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Why Busy Professionals Can Become Successful Traders

 


His book, DO IT YOURSELF INVESTING FOR BUSY PEOPLE: TRADEANYTIME, reveals that consistent, profitable trading can be done in less than 25 minutes a day—even during a lunch break or after work.

This insight isn’t theoretical. Marbury traded for more than 60 years while working full-time as a civil engineer and professional land surveyor. Over the span of managing his company’s retirement plan for more than 30 years, he never experienced a losing year. The message is simple: successful trading depends more on strategy, discipline, and structure than on time availability.

This blog explores why busy professionals—a category most new traders fit into—actually have a unique advantage in the trading world.

1. Busy People Are Forced to Trade Efficiently

One of the biggest problems new traders face is overthinking. When someone has unlimited time to stare at screens, they often fall into emotional decisions, impulsive trades, or constant strategy switching.

Busy professionals don’t have this luxury.

Marbury’s strategy was built around this reality. He used tools such as:

  • Limit orders
  • Good-til-canceled (GTC) orders
  • Trailing stop orders

These simple tools allow traders to act with intention rather than emotion. You set your price, define your risk, and let the order execute automatically. This reduces stress and prevents the kind of unnecessary “tinkering” that causes many traders to lose money.

When you only give yourself structured trading time, you eliminate noise and focus only on what matters.

2. Stock Screens Make Decision-Making Faster

One of the most valuable parts of Marbury’s book is his collection of stock screens. These screens filter thousands of stocks down to a small, manageable list that match very specific criteria. Some of these screens include:

  • Simple Moving Average Screen
  • Analyst Opinion Screen
  • Uptrend Screen
  • Uptrend + P/E Screen
  • Bear Stocks Above 40 Screen

Each screen uses criteria such as:

  • Volume
  • Price performance over multiple time frames
  • Analyst ratings
  • Trend direction
  • Valuation metrics

For a busy individual, this is game-changing. Instead of scrolling through endless stock lists, you run a screen and instantly see only the top candidates. This turns a time-consuming process into a quick, structured one.

3. Economic Awareness Can Be Learned Quickly

Many new traders think they need deep economic knowledge to trade correctly. Marbury shows this isn’t true. Traders only need to understand how a handful of important economic reports influence the market, such as:

  • CPI
  • PPI
  • JOLTS
  • ADP
  • PCE
  • Federal Reserve decisions

These reports often signal whether interest rates are rising or falling, and that alone can influence market direction. You don’t have to study economics—you just need to understand the basic meaning behind these announcements.

A busy professional can learn this in minutes and use it to avoid trading blindly during major financial news events.

4. Options Don’t Have to Be Complicated

Options trading intimidates many beginners, but Marbury simplifies it by sticking to the strategies he personally used:

  • Single-leg calls and puts
  • Covered calls
  • Debit spreads
  • Long straddles

He explains the concepts in plain language and teaches how to calculate:

  • Maximum profit
  • Maximum loss
  • Break-even prices

These calculations help traders avoid dangerous surprises. For someone with limited time, knowing the exact risk of a trade before entering it removes uncertainty and increases confidence.

5. Built-In “Insurance” Protects Busy Traders

One of the most practical parts of Marbury’s approach is the use of insurance-style strategies to protect your positions. These include:

  • Protective puts
  • Trailing stop losses
  • Stop orders

These tools limit loss automatically. For a busy trader who can’t monitor the market constantly, this safety net is essential. It prevents small losses from becoming catastrophic ones.

6. Simplicity Creates Longevity

Marbury emphasizes that complicated strategies are not necessary to earn consistent profits. Many advanced option setups require constant monitoring, multiple legs, and a deep understanding of volatility. He tried them all—and eventually stopped using them.

Simple strategies last longer because they are easier to follow, easier to execute, and less stressful. Busy professionals thrive in structured environments, and trading is no different.

Conclusion: You Don’t Need More Time—You Need a Better System

Trading successfully is not about watching the market all day. It’s about knowing what to look for, using the right indicators, and following a clear plan. Marbury created his do-it-yourself system so that anyone—even someone with a demanding job—can trade confidently and responsibly.

The truth is that busy people often make the best traders because they don’t have time to overcomplicate things. They follow the plan, trust the system, and trade with purpose.

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