White background tend to be too bright for me, though hard to find alternatives for documents and articles. Black background good for programming, but need soft colors like cyan. For charts I like warm peach colour, sort of between but not being gray and dull, and black/red bars. Generally, not too bright or dark, not too dull and not too much contrasts. Use colours that "makes most sense to you". What I do recommend is try for yourself, adjust those colours and imagine using them for lengths of time. If you are sensitive enough, you'll sense which colours are most soothing for you, and avoid the bad colour setups that don't work for you personally. There's a greater freedom choosing one's own colour preferences. Another thing is to move while in chair. If your muscles tense in front of PC, you must find ways to relax those muscles, or you might get headaches and all sorts of pains. So shift your position, and find good sitting position / chair that support your straight back and allow movement. Best movement you can do is push shoulders backwards. You may notice we tend to tense shoulders and lean into screen, which must be counteracted. Walks in the forest while swinging arms around may quickly help train those unused neck/back muscles you need.
I use white and light grey screens with lots of in-direct natural (Sunshine State) light plus of course regular indoor lighting. And although I never thought of the benefit before I constantly look out windows in front and to left of me in my corner office area.
Is that a black and white screen you have? If you are trading, maybe, time to upgrade to a color monitor? I have a color monitor and my candlesticks are colored red and green in my stockcharts. Way nicer to look at and also, aids in analyzing the chart itself.
White backgrounds are the worst ever. Avoid them. Black backgrounds with subdues colored highlights are easiest on the eyes. But most importantly, ALL monitors must be set up this way. You cannot have some with white background, and some as black. Go black, you will never go back.
I'd get instant headache the moment I see dark background. very strenuous, very tiring to look at such images. I guess dark background is ok for young people. Luckily most charting softwares and trading platforms allow you to configure the background colors.
Could you post a couple of screenshots of the chart colors that are giving you problems? I have found that the older I get the darker I like my charts.
I agree completely. Been trading for 20+ years and moved away from black long ago. As well as away from a darken trading room/arcade.
The f.lux software shared by @Sprout seems to be helpful, so I second his recommendation on that one.