommended Wake-Up | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. Stock Market | 9:30 AM | 5:00-6:00 AM | Pre-market trading starts at 4:00 AM |
| Forex | 24 hours (Sun-Fri) | Varies | Most active during overlap of major sessions |
| Futures | Almost 24 hours | Depends on contract | Some traders focus on overnight sessions |
| Crypto | 24/7 | Any time | Many traders follow U.S. market hours anyway |
The Reality of a Day Trader’s Morning Routine
When I first started day trading, I thought I could just wake up 30 minutes before market open, grab some coffee, and be good to go. Boy was I wrong! Here’s what a more typical morning looks like for many successful traders:
Sample Morning Timeline (East Coast Trader)
4 30 AM – Alarm goes off (sometimes with multiple backups!)
4:45 AM – Quick morning routine (shower, coffee, light breakfast)
5:15 AM – Review overnight news, market events, and earnings reports
5:45 AM – Check pre-market movers and volume
6:15 AM – Review watchlist and create trading plan for the day
7:00 AM – Set up charts and alerts
7:30 AM – Mental preparation (meditation, journaling, reviewing goals)
8:00 AM – Final pre-market analysis
9:15 AM – Final preparation before market open
9:30 AM – Market opens, execution begins
Does Location Matter? Absolutely!
Where you live has a HUGE impact on when you need to wake up:
- East Coast (EST) – The “easiest” schedule, with markets opening at 9:30 AM
- Central Time – Wake up around 5:00 AM for 8:30 AM market open
- Mountain Time – Wake up around 4:30 AM for 7:30 AM market open
- West Coast (PST) – The toughest schedule, with markets opening at 6:30 AM (requiring 2:30-3:30 AM wake-ups for serious traders)
- International Traders – Some stay up all night, others adjust their trading to local daytime hours
The First Hour Phenomenon
Many day traders focus intensely on the first hour of trading. This period (9:30-10:30 AM EST) often has:
- Highest volatility
- Greatest trading opportunities
- Most volume
- Clearest price action
This explains why traders are willing to sacrifice sleep to be 100% prepared when that opening bell rings!
Do ALL Day Traders Wake Up Early?
Not necessarily! There are exceptions:
- Afternoon/Power Hour Traders – Focus on 3:00-4:00 PM EST timeframe
- Gap Traders – Only need to be ready shortly before market open
- Algorithmic Traders – May have systems that trade automatically
- European/Asian Market Specialists – Follow different time schedules
- Night Owls – Some traders actually stay up all night and sleep during the day!
The Secret Morning Habits of Successful Traders
It’s not just about being awake early – it’s what you DO with that time. Most profitable traders have strict morning routines:
Mental Preparation
- Meditation (many swear by this!)
- Reading or journaling
- Exercise (quick 20-30 minute workout)
- Reviewing trading goals and rules
Market Preparation
- Checking economic calendars
- Reading financial news
- Reviewing earnings reports
- Scanning pre-market gainers/losers
- Updating watchlists
The Health Factor: Is Waking Up So Early Sustainable?
Let’s be real – consistently waking up at 4:00 AM can take a serious toll on your health if you don’t manage it properly. Successful traders usually:
- Go to bed VERY early (8:00-9:00 PM)
- Maintain strict sleep hygiene
- Limit alcohol and caffeine
- Use blackout curtains and white noise machines
- Take occasional breaks or “sleep-in days”
One trader I know actually has TWO bedrooms in his house – one with complete blackout for his early sleep schedule, and one regular room for weekends!
My Personal Experience
When I first started trading, I tried to cut corners on sleep. Big mistake! I’d wake up at 6:00 AM (EST) and rush through my morning, only to make stupid mistakes during the trading day.
Now I’m up at 4:45 AM without fail, and my profitability has improved dramatically. The mental clarity from having unhurried preparation time is worth every minute of lost sleep. I’ve learned that those extra 75 minutes of preparation can mean the difference between a winning and losing day.
Different Approaches for Different Trading Styles
Your wake-up time should match your trading strategy:
- Scalpers (very short-term traders) – Need to be extremely alert at market open
- Day Traders (hold positions intraday) – Need thorough pre-market preparation
- Swing Traders (hold for days/weeks) – Can be more flexible with wake-up times
- Position Traders (hold for weeks/months) – Even more flexibility
Tips for Adjusting to an Early Trading Schedule
If you’re transitioning to the early-bird lifestyle:
- Gradual adjustment – Move your wake-up time 15 minutes earlier each day
- Consistency is key – Wake up at the same time EVERY day, including weekends
- Light management – Bright light in the morning, dim light in evening
- No screens before bed – The blue light disrupts sleep cycles
- Create a evening wind-down routine – Signal to your body it’s time to sleep
- Consider a dawn simulator alarm – Mimics natural sunrise for easier waking
Common Questions About Trader Wake-Up Times
“Can I trade successfully without waking up so early?”
Yes, but you’ll likely need to adjust your strategy. You might focus on:
- Afternoon trading sessions
- Swing trading with longer timeframes
- Automated trading systems
- Different markets with hours that match your schedule
“What if I’m not a morning person?”
Many successful traders weren’t naturally “morning people” either! Your body can adapt, but if you truly can’t function well in early mornings, consider trading European markets (if you’re in America) or developing a trading system less dependent on early morning preparation.
“Do professional traders at firms wake up this early too?”
