In my experience the longer you stare at the charts, the more everything starts looking the same. If you don't rest at least occasionally and come back with a fresh mind and fresh eyes you'd end up making mistakes.
It's a very intense focus, decision-making and stress. One of the toughest jobs in the world in other words.
That's my experience too. Also, the longer I trade, the less disciplined I tend to be. I do best to set alerts for price hitting my level and go do something else in the meanwhile. Just me. . . I focus better in shorter spurts!
I use alerts too, and then try to walk away and do other stuff. I don't want to get consumed by trading, which I can, if I sit there all day.
You want exhausting, testing a system developed by some architects that works in multiple dimensions to provide an ever expanding matrix of datasets for analysis on winners/losers and their signals. That's before they start on their neocortex trading system, ay. The 4th fastest computer in the world can mimic 1% of 1second of the human brain but it takes 40minutes to do it. Computers are not good at providing context but can number crunch known patterns, it's so exhausting because you're processing the patterns in realtime. The unconscious mind is many times more powerful that the conscious mind, so you're training the unconscious part to match the patterns which allows you to make trade decisions faster and more accurately. There are 1-2 high probability 5m trades per week for an instrument, which is around 0.5%, you need to pinpoint that setup with accuracy. It's why most overtrade, you think you find a pattern and don't want to miss the trend, if you do miss it you have to wait for the next one. You need the stamina to find the pattern, the patience to wait for the trade, and the confidence to click the button, and do it all over again with the exit, a combination most people, actually 99%, lack.
Great post and many helpful replies! I compare it to being a professional athlete...if you play every minute of every game, your career will end up short. You can get hurt, burnt etc...Try to minimize the amount of time you trade. Keep a journal on when you perform the best, morning hours? the open? the close? which markets? Learn to take time off and refresh.. just sharing a few quick pointers as i observed thousands of clients over the years and try to learn and share the good and the bad things so others can learn.