Original question: Hi, thank you for the resources & and the experience you share, they’re invaluable. I have a more technolical question regarding the tools you use – by tools I mean the hardware. What is your trading setup? I know this has no impact on performance, but wondering if in your experience is a laptop vs a desktop preferable? Thank you!
I currently use a windows 10 desktop computer with exactly….*drumrolls please*…. one screen as well as an iPhone 11 Pro. Tools on boths are: Tradingview, Finviz (a pain on mobile), Interactive Brokers TWS, Twitter and StockTwits occasionaly.
I rarely have to react to stuff quickly intraday as most setups are valid end-of-day or before the open (Momentum Gaps). I have a -rather large- watchlist and can quickly to react to price action happening within that list. But I try to be in those names before the action takes place most of the time. As a human being I don’t have the ability to monitor what’s going on on 3+ screens at the same time anyway. Others might have that superpower, I don’t. I also don’t like anything flashing at me in bright and alarming colors. However I do understand it when traders use multiple monitors in order to reduce interaction via mouse and keyboard which helps to avoid common computer related hand injuries such as the carpal tunnel syndrome .
Since having a larger smartphone (Late 2019) I do more and more via mobile. When I tweet with a lot of typos you know that I am on mobile and forgot to switch the keyboard layout and thus autocorrect back from German to English. I also execute trades more and more on mobile as well as I try to reap the fruits of having a lot of time available. Not sitting in front of the monitor all the time is desirable for me these days. My trading style allows for this fortunately.
I want to switch to MacOs (more steamlined and more secure) but had to postpone this due to the upcoming release of M1 iMac (hopefully with a redesign). I am also building a standing desk but due to the pandemic I am still waiting for my custom made bookshelf (Will attach the desk to this) to arrive.
Make sure to spend most time looking at a large screen with high refresh rate and in a natural body position. This can be done with a laptop, larger smartphone, tablet or desktop PC… it doesn’t matter.