Refusing to Monitor the Trade? | Forex Factory

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Refusing to Monitor the Trade?

  • #1
  • First Post: Apr 20, 2010 5:26am Apr 20, 2010 5:26am
Does anyone who trades 4H or Daily TF ever consciously force themselves not to sit at the monitor and watch every minutae price movement?

On such a large timeframe, moves up and down are inevitable, and I sometimes find it pretty difficult to stop myself from bailing at first sign of trouble. The solution is simply to stay away from the monitor and put faith in my stop loss / take profit levels, letting the trade play out as I originally intended it to.

Just curious if I'm the only one struggling with this issue.
  • #2
  • Apr 20, 2010 6:01am Apr 20, 2010 6:01am
Quoting George C
Does anyone who trades 4H or Daily TF ever consciously force themselves not to sit at the monitor and watch every minutae price movement?

On such a large timeframe, moves up and down are inevitable, and I sometimes find it pretty difficult to stop myself from bailing at first sign of trouble. The solution is simply to stay away from the monitor and put faith in my stop loss / take profit levels, letting the trade play out as I originally intended it to.

Just curious if I'm the only one struggling with this issue.
One of the biggest hurdles for me was understanding it can take up to 5 or 10 time the time frame for a set up to reach some sort of conclusion. Some people wait for the very best set ups and kill trades which do not reach expectations within a much shorter time ratio.

A certain trader sets trades and then goes on a binge drinking holiday for weeks, or so he says. Not recommended.
Gone to a better place
  • #3
  • Apr 20, 2010 6:17am Apr 20, 2010 6:17am
Quoting smikester
A certain trader sets trades and then goes on a binge drinking holiday for weeks, or so he says. Not recommended.
That's a pretty good one

The thinking behind my approach is to eliminate any chance of double-guessing yourself. Or, in other words, I do as much homework as I can beforehand and calculate the optimal TP, SL and position size with respect to my trading methodology (S&Rs and PA, mostly); however, once I make the decision and pull the trigger, I find it incredibly hard to just monitor the trade without starting to double-guess my original parameters.

With this approach, I'm able to just say to myself that I've set the parameters to where they should be, and now the only smart thing to do is to let the trade work or let it sink. The only deviation would be to adjust the TP if the move seems stronger than expected, but that's it.
  • #4
  • Apr 20, 2010 6:31am Apr 20, 2010 6:31am
Quoting George C
That's a pretty good one

The thinking behind my approach is to eliminate any chance of double-guessing yourself. Or, in other words, I do as much homework as I can beforehand and calculate the optimal TP, SL and position size with respect to my trading methodology (S&Rs and PA, mostly); however, once I make the decision and pull the trigger, I find it incredibly hard to just monitor the trade without starting to double-guess my original parameters.

With this approach, I'm able to just say to myself that I've set the parameters to where they...
How much are you putting on these trades? Personally I'm happy with the price of a cup of tea. Or for a real treat, a new mop for the missus.
Gone to a better place
  • #5
  • Apr 20, 2010 6:36am Apr 20, 2010 6:36am
Quoting George C
Does anyone who trades 4H or Daily TF ever consciously force themselves not to sit at the monitor and watch every minutae price movement?
hehe, almost impossible!
  • #6
  • Apr 20, 2010 6:53am Apr 20, 2010 6:53am
I think its possible, you just have to walk away.
Once you've got your trade direction, stop orders, and limit orders in place
there is really no need to watch the market after the trades has been
executed. Theres really nothing you can do after the fact but manually
close out the trade. But if you'd cross every T and dot every I ... it should
be all out of your hands.

These will be only three out comes:

  1. Position stopped out for a loss
  2. Position gain or hits your limit order for profit
  3. Position never executed (assuming you used pending orders for entry)


This is pretty much the way I trade on the Hourly time frame. I see an entry candlestick formation. I place my pending stop order at the base of the previous candlestick. I place my stop order (just in case protection) at the high/low or so of that previous candle. Once position setup has been made I wait for my stop order to be executed. I sometimes use an alarm for this, no need for me to watch the trade as it's out of my hands but because I setup entry, protections, and sometimes take profit (limit) I should be fine. I setup my trades for every possibility and I know one of the three out comes will happen.

  • #7
  • Apr 20, 2010 7:10am Apr 20, 2010 7:10am
Quoting Jhig
I think its possible, you just have to walk away..
Unfortunately, Oanda Mobile trading makes it so darn difficult

Smike, I risk a fixed 3% of account regardless of the stop loss (e.g., I'd trade with a smaller position size if I have to allow for a bigger drawdown). It doesn't work out to much, but it's consistency that I'm really after :-)
  • #8
  • Apr 20, 2010 7:30am Apr 20, 2010 7:30am
Quoting George C
Unfortunately, Oanda Mobile trading makes it so darn difficult

Smike, I risk a fixed 3% of account regardless of the stop loss (e.g., I'd trade with a smaller position size if I have to allow for a bigger drawdown). It doesn't work out to much, but it's consistency that I'm really after :-)
I think you are on the right track (and Jhig) and sorry I can't be more helpful as I suffer from overtrading and over monitoring of my trades. Part of my problem is I enjoy trading and looking for set ups.
Gone to a better place
  • #9
  • Last Post: Apr 20, 2010 12:42pm Apr 20, 2010 12:42pm
I read a story about some noob Chicago Pit trader back in the day who's mentor asked him this after watching him constantly checking price on a trade they were holding for days/weeks. The mentor asked something like, "When you plant a seed do you dig it up every 5 minutes to see how it's doing?"
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