Ever felt like being very tired and stuck in a rut when trading day by day? Ever felt like you're fed up and the markets don't make a difference no more and sometimes even fail to remember what trade you have put on what? Well, i see so many people in their first years struggling to get that all-shiny multiple monitor setup they all dream of, that fast news service, that charting application that displays a hundred billion indicators and charts at the same time (if it could only display them transparent on top of each other ... lol)... Hold up, just wait a minute... Step back from the screen, pick up a piece of paper and a pencil (not pen, plain ol pencil), sharpen that pencil, start writing your orders on paper, make some calculations, on paper.... Notice how good that feels... For a minute you were there, on that white, blank, piece of paper.... You were free... nothing to see, just void you had to fill up. Wasn't that nice? The blank piece of paper had you focus more on what you were writing, what you were doing. It had you involved, it didn't strain your eye, nor did it hurt your brain. In contrast, think about your 10 screens and 100 markets... Where are you rushing? Where do you want to go that fast? If you have an edge it will work better on 10 markets than on 100 of them. Think about this and think about the fact that the less technology between you and the market, the better it gets as you are more focused and in the game, mentally. Too much information hurts.
One trading screen. Two markets, four charts. Trade on the chart (Sierra Chart & IB) The perfect amount of information.
One monitor and one chart. So far it's enough for me at the beginning of this business. I'll probably need one of those LCD TV and a blu-ray player for entertainment. I am glad we have all these technology. Imagine that we don't: We might have to draw points and figures charts on paper and whoever draw the fastest have the edge! :O
I have traded for a living for over ten years. I started trading before online trading came about. I do roughly 15 minutes of research a day. This research consists of charting five stocks with Pilot V5 extra fine red, green, and black pens on charts generated by an old Claris Works program. The charting probably would not mean much to anyone on this sophisticated and technologically advanced forum and it does not indicate to me what I should do, but it simply confirms to me if I should keep on doing what I have essentially been doing for a quite a long time.
If the Wall Street Journal would go back to full and complete stock tables like they used to have, I would use my computer a lot less. I still do a lot of note writing by hand, I keep a daily market diary. I wonder what traders will be doing in 150 years? Will they be chatting about doing it old school with a computer? Yukking it up about how long it takes to electronically transmit an order?
In 150 years they'll wear an electronic helmet that will read their thoughts and submit orders merely by thinking of a company.... ...only prob is, everytime a hot chick comes on TV they'll buy 10,000 shares of Playboy.