lol good point.. it almost becomes a fetish.. but u gotta admit it looks good, it makes u feel serious, plus it keeps u concentrated looking at all the graphs then just numbers! ofcourse there is little correlation between the number of monitors u have and how much money u make.. but most traders at IBs like morgan stanley use 4 screens.. I also know a hedge fund manager who sits behind a large desk in a dark room with 10-20 monitors, a couple of huge plasmas in the background on the walls, and even a mini projected screen in his glasses, with headphones and a mic connected to his dealers. that's what I call paying attention!
Obviously size matters in this business . I dont see why any SINGLE person would more than 6 screens. After that, its just for bragging rights.
I have 12....and use them all. Generally, each system/strategy requires one machine and one monitor, I use 3 screens as my main trading, 1 for futures. Two for charting and analysis, a laptop for signals and chatting. One for news, music, and Squawk. 4 for my systems. I'd like to have more, but only as the systems I'm trading require it. All flat screens, 4 24", 8 20", mounted on arms and quad stand. Going forward, I will probably create my own custom monitor stand that will hold all of them. Very nice setup.