Making a career in finance and trading can be a very fulfilling yet demanding career path. With the finance industry booming across the world and Singapore having established itself as one of the leading industry hubs worldwide, there are more and more opportunities for professional growth in trading and related sectors. But how can you decide what type of trading career would be just perfect for you?
Source: IG
S’pore Finance Industry Is Booming
Trading jobs and other positions within the finance sector, are expected to be in high demand as the S’pore finance sector keeps growing. The forecast for 2018 was that the industry would grow by 4.4%, the strongest across the sectors reviewed. Yet this projection was revised upwards last summer, as a group of 24 economists that were surveyed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore confirmed that the finance and insurance industry was set to grow by a whopping 7%.
Source: Pexels
Starting out in trading can be daunting but, if you have the right frame of mind, it could be a particularly fruitful professional choice. If you are unsure whether it would be what you imagine it to be, you can test the waters by doing a bit of trading on your own. There are now dedicated mobile apps, like the IG Trading mobile app that are both suitable for professionals, especially swing traders, and provide a platform for novices who want to try trading in their own time. This app focuses on CFDs, shares and forex trading but there are many kinds of trading, each of them best suited for a different personality type and lifestyle.
What Type of Trading Is Right for You?
If you are looking to get into trading as a part-time job, investing a few hours of every day or even on weekends, then position trading might be the perfect fit for you. A position trader must be patient and have excellent analysis skills, as they often hold long-term positions – from weeks to months and even years sometimes. Forex, stocks and commodity markets are the usual activity fields for position traders. By contrast, a day trader is a position more suited for those looking for full-time commitment. Day traders open and close positions on the same, holding some positions for minutes and others for the whole day.
Source: Pexels
For those who find that their best performance is when they are under pressure, then becoming a scalper is ideal. A scalper is always on the lookout for short-term opportunities that offer quick profit – and they are also expected to cut losses fast when things don’t turn out as expected. Finally, if you are strategic, meticulous and enjoy keeping track of global and local events that might have an effect on the trading market, then becoming a news trader is the way to go. A news trader will make trade decisions around planned and unplanned news releases and will need to be highly analytical to read market sentiment correctly.
As the fintech industry in S’pore continues growing – according to a 2018 survey it received roughly $230 million (S$310 million) in funding the previous year – more opportunities in trading will develop, including cryptocurrencies and blockchain.
