Im always glued to mine. I have to know! as my trading has switched to pairs, I have cut back on looking at as much as I used too, (other types of trading, always watching it) but do you look at it too much? is it effecting your trading? I heard it lowers your lifespan as well
Yes, at least to be sure I don't hit a daily loss limit which requires me to cease trading per my rules.
I have noticed that it mostly has a negative effect on my trading. I do occasionally monitor the intraday PnL for risk purposes and making sure I am within my limits but have stopped looking at my account balances altogether until the end of each month. In the past, I was so glued to the individual trade PnL and my overall balance each day that I tended to miss additional opportunities and not have time to test new strategies.
i *never* look at my pnl when i'm trading during the day. i've turned off columns that show individual positions other than size because i've found it can negatively affect me. if i'm screwing up or trading well, i know it without looking at my pnl.
No. Daily P&L is meaningless if one only cares about the big picture, which is to profit over the longrun. The only time a shorterm P&L would matter to me is if it requires me to adjust my capital management, but then it would have to be a horrible week for that to be necessary.
You should set your stops or use a broker that lets you arrange a platform lockout (can't trade for the remainder of the day) when your daily loss limit is reached to ensure you stop trading. In contrast, without the above...you'll be glued to you PnL window too much and that in itself could be distracting you from watching your charts or price quotes. Mark
No, I do not look at my PnL since it does not provide me with any useful trading information. Instead I relax and monitor the action. Since I am familiar with all of the plays, there are no surprises. As a consequence, the PnL takes care of itself. Consider a professional sports athlete. For example, Lebron James does not sit there and monitor his stats. Instead he focuses on his job which is at the very least to keep up with the action and at best anticipate the action. When a play is there, he does what he is supposed to do when he is supposed to do it. When you treat the markets in this fashion, you check the scoreboard at the end of the day. Since you mentioned that you trade pairs, consider treating the entire market like a multi-pair so that you can apply the same relaxed mentality to non-pair trading. When you find out you know all the plays and see it happen every day regardless of market conditions, it is a religious experience. A religious experience is exactly the same feeling you get when you realize you have the winning lottery ticket and it is not a bluff. Imagine feeling like this everyday. Nothing ever looks the same again.