From John Forman, Anduril, Inc..

Trading Demands time in a Few ways. The first is the time dedied to developing a trading platform. This is sometimes thought of as a one off item, but in fact it's more an on-going process. After a system is set up, time is called for regarding monitoring the markets for signals, executing transactions, and handling positions. Just how much time all these different elements need depends on the trading platform. The trading platform, consequently, should take into account the quantity of time the trader has available.

Bearing this in mind, the first question to be answered is just how much time each day/week/month (whichever is appropriate) can you dedie into the several requirements of trading and handling a trading platform? Different trading styles need different time attention. As a rule, the shorter-term the trading, the more specifically dedied time demanded. A day trader, for instance, runs positions that are opened and closed during precisely the same session. This normally means a lot of time spent viewing the market for entrance and exit signals. A intermediate or longer-term trader who retains trades for weeks or even more does not need to dedie exactly the same amount of time to watching the markets. They can usually get away with only spot checking from time to time. Of course there is an entire array of possibilities .

At this stage it's also important to think about distractions. There's a major difference between getting 6 hours per day of uninterrupted time to watch the markets and having 6 hours of time during which you'll be making and receiving phone calls, having meetings, and otherwise not being able to focus on the markets and create transactions when demanded. In the former case one can day trade. At the latter, however, day trading would probably be a disaster as the trader would probably miss important trading scenarios on a frequent basis. This sort of thing has to be taken into account.

The simple decision one must make is in what stage the trader can reasonably expect to operate on a constant basis. The person must have the ability to perform each of the data gathering, research, market analysis, transaction execution and observation, portfolio management, and any other functions required of their trading platform. That means a trading timeframe has to be chosen which enables the trader to deal with all these duties without the sorts of disruptions that could cause inferior system input from the consumer, and therefore poor system performance.


John Forman is the Managing Analyst and Chief Trader for Anduril Analytics, and also the author of The Basics of Trading. He's a close 20-year veteran of the markets. John has traded nearly everything, has worked as an analyst in the international exchange, fixed income, and energy markets, and has printed literally dozens of articles on market analysis and trading procedures. He's a contributor to Trading Markets and the former Content Editor for Trade2Win, a trader service website with over 50,000 members, where he socialized with busy traders from across the world.


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