Professional traders at firms often have advantages:
- Research teams preparing overnight analysis
- Multiple traders covering different timeframes
- Advanced technology giving market insights
But yes, many still arrive very early to prepare properly!
The Bottom Line
The truth about day trader wake-up times is that most serious individual traders DO wake up between 4:00-5:30 AM to properly prepare for the trading day. This early start provides the mental space, preparation time, and focus needed for making rational decisions in a fast-moving market.
However, the exact time depends on:
- Your location/time zone
- Markets you’re trading
- Your specific strategy
- Personal biological rhythms
- Life circumstances
If you’re serious about day trading, expect to embrace earlier mornings than most of your friends and family. The markets wait for no one, and being unprepared can be expensive!
Remember what the famous trader Paul Tudor Jones once said: “The secret to being successful from a trading perspective is to have an indefatigable and an undying and unquenchable thirst for information and knowledge.”
And getting that knowledge often means setting your alarm clock for what most people would consider the middle of the night!
What time do YOU wake up for trading? I’d love to hear about your morning routines in the comments below.
Happy trading (and early waking)!
When’s the best time to trade stocks as a part time trader with a 9 to 5 job?
Let’s talk about time. At the end of the day, we all have the same 24 hours. If you want to squeeze in an extra 2 hours to trade before going to work, or 30 min before the market closes, it all comes down to very meticulous time management.
What I did as a trader living on the Pacific West coast time zone was wake up at 5am, which is 8am market time. I didn’t really trade during pre market hours because I didn’t know how. Then I’d spend around 5am to 6:15am creating my watchlist. I didn’t have any fancy scanners back then. So I used Finviz, Stock Market Watch, and Stockcharts.com for my free research resources and Thinkorswim premarket gap up scanner to find the daily gappers.
Then I’d trade from 6:30am to about 8am focusing on some long strategies specifically at the open. What’s so great about trading the open at the first 30 minutes is that you almost always get immediate price movement on the premarket gappers. Whether you are a long or short biased trader, the opening 30 minutes to an hour is where you get to make the quick trades and be done for the day and you can head out to work. Note I said quick not easy.
During the day while at work, I did check on the overall market once a while, but generally speaking, I did not trade while at work. Even if I do, it’s just closing the rest of the position that I had already entered from the morning. Usually that’s if I was trading mid cap and large cap stocks.
Whether you want to manage your positions full size on your desktop or on your phone while at work, that’s entirely your own decision of course. Of course, besides trading the first hour of the open, I also tried to find time in the last hour before the market closes, which would be what we call power hour from 3pm to 4pm eastern time. And for me, that would be around 12pm to 1pm lunch time for me at work. And yes, that means I had to say goodbye to socializing with coworkers at lunch and the amazing lunchtime yoga or gym sessions. But that’s just the kind of sacrifice you might have to make.
During power hour, I actually don’t actively day trade. Most of the time I spend the hour looking for stocks that are closing strong on the day and holding daily key levels. And I would sometimes look to take a swing position overnight. I rarely day trade during the power hour.
The work doesn’t stop there when the market closes. If you haven’t noticed by now, this trading part time, while working a full time job concept, actually requires full time effort.
At the end of the day after getting home around 7:30pm to 8:00pm. I would still spend about 2 hours before going to bed researching the key gainers on the day.
The truth is, 90% of the work in day trading happens outside of regular market hours, and definitely before you even enter a position. It’s the preparation you put into your trades either premarket, afterhours, or before bed, that’s going to give you better chances of making it in this game.
Yes, doing all of that still does not guarantee you 100% success rate in making that profit. but the odds are definitely better than waking up 30 minutes before the open and stumbling straight to my computer and getting ready to follow chat room alerts.
Because I’m being real here, trading is not a hobby. It’s a business, you are essentially starting a part time business that requires full time effort, while you’re working your 9-5 job, well in my case it was more like a 9-7 job, and sometimes even 6 days a week too.
So if I could do it, while maintaining only 10% of my sanity, 50% of my normal sleep schedule, and 30% of my personal relationships. You definitely can too!
Use range orders/ bracket orders/ OCO orders when trading.
Now the second thing that’s extremely beneficial when you are trading while working a ful ltime job is utilizing range orders or bracket conditional orders on your broker platforms.
So let’s say you want to enter this stock CPAH at $2. Because you see that it’s reclaiming a key daily level and broke the downtrend intraday. But you want to make sure while you are away, you get to sell if the stock goes in your direction, and cut the loss small if it doesn’t.
So the solution is, you can use range orders, or bracket orders that allow you to attach both stop losses and take profit orders once you enter a position. once your buy order gets triggered. You can attach a stop loss market order at let’s say $1.84, and a sell limit order at $2.5.
That means you intend on risking 16 cents to make 50 cents. That’s a good risk reward. And one of the two attached orders will trigger, and once one triggers the other will cancel. So in this example, your take profit sell limit order at $2.5 will get hit. You made your 50 cents, and your stop loss market order at 1.84 would be canceled automatically.
That’s something I used on mid cap and large cap stocks, not penny stocks. When I was slowly building up my small account, I preferred to trade these higher priced stocks and higher market cap stocks because there’s almost always volume in them when there is a catalyst. And they are a lot less volatile than these low float penny stocks.
Most brokers out there have these order types available for you. TD thinkorswim, Interactive brokers and Trader zero all offer those order types.