Quote from OddTrader:
Hi Sam, would you please let us know your idea when putting in how much time (and the hours) is considered not trading too much time? Thanks! 
4:07AM PST
shore.
just because you have a trade open and monitor it doesn't necessarily mean you're "overtrading."
in my mind, "overtrading" is more, like, making trade after trade after trade after trade after trade after trade after trade... having really no idea what you're doing, not keeping good records and notes, having no game plan, or not sticking with the one you have.
you're all over the place - the market's going to eat you like a junk food snack.
(read Dr. Alexander Elder)
it does NOT mean simply putting "market time" in.
therefore, you should see how your trade, your position, your system, your set-up(s), your tactic(s) work
under a variety of settings and market environments.
the majority of wipe-outs I've had, both live and on demos, were due to running a trade in changing market environments.
what worked great in this situation may not work well in another or new circumstance.
I then would agree with the sentiment, if you want to be a trader and progress you need to do it full-time.
for some people "full-time" is a hard 3-hours a day. For others it is a hard 3-days at a time.
each person will advance (or not advance) at his/her own rate.
if trading is your profession I'd recommend over-working, over-achieving, over-studying.
you're going up against the best in the world, you got to get good, man! you don't, you're going to get smoked! I guarantee it.
the only way to win is to get better at trading