Price alerts instead of screen staring: a better way to wait

[Shadow Trader]

Watching a chart for hours is tiring and tends to lead to forced trades. A better approach is to mark your levels, set alerts, and walk away. I place alerts at the key liquidity levels I identified in my plan, such as the previous day high, the Asian low, or an untouched equal high. When an alert fires, I come back to the chart and evaluate what price is doing. If it has swept the level and closed back inside, I begin looking for confirmation. If it is simply running through with momentum, I do nothing. This changes the psychology of trading, because you are responding to defined events rather than reacting to every candle. It also saves energy, so that when a real setup appears, you are fresh. I use a second alert slightly before the level to prepare my attention. Many platforms allow alerts on mobile, which means you can keep your normal life going. Just be sure to avoid the trap of taking trades on your phone without proper analysis. Use alerts to wake yourself up, not to rush into entries.

[FXS HongKong Scalper]

Alerts make trading much less tiring. For traders in different time zones, they are essential. I set alerts for key levels before going to bed and check them in the morning, which works well for the London session from Asia.

[Amanhasnoname]

Moving to alerts was probably the single biggest change to my energy levels. I used to sit through the whole London session watching M1, and by ten o'clock I was taking trades just because I'd been staring for two hours. Now I set alerts on my marked levels before the open and spend the time between them doing something completely unrelated, like answering emails in another room.

The early warning alert is a good idea, and I use something similar. Mine sits about five pips before the level on EURUSD, which gives me a minute or two to sit down, check the spread and look at the M5 structure before price actually gets there. Without it, I'd often arrive when the level was already swept and feel the urge to chase.

On the phone point, I made a strict rule for myself. The phone app is for alerts only, and I've removed my login from it. If an alert fires when I'm out, I either get to my desk or let it go. It's cost me a few trades, but it's saved me far more from badly placed entries on a small screen.