For me, the spare time trading is exactly what it sounds like. All my trades are based on simple technical analysis except for trading on news.
The process is pretty simple. The most activity in forex trading starts around 8:00 – 8:30 am EST when North American markets open. Therefore, on weekdays I start my day around 6:30-7am by making myself a cup of coffee and checking news and the schedule of forex related news events for that day. Then, I visually scan through the list of currency pairs looking for possible trade setups.
Once I see a setup I like, I calculate where my stop loss order will be and what would be my first two profit targets. If the risk/reward ratio is acceptable, I place stop buy/sell orders with my broker and leave them there until they are filled or until the setup changes. I also compile my watch list by jotting down currency pairs that are in the process of forming some kind of a setup. All these tasks usually take around one hour of my time.
During the day, depending on the currently traded time frame, every once in a while I check my open orders to see whether the stops need adjustments. These checks take less than a minute each.
In the evening, I check my open orders, if any, check my watch list and scan through the rest of the charts to see whether there are any new developments. This whole process takes around 30-60 minutes.
During the course of the evening and before going to bed, I might also spend a few minutes to check on the charts in my watch list.