That's actually a very good point. When I switched from my 17" CRT to this 22" LCD, I initally put the LCD at the same distance as the CRT. When I sat down and started the computer, I realized that it was so big and close I had to really look around to see stuff (couldn't see the whole screen at a glance). I kept moving it further and further back until I could see a sufficient amount of the screen at once. Even at it's current distance which is almost exactly arm's length (2 feet maybe?), I still can't see the entire screen at a glance, but going any further back starts making small font hard to read. However, I still blame the majority of my eye strain on the brightness. Even on the soft light setting, pure white on this screen is extremely bright. Just looking all the screen typing this is annoying me. Going back to my darker trading platforms is instant relief.
Right, makes sense on the black ink cost. But your entire life your eyes are trained and learned on white background / black text. Therefore, they are ready to accept that setting. Over time that black background forces your eyes to focus in more and then refocus on the other colors. I loved the black background when I first tried it out but I quickly found my eyes getting strained on it. To each his own, maybe the lighter background just works for me.
IF you cannot adjust the distance of the monitors, then staying smaller is a good idea. IF you can adjust the distance, then you can use a bigger monitor w/o problems. Same premise on TV size - it's supposed to be dictated on how far you are sitting from it - the farther away, the larger the set. Same idea here but on a smaller scale. I've read in a few places that a good rule of thumb is you should be a minimum distance equal to the diagonal monitor width (i.e. for a 20" monitor, your eyes should be at least 20" away from the monitor).
Your entire READING life... but that's only a small percentage of what you see. Sounds like you've rationalized accepting a concept which is dubious at best. (You know, like the explanation for widescreen LCD monitors... something about the "natural way we see"... that's a bunch of hooey. The REAL reason for the prevalence of widescreens today is the usual one... $$$.) Black background charts are not good for printing... need to "invert" to white background.
In my opinion there's a trick for not ruining your eyes and making money, and it is called "automated trading systems". You can build one (better if you build many). Otherwise, there's a high probability that you will both lose money and ruin your eyes.
i also have a lot of screen time, no eye strain, my advice is: avoid white backgrounds (try at least offwhite, or greyish, black etc.), and more importantly, the source of light in your room/office, never put it behind you. your pupils will get bigger, yet take in more light from the reflections.
Check out http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Skrommel/#DimScreen Dim screen any percentage, manually. Small memory footprint. I have used this for laptops that allow modification of bright settings but still not dimmed enough.