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For most of 5 years, I spent every available moment in front of screens. 6am until midnight sometimes. Even took a laptop to bed and put it on the nightstand so I could wake up thoughout the night and look at it... lol
Crazy.
We come into trading not having a clue, and the ones that are there are hidden with the rest of info-infinity, so many times traders watch and watch and watch... And I believe that is a required process. It is good news for opthamologists.
That lifestyle becomes addicting, and the psychology that goes with it begins to feel desperate. "One more" becomes the mantra, and also the reason many fail. But, screen time is possibly the only way to learn how you want to trade, what you want to trade, what "trading" really is.
What starts as something fun and exciting becomes something obsessive and debilitating. And then, maybe, you work your way back to fun and exciting.
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
I think it is also very prudent to have a money goal. Once your money goal is met BOOM you're out. I know I am. I don't want to have my personal money OR my profit money I take off them in the live market for any longer than is needed to get my money goal. Right now I take out $200 and I am otttttta there.
Whether it takes 1-2 trades doesn't matter. Done is done. Turn off the charts and leave or do something however DON'T turn those charts back on until the next days session opens and you are ready to mark them up for the day's work.
I think once the money goal is met you're good. The rest is over trading and being in the market JUST to be in the market is a recipe for disaster.
I used to monitor the market 12-14 hours a day when I first started out. My trading method evolves throughout the years and I no longer need to do that now.
I would observe the pre-market situation 1 hour before the market start and usually would be done by 2-3 hours into RTH.
I do spend time outside the trading hours to do trades evaluation, ways to improve on my methods; lots of time on excel and of course reading futures.io (formerly BMT) to get keep myself updated.
CL is quite good 8:30am est up to 'round about 11am 'ish' est--sometimes inventory day up to 11:25am 'ish.' Take that wonderful 2.5 hour lunch and do what you like.
I prefer Tues-Wed-Thur. for 1:25pm est up to 2:28pm est for CL p.m. session trading (if I trade CL @that time). No Friday p.m. session in CL (seems like gambling). Monday p.m. session 'can' be okay--depends on volume and what is happening in equities/forex/interest rates/volatility on the day.
just a couple hours a day after the opening bell. If the market isn't cooperating sometimes setting sound alerts at certain prices will help you save time and catch up on other things while price is sorting itself out.
R.I.P. Joseph Bach (Itchymoku), 1987-2018.
Please visit this thread for more information.
Actual trading, usually around two hours. However, I'm in front on my screens by 4:30 AM and aside from water refills and bathroom breaks, there until around 4 PM.
This is something im trying to find a balance with. Currently I do some form of market related activity (trading, webinars, excel stats, reading etc) for 12 hours a day. I trade the full London session plus the morning of the US session. So although I dont sit staring at my charts for 12 hours, im pretty much at my computer doing some form of market related activity. I try to take short breaks every hour or two.
A while back I added a time of day study to my stats spreadsheet. This was about 2 months ago and the stats since then have continued in roughly the same trend:
Because of my time zone I trade both the European session plus the first few hours of the US session. There is no doubt the pound generally moves much slower and with less volume before the US session. I have been wanting a more detailed view of whether …
It came as no surprise that the majority of my profits are coming from the US morning session. The problem is that when the US session starts ive already been at my computer for 8 hours. So im mentally exhausted even though I dont admit it to myself and just 'power through'.
I have finally come to the realization that I need to force myself to take one large significant break mid day (in addition to smaller breaks). So starting next week I am going to trade the first 2 hours of the London session which is another good profit time for me. Then take a 2 hour break doing something physical (mountain biking or something like that). I will then come back and trade till about 30mins or so before the US session at which point ill take a 30min break until the session starts. The idea being that I will be fresher for when it really matters, ie: London morning and US morning.
This is going to be a bit of a challenge for me. Because my mind is constantly thinking about trading and even if im not actively trading then I watch webinars, read trading books etc. Im constantly on a search for more knowledge, more screentime, more, more, more. But I feel that coming into the US session fresh is important and lately i've been exhausted by that point in the day.
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Not sure how old you are, though you might want to halve the mountain biking or 'something' like that and do 'some' Yoga/meditation/hiking instead~~oh, breathe more.
This will begin to calm your mind over time. It does work--give it enough time and don't 'tabulate' the results. Just process it w/o keeping score.