The case against checking P&L every minute

[Shadow Trader]

A floating profit and loss figure ticks constantly on the platform. Watching it changes behaviour.

A trade showing 10 dollars of profit attracts an urge to close it. A trade showing a 15 dollar loss triggers anxiety. The decision shifts from "is the setup still valid?" to "how does this number feel?"

Dollar figures carry emotional weight that pips and R-multiples do not. A 50 dollar loss can feel huge or trivial depending on mood and recent results.

One remedy is to hide the profit column. Many platforms allow it. Another is to display only the chart, with stop and target lines, and leave the account panel closed during trades.

Some traders express everything in R, where a loss at the stop is minus 1R and a target hit is plus 1.5R. The abstraction helps maintain focus on process.

The goal is to manage the trade on its merits, not on its balance impact.

Has hiding the floating P&L been tried here, and did decisions change?

[Amanhasnoname]

I hid the profit column about a year ago and it was one of the simplest changes that actually stuck. Before that I noticed I was closing winners early far too often, usually when the floating number hit a round figure like twenty dollars, even though the chart had done nothing to change the idea behind the trade.

The first couple of weeks were uncomfortable. I kept wanting to open the terminal tab just to look, so I moved it to a second screen and turned that screen away. My average winner grew by around a third over the next month, mainly because more trades reached the planned target instead of being cut halfway there.

I still look at the money at the end of the session, when I fill in the journal. Seeing it then is fine because nothing can be changed. During trades I only watch the stop and target lines and the R value, and I find I argue with myself a lot less about whether to take profit.