Does anyone feel they have a limit as to how long they can be in front of the screen and remain alert enough to be 100% disciplined for following all the entry criteria for a trade? Resting bids help but many times I want to be in front of the screen to fine tune or not take entry based on the environment at the time. The compromise for me has been to sit only a few hours in front of the screen to remain disciplined. But sometimes I won't be around for the entry. I have used alarms with moderate success, but will sometimes miss the entry. The exit seems a lot easier. After entry I can set the alarm near the target and stay out of the room. Any ideas appreciated.
...I think you are making this too hard. If you have a mechanical system, automate it and take a nap, get drunk, take a day job, or pursue whatever your favorite perversion is. Then the excitement of not knowing whether or not your internet connection is working while you are otherwise occupied will keep you alert. In my experience, if you are bored while mechanically trading, you are not allowing your mind to freely speculate upon outrageously bizarre (and possibly even profitable) new systems. Another fix if you are bored is to trade a shorter market fractal. Tick trading would surely keep you awake! Another solution is to trade bigger than you can afford for a shorter period of time, which is what I do.
Find a time frame that you can focus on. Not everyone can remained focused to trade the very short term.
I have an crosstrainer/stepper set up right next to my office chair. I try to put in at least an hour each trading day. This along with entering yesterdays trades and inspecting equity curves, fooling with ice water or coffee, taking a vitamin, watching TIVO TV shows on the set in the office here, the time flys by. I always babysit my trades though. I never let more than 5 minutes go by without glancing at the charts up on the monitor. One time I chanced it and went to Subway for 15 minutes. I was a nervous wreck the whole time.
i know the feeling. it's funny, without fail, every single time i leave my apartment to get lunch or something which is about once or twice a week, my position improves while i'm gone. its almost uncanny..... i find audio alerts incredibly helpful for reducing screen time.... search the "playsound" function in Tradestation if you use TS. ...and any time i can tell my stops are pretty far away i take advantage of it and walk around the apt.
I got the same feeling. Exit is easy. I guess it is because you have a position, you must watch the screen unless you are using 100% auto systems. Sooner or later, you must either get rid of it and take the loss or profit. But for the entry, you can take it or left it. You don't have the pressure to focus on it. For a daytrader, there are usually lots of signals of entry pop up everyday. Sometimes I become insensitive to them. This is just my own feeling.