I know by Friday I'm mentally beat and I'm sure it's because I'm trying to concentrate and do so many things at once. Here's what I'm doing at once for most of the day: On the open, I've got the left headset with a guy reading news, on the right ear I've got my trading partner talking to me, and the squawk box in the background. Then I'm thrown into a dozen opening order positions at once and am trying to scan 64 different charts looking for moves while I trade all my opening positions off the individual tapes and the spoos. To my right is my laptop where I'm trying to work into and out of two dozen spread trades at a time, so I've constantly got alerts going off telling me when a bid or ask has moved and I have to adjust my orders. After 20 minutes I'm out of the opening trades and am into some news event or a basket of sector stocks (gold, drillers, homebuilders, etc). If there's nothing going on there, I'm scrolling through all kinds of matrices on excel looking for out of line spreads or scalping a merger spread for nickels like a damn nintendo game. After an hour of record keeping after the close I'm ready for a beer and the couch. Up at 5:30 the next day to start all over again. Man I love this job! How many other nut jobs out there like me?
Goodness gracious.....that is really a crazy way to make a living. Watch out you do not burn out. I am up at 6.....computer on, charts up, watch some news......one little old laptop, one little old future, sitting in a recliner on my boat all day. Trade until 4. But no TV news on all day, buggers my trading. Though I do have 6 alerts set, so if I am off making coffee or some cookies....I know to get right back to the screen.
Shiiit, I play computer games during lunch (currently Command & Conquer Generals) and when the market is doing crap like this afternoon. The guy next to me has his regular look at porn and nudie pics. The other one burns movies and games.
If you are playing games or making cookies or doing anything that doesn't advance your trading whether for that session or maybe something you see will help you in a week or a month, then you don't have what it takes to be a trader. You are just marking time before you have to go get a real job. This is a business. It is a craft that must be worked at. Look deep inside and get some Discipline, some intestinal fortitude and do whatever it takes to be successful. This applies to life too, not just trading. The responses to the first post in this thread (which was insightful in its descriptive narrative) are pathetic. I have no respect for those of you worried about video games.
With a name like Discipline I suppose if you catch yourself spacing out for a few seconds during trading hours - you whip yourself bloody like a Shia muslim during the holy days!