DislikedChris - I totally agree with all the things you say. Playing devil's advocate for a minute though, watching the higher timeframes limits the number of decent setups available and thereby limits your profit potential. The reason most people play the lower TFs is to get more entry signals (appreciating that you have to be more careful with lower TFs because there is more noise) in order to increase profit. The flip side of this is that, as you point out, you're tied to your monitor. Of course, some might argue that they don't mind being tied to a...Ignored
I have struggled with this exact issue. The solution: Have more charts......stocks, options, forex, etc......
That way, you are still not tied to the monitor, and you have plenty of ideas for trades - allowing you to hopefully take the smarter ones.
Chris