I see these pictures of trading setups where they have a bunch of large monitors...honestly, what is the point behind all of that? Are you monitoring the Space Shuttle launch? I think too many monitors serves more as a distraction then a constructive tool. I looked at how other successful traders do it and they do it with a single monitor. I think having too much equipment serves as a distraction rather then a tool...
I know a guy who has 8 monitors and makes low 7 figures every year. So there is no 'rule'. They can be distractions or they can be essential, just depends on how you trade.
If you take a very close look at those additional monitors, you may see the Weather Channel, the Bikini Channel, CNBC, porn, ESPN, ESPN1, ESPN2, Deal or No Deal, et al. You get the idea.
I don't see the point either, one monitor is MORE than enough for me. In fact I actually find that minimizing the damn trade platform for awhile helps me wait for trades to unfold so I'm not putting my eyes up against the screen and silently begging that I'll make a profit
Some have so many for bragging rights. When friends come over the Christmas tree is turn on for all to see the RIG. Look I am a trader and I make money. It is easy for me but for the other 99.9% it is not. Friends are impressed and the owner gets an emotional hard on. From my experience the more elaborate the rig is, the more money it dispenses to those on the other side of the equation. 2 monitors should suffice especially when trading futures. The rest is generally bling. same goes for the PC. I know a guy who pulls 5K+/week trading from a laptop with a celeron chip.
Different people trade differently. Most of us have the tendency to project how we trade on to how other people *should* trade. You can make money using one laptop. Sure! You can make money trading on an I-phone! What's the point of having 3 monitors? And you can make money trading using computers running auto-trade strategies. What's the point of having *any* monitor at all? You can make money by handing the money over to some hedge fund managers. What's the point of DIY while you can play golf everyday? Of course it's so easy to sweep it under: he just wants to impress his friends with his monitors when they come over to visit him in his mom's basement. This question, in spirit, is similar to those: I use 30-minute bars to trade. What's the point of trading the 1-minute chart? Those are nothing but noise. Price Action is all I needed to trade. What's the point of having any indicator on your chart? They are all lagging. All I trade is one stock day in day out. What's the point of scanning through thousands of stocks everyday, every hour looking for potential trades? What a waste of time. Futures is all you need. What's the point of trading so many stocks?
At the moment Im trading on a laptop. Im doing just fine, but I can really envision having 3 or 4 monitors. I think it would be nice to have all my DOMs on 1 monitor right in front of me and have room for multiple intraday and daily charts on the others so I dont have to do so much Alt + Tab'n Some of the NASAlike setups Ive seen do look cool though. Honestly, if I had the money and really thought I needed that much screen real estate I wouldnt hesitate to go balls to the wall. I think 3-4 will do the trick though.