I've always wondered

Why do so many skilled traders have so much time
Can do well in trading
Go to the gym every day
Train students
Travel abroad often
And have time to spend with family and girlfriends
Don't they have more than 24 hours a day?

Why is it that I only focus on trading
Staring at the screen all day
And can't do anything else?

Later I realized
It's because I was always using the wrong mindset in trading
And I thought I was doing it right

Many people think that trading means sitting at home all day watching the market
Think that the more time spent watching the charts, the more chances to make money
But often,
It's just self-delusion

Because whether I used support and resistance strategies
Or various technical indicators
In reality, I didn't get many opportunities in a day
So why was I staring at the screen all day?
If I already knew there was no chance today, why keep watching?

Of course, some strategies have more trading opportunities
So if you don't watch the market, you might miss out

But think carefully,
If there are many opportunities every day,
Why be so afraid of missing them?
And no matter what method you use to trade,
There is always a solution

You can set price alerts
Check every 4 hours
Or write a program to remind you

And my current opening price strategy,
Just by thinking about it, you can tell
Whether there are opportunities today
If yes, set a reminder
If no, don’t look at it all day
This was impossible in my past

Because I used to only know how to find opportunities every day,
Trying to catch every fluctuation

Getting angry if I missed a move
Feeling upset if I sold too early

But only when the account hits zero,
Am I willing to truly face
These wrong behaviors

Now I finally understand
Why skilled traders
Have so much time to do many things

Because instead of staring at the screen and making bad trades,
It’s better to spend that time enjoying life

Most consistent profitable traders
Actually spend very little time watching the market
But it’s not because they’re not serious about trading,
It’s because they know what they’re waiting for

Using a replicable system
To filter out high-quality opportunities
When a notification pops up, just execute

Open the order, then close the app
Keep working out
Keep living your life
Patiently wait for take profit or stop loss

Because looking at it one more time,
Won’t make the price move differently
So why keep watching?
It just increases the risk of impulsive actions

The longer you watch the market,
The easier you lose control,
The more likely you are to get itchy hands,
And open a bunch of low-quality trades

More screen time doesn’t necessarily mean you’re more serious
Often, it just means you’re putting yourself in a more error-prone environment

If trading becomes your whole life,
It will backfire
The ugliness of human nature
Will mess us all up

The most time-consuming part of trading is actually building the system in the beginning
But once the system can run,
The actual daily time spent on trading can be very little
And you can do it more steadily and reliably
So trading should only be part of life

First, build a replicable system
Then use it to filter high-quality opportunities
The rest of the time,
Go to the gym
Cultivate hobbies
Spend time with family
Do what you want to do

Trading is meant to improve our lives,
Not make life worse

I really wish my past self from six years ago could read this article,
Sharing it with you all,
May your detours be fewer.