In this episode, Walter gives light to a common and, yet, one of the most important trading-related questions: how many monitors should you have? According to him, you should get as much as you see fit that can accommodate your needs.
But, does having this number of computer screens actually contribute a tremendous amount to the success of your trades? Or should the focus be more on your trading psychology and execution?
Download (Duration: 04:15 / 4.86 MB)
In This Episode:
00:44 – just long enough
01:41 – the real focus
02:20 – playing with fire
03:35 – a lot of screens
Tweetables:
The real focus should be on what that does to you neurologically. [Click To Tweet].
Do something that can improve your trades. [Click To Tweet].
Trading is more than just having a number of screens. [Click To Tweet].
Announcer: Sometimes, forex trading is a wild and wooly place to be. That’s why Hugh is here, to post your questions to Walter, the naked forex guy. Hugh’s got questions and Walter’s got the answers. Here at the Truth About FX Podcast.
Hugh: Hi, Walter. I know people kick out about this question so I was just wondering, how many trading monitors should I have and how big should they be?
Walter: This reminds me of the question which was — I think it was April — and someone asked Abraham Lincoln and he said, how long should a man’s leg be? And he said “Long enough to reach the ground”.
That reminds me of like … I have no idea. I mean, this is a personal thing and what kind of a woman should I marry or whatever, I do not know. I do not know what to tell you. I would say it’s like when you meet friends and “I like this guy and I want to hang out with him” or “I like this girl”.
Here is the thing, if you cannot trade on one screen then maybe you need two. If two does not work, then maybe you need three. I really do not know what to say. I would say that there are more important issues than the number of screens.
One is if you’ve got a lot of screens and you feel like you need a lot of screens, the hint that I am getting there is you are probably trading the lower timeframes. You are making snap decisions, you need a lot of stuff in front of you.
If that is the case, you are probably going to be like the real focus should be on what that does to you neurologically, what is happening to your brain when you start trading these lower timeframes. That is the real issue here and I would urge you to look up the nucleus accumbens.
Google nucleus accumbens — I’ll give a link down here. There are a couple of studies and resources in the shownotes for this podcast. Basically, your nucleus accumbens lights up when you start trading these lower timeframes.
That is the same area of your brain that lights up on you when you do a line of cocaine. It’s a very distinct thing. I mean, if you feel like you need to have seven screens or whatever, you are playing with fire, basically.
I am not saying you cannot do it. There are plenty of guys out there that can scalp and all that but usually very, very disciplined though like military type guys. This is the thing that you need to be aware of.
I would say, it’s probably if you are feeling like you need more screens, you are probably trading the lower timeframes. Just probably symptoms of a bigger issue which is don’t blame you are losing trades on the fact that you did not have an extra screen, you couldn’t see that five-minute chart or whatever. It sounds something more bigger than that.
The other thing just as it’s aside, one thing you might find useful if you are spending a lot of screen time, like if you are a scalper and you’re sitting in the front of a computer for five hours a day and you’ve got a side job or something, that is a lot of screen time.
Potentially, if you have a regular white collar desk job, one thing that I would say is you can use this glasses to cut down on the — I am actually wearing them now — on… They’re called “Gunnar”, they’ll do like video gaming glasses.
I do not know if you’ve seen them but that can cut down on the radiation. That is something that will help you over the long haul if you have all these screens that are basically like blasting you everyday.
You can probably pick up one of these glasses and I’ll put those on the shownotes too. That is that you might look at too if you are in front of a lot of screens. I am sorry that I cannot do a better answer now for probably some people who are looking for, but there you go.
Hugh: That is great answer. I just have two. I have a 32 inch and a small laptop screen and that’s about it.
Walter: Yeah. I got the same deal so I can certainly trade off the laptop but, usually, if I am sitting down, I’ll plug it in a monitor. So, yeah I could monitor in the laptop. It’s no big deal.
Hugh: Cool! Good to know. Alright. Thanks, Walter.
Walter: Thanks a lot, see you next time
Hugh: Yup, see you next time.
Shownotes:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS