Page 291 - THE MARKET WHISPERER

THE MARKET WHISPERER 28 7

As worthy of the most important room in the house, I devoted a good
deal of thought and effort to planning this room to suit my needs. Your
trading station must also match your available space, equipment, and
budget.

My trading room

Scary? Since taking this photo, I have added another screen, which
is outside the frame. Together with the projector, I use no less than ten
screens. Sometimes I do wonder if I need them all, or whether I buy them
just to impress the pool cleaner who, with every visit, tells me how he
dreams of being a trader, “but never finds the time for it.”

I use a lot of screens because I like to see what’s happening in the
market. Sectors, indicators, and dozens of stocks can be displayed at once.
As the head analyst of the Tradenet trading room, I must be constantly up
to date in real time with every event. In addition, this is my profession and
my hobby. Every professional invests in good work tools, whether that’s
a quality drill which is effective, reliable and therefore saves time, or any
other kind of tool in constant use. Similarly, I invest in quality computers
and screens. Can you guess how much it costs to set up three desktops, two
laptops, seven 23-inch screens and a projector? Approximately $4000. A
builder/renovator’s toolbox costs a great deal more!

If you’ve made the decision to become a trader, invest in the
infrastructure. You can start with a computer linked to two screens,
although very quickly you will move to a desktop linked to four. Trying
to save money? Like the ”chicken or the egg” argument, buying cheap will
end up expensive. If you do not invest in a quality infrastructure, you may
never succeed. If you are still unsure whether this is the profession you
want to pursue, start with just two screens but be ready to add more fairly
quickly.

My Screen Setup

Let’s start from left to right. The projector is hooked up to my old laptop
which should long ago have made its way into the trash can, but it serves
well for displaying content from financial sites. The projector is also linked
to the cable converter, and occasionally, when there is important news or
when planning the trading day, I display CNBC on it. The other screens
display the following information: