Staying Away From The Markets

So why do some traders say it's good to keep away from the markets?

Well when you are sitting at the computer, always watching the charts you are more likely to force trades.

By force trades I mean, trades that do not fit your plan, and because you've been watching the markets you get a feeling that it's a good trade and you should enter. When really it's not a trade that should be taken.

Watching the markets can cause other issues, which are psychological. For example exiting trades early because the market was fluctuating and gave you the feeling to exit the trade in case it goes into a loss or a further loss, or exiting a trade early to bank profit instead of trusting your plan and letting it run to your profit target.

There are many other reasons as to why watching every tick of the market is not good. You should only be checking the markets when required by your plan and this should mainly be when you know a candlestick is going to close that fits the timeframe you trade. For example, some traders enter trades from the daily timeframe so therefore they only need to check the charts when the daily candles close to see whether there is a potential opportunity. Some even do all of their analysis on the weekend meaning there is no need to be analysing the charts through the week.