Is it possible to make a secondary income by investing just a few hours per week?

For anyone seeking a secondary source of income or a passive revenue stream, there is often one common enemy: a lack of time.

Balancing full-time work with raising a family and spending time with friends is enough of a juggling act in itself, without then putting more constraints upon your rapidly dwindling time.

However, the good news is that you can develop a second source of income for yourself – and in just a couple of hours per week.

Money-saving experts talk about consolidating debt, switching energy providers, and selling your unwanted stuff as ways to make some cash, but those are one-off options – investing should be an ongoing, ‘repeatable’ process.

The stock market might be a scary concept for the uninitiated, but it’s not as daunting as it might look in the films – those big banks of screens with lots of numbers and graphs are enough to put plenty off from trading for life.

However, by following a few simple steps, you can start earning extra income from the stock market by investing just a couple of hours per week.

The name of the game is scalping, which is absolutely not what you think it is…

Little and often

The perception of the stock market is that you need to ‘buy low, sell high’, take risks, and find hidden gems to really make some money.

However, that’s simply not true, and as long as you are disciplined and follow some basic guidelines to the letter, you can make a secondary source of income within just a couple of hours per week.

Scalping is a trading strategy that aims to lock in a quick profit from the tiniest of price moves, and that way, you can perform a series of ‘winning’ trades within a short timeframe.

To get started, you will need to register for an account with a trading broker – don’t worry, this is quick, easy and safe. There are a number of brokers out there, though this Tradeo review may act as a useful starting point.

Many brokers offer you the chance to open a demo account, and this really is a sensible idea. That way, you can trade markets in real-time using virtual currency without any risk to your own money – a great way to practice the scalping strategy.

Thousands of words can be written about scalping, and there are plenty of excellent resources online already that explain the strategy perfectly well. In short, the aim is to buy a stock when it is undervalued, wait a few moments for its price to rise, and then sell – locking in a hassle-free profit before moving on to the next trade.

Successful scalps can take just seconds to manifest themselves, and using automated tools such as stop loss and take profit, you don’t even need to raise a finger if you don’t want to.

Finding stocks with scalping potential is the tricky part. Do your research so that you understand how you can utilise technical indicators and charts, and before long, a part-time ‘hobby’ could start to yield excellent returns in your spare time.