Screen breaks and the twenty-minute rule

[Shadow Trader]

Staring at charts for hours reduces attention and strains the eyes. Short breaks reset both.

A pattern some traders follow: every hour, a break of five minutes away from the screen. Stand, stretch, look out of a window at something distant. Eye strain falls, and the mind lets go of the last trade.

For scalpers, the question is when to break. Setups don't wait. A solution is to schedule breaks during known quiet windows, such as the lunch lull, or right after closing a trade and before looking for the next one.

Another habit is the post-session walk. Ten minutes outside, no phone, before reviewing the day. It separates the emotional charge of trading from the analysis.

Phones are not a break. Scrolling social feeds keeps the eyes on a screen and the mind on someone else's trades, which defeats the purpose.

Does the schedule include breaks, and are they taken when the market is quiet or only when exhaustion forces them?