Quote from funky:
i put this in the psychology section because i think my problem is mostly psychological. I started out trading 1min charts for the first 3-4 months, and just recently switched to using 5min charts. however, i'm having serious discipline issues keeping my eyes off of the 1min chart, and ignoring it for the most part (until my entry comes up). did anyone else ever have this problem? how did you solve it? i guess it will just take some time to get used to it. 
ET has a lot of members who have short fuses. This is an observation.
The actual best thing to do vis a vis where you monitor, it to pick the place thatmakes the most money for you for your skill level.
You are basically doing a tradeoff. Of the seven most common market operating points, the shortest duration ones have the higher yields in wealth building potential.
People, on the other hand, are skilled in ways that preclude them from realizing what the market has to offer.
Prop trading is a classic example of inefficiency and a waste of talents.
To optimize, you need become very very skilled in choosing your operating point.
as an example, I, at my age and skill level, have chosen two markets and I limit my activity in each. I just admit that I cannot make an effort that is any more efficient than it is and I leave stuff on the table.
Categorically, I do stuff when the market is closed and when it is running. Off market hours I am limited by my systemmic apporach. During market hours, I am limited by my ability to observe, track, and play.
I stick to dailies and 30 min on equities. The consequence is a 10% return about every 6 to 8 days and 50 trades per 3 years for each stream of money I run. I do not run over 100,000 shares per stream so i am capital limited in this market.
I stick to 5 min and 1 min on futures indexes except when the pace is slow; then i migrate my pair to slower sets.. The consequence is a 50x return on capital re equities. I trade intraday an average of 3 to 5 trades. I abide by NFA reporting requirements of 208 (E) part a. Per account. I am capital limited as well. I avoid partials fills.
All of this is a yellow brick road question for me. It is the trade off of market potential against acquired skills. People see what they see as what the market has to be extracted; they use skills to do it. The fractal you operate on is usually determined by your skill level.
You can assess anyone's juice here by how they post. TM says he has it. He is kidding himself. lol
i think it will just take time for me to learn the 5min charts, since i've been used to the 1min noise for so long. i trade SPY, and will prob trade ES in the future once i ramp up my shares. so i think i'm on the right track with the 5min, reading your post. thanks alot and i can only hope to 'extract' that kind of money in the future!