Do you trade one or multiple instruments?

Hi traders.

I was wondering how others approach the speculating game.

Do you trade a couple of instruments, or just focus on one?
Trading multiple instruments helps shifting between them in order to find the best set-ups. Trading only one, however, reduces the possibilities but also the stress.

Which is better in your opinion?

I just trade what gives me trading possibilities at the moment. I don't focus on just one instrument, because that limits my trading opportunities too much, and therefore also my profits.

Right now im only trading 1 instrument (not forex) and WTi on Wednesday mostly..

focusing only 1 market you can become highly proficient on it.. and NO you dont need 3 million instrument to trade, you just need 1 that moves up/down, be familiar/expert with, thats all..

Trading no more than 4 or 5 stocks at a time.
Trading FOREX is too much work for a small profit.
Daily charts with interday breakouts
Price crossed above EMA(10) (remount of a uptrend), then price must have a next day follow through. Price opens on the follow through day the 1st hour or so of treading.

EMA(10) above MA(50)
Ma(50) is above MA(50) one day ago
RSI 14 above 50.00 = Bullish

It all depends whether you use tools to assist you spot your setups. If yes then you can trade plenty of assets on multiple timeframes. Else you're limited by manual scanning to trade a few assets on single timeframe risking huge lot size on a few setups or invest the higher timeframes over multiple assets which requires lots of capital and patience plus the work done on fundamental news. That's how the trader is exposed to the usual psychological pressure that we read about. Your choice is guided by your limitation.

IMO it's better to trade high probability setups on different pairs each day rather than trade more lower probability setups on only one pair. One pair is not always going to give the best setup each day. I personally look at 30 pairs and each day, there's a high probability setup on about 5 pairs. Also, there's not much difference between the pairs other than spread and range of movement so why not monitor more, and only take their best.

I used to trade the currency rather than a pair.
For now I just trade the USD, im looking at all majors plus nzdusd.
If all show similar strength of weakness towards the dollar then Im just getting into the pairs with best strength/weakness and trend follow untill conditions change. Otherwise Im waiting.

It's always better to master 1-2 instead of being jack of all.

Every pair/currency has its bad days and if you trade multiple pairs, you can hedge your losses on pairs which don't perform well that day with other winning trades.

Some people want to trade everything all of time. They have FoMO! (Fear of missing out) Because let's face it - the opportunities are everywhere, and every setup could lead to profits.

Other people eventually realize the fact that trading with too many instruments leads to over trading. (Large number of trades with poor quality and ultimately poor results) So they try to specialize in 1 instrument. Learn everything about this instrument, the unique behavior of the instrument, and all possible setups.
This approach is valid!

My approach to the market is to specialize and to focus on 2-3 setups max and to search for these setups in a list of instruments.
I'm looking only for very high quality setups! So if I trade only 1 pair, usually I get only 2-3 really good opportunities per month.
But because I search for the same setups in larger list of instruments I get at least one good setup per day.
So, I get enough trading opportunities without the need to sacrifice quality for quantity.

My advise to new traders: Try to specialize in one setup and then search for this setup in a list with 10-20 markets.
For example you can look only for short trades during oversold situations. And ignore everything else.
This will help you to achieve some level of consistency and discipline!

You are absolutely right!
However, for someone working a regular job and trading on the side watching 10-20 instruments even for 2-3 set-ups might be an overkill (i used to track that many 3 years ago.)

As stated above,and in my opinion, the best for someone like that would be to watch for example 2 instruments and switch between them.

Just one...more than enough opportunities on one good pair on any given day. If it looks flat, I'll look to see what's happening elsewhere, but I'll seldom have more than one position open at a time.

while trading one specialized instrument might seem better, it is always best to trade a basket IMO... that way one does not forces a trade in one market or the other...

Just 1. Get to know it inside out.

NQ moves more than enough each session.

It has it's own nature and a lovely habit of trending with regular revisits to prior S/D levels, trade the retest back into main trend with low risk and high probability. Even when the trend has changed, it still has a tendency to react at these zones, enough to get your stop to BE at least.

Exactly !!! specially with range/tick/volume based bars instead of time based charts, you can get sniper like accuracy on every trade once you know the "behaviour" your hit/win rate goes through the roof !!