HOW OFTEN DO YOU NEED TO CHECK THE CHARTS?How many times have you looked at the chart trying to figure out if this signal is worth taking or not? And how many times have you made a profit in such cases?
You don't have to look for good trades on purpose. You just wait and react.
How often you should check the chart in forex trading, as well as the reasons why our brain sees trades where there are not there (and what to do about it), we're going to talk about today.
There is no need to search for trades at all.
Good signals are visible immediately. Instantly. Like 2 frogs above. You do not have to look for them. You turn on the terminal, and you see everything at once. You do not guess, do not draw, do not change the scale of the chart (narrower/wider).
If you do not see a signal on the chart in the first 1-2 seconds, it is not there.
In general, if you know at least 4-5 techniques of technical analysis , you, if you want, will find at any time on any chart a signal in any direction.
At any time on the chart, if you want you can find any signals. Impatience, desire to make money, bitterness after a previous unsuccessful trade or euphoria after a successful one all this clouds our brains and we look for the trades where there are none, proving ourselves right at the same time.
The longer you look at the chart, the more trades you’ll see
According to research by scientists, our brain works in such a way that the less often we encounter a familiar and familiar phenomenon, the more often we start to notice it.
Think about this phrase. Once you're looking for trades, you find them.
The vigilante syndrome
There was an interesting experiment: in an area with high crime rates, teams of volunteer vigilantes were introduced, who reported any violations of public order to the police.
At first, only serious crimes were reported. But then the crime rate in the neighborhood dropped significantly, and the vigilantes began to call the police for less important things: crossing the road in a wrong place or someone walking on the street at night, that sort of nonsense.
The Phantom Menace
In yet another experiment, people were shown several sets of sketches with completely different facial expressions: from frightening to totally friendly. And they were asked to choose from them the ones that looked threatening.
In the beginning, people chose the most "beastly" faces quite adequately, but then the scientists began to remove them from the samples leaving more "normal" faces. And people began to call those faces that seemed harmless to them at first threatening.
Why? Because they were told to SEE the threatening faces.
The experiments described above clearly show that when you look for something, you are bound to find it. So do the trades on the chart.
Our brain tries to match all the facts so as to confirm our point of view. And this leads to losses.
The only way to combat this effect, according to psychologists is to define your goals as precisely as possible and write down specific wording.
In the case of trading the cure is simple - a checklist.
If a trade corresponds to all of the checklist items there is a signal. If they do not correspond to at least one you are simply bored.
Practice using a demo account
Naturally, having installed a new system on the char you will not see trades in 2 seconds. Any new strategy requires that you get used to it. A demo account is an excellent way to do that.
How long should you get used to a new trading system? It depends on the timeframe and the frequency of trades. If it is intraday trading a week is enough. If it is a daily chart (D1), then about a month.
How often do you need to check the chart?
Whatever timeframe you have that's how you should check it. If D1 - once a day, if H1 - once an hour and so on. On timeframes below D1, you should limit the trading range when you are looking for signals. Checking charts at night on low timeframes usually makes no sense.
To summarize: the more you look at the chart, the more wrong trades you have (they can be profitable, given the random nature of the market, but not according to the system). The best signals are visible immediately, literally in the first second.
