Trading setup

Monitors

I use a 6-7 monitor setup and I strongly advise to invest in setting up multiple screens to keep track of all important reminders.

Screen 1 – M1 and M5 chart

Screen 2 – M15 chart

Screen 3 – H1 chart (M30 in small window)

Screen 4 – H4 chart

Screen 5 – Daily chart

Screen 6 – Weekly and Monthy charts

Screen 7 – Red news, daily moves, ADR5, swap rates, pivot levels, currency strength information (I pay attention to red news, the rest are just FYI)

Platform

MT4. I will explain my view on this platform and all the others. You can use whatever platform you want but my templates, meant for sharing with you, are all optimized to MT4.

Indicators used

These are not indicators to predict price, only provide information to understand the context of price movements.

Period separator, daily close price indicator, session indicator, yesterday’s high/low, swap value, time indicator, time to candle close indicator, news indicator, ADR5 & %, free margin, position size, position profit/loss, bid price, spread info. One could place a spread or a volume indicator on the chart, I do not base my trades on those but I take note of outliers once in a while. A stophunt box may help with visual measurement of daily moves.

It is important to use as few indicators as possible. Our brain could be trained to be selective in what we see on the charts. My eyes have learnt to ignore the ones I do not want to perceive. It is about controlling your focus and what one pays attention to.

Pictures of reference

You will print out charts, paste them on cardboards and place them on your desk or the wall. Sometimes paper and pencil and the tangible world does miracles. The charts reflect prototypes of price movements, these are limited in number. You will use them to make notes on them and keep them in front of you as reminders. There are about 20 such charts to create but the most important ones are way less.

Pairs

This may sound like uninteresting but I trade one pair only. For a reason. If you decide to join this community of functional traders, you will mostly talk about the movements of one pair only. There is so much going on with one pair that you do not need to look at many. Apart from that, all pairs move the same way so you better learn to trade in all circumstances than jump from one pair to another in the hope of better circumstances and catching better moves.

You can trade whatever you want (I also trade oil and some other FX pairs sometimes) but I am not going to look at a chart with a pair other than the pair we all trade. The pair is USDCHF, at least for now and without any special reason. As said, from our perspective, all pairs are the same.

It is not necessary but I look at other pairs for the purpose of getting a general feeling for the market environment or to get hints/confirmation on the pair I trade. These are: S&P500, Oil, Gold, USDJPY, EURUSD, USDCAD, EURJPY. I rarely analyze these pairs.

It takes a good deal of time to understand and a good memory to remember(!) what is going on with a pair and I like to be right with my assessment. The more pairs I look at the easier to become confused, forget about important factors and get into unintended situations. We avoid such situations as we do not like to make a mess and a loss. We trade to make money, not for fun, not for hype and curiosity, not for others to approve us. And ultimately, not to supply our ego with ammunition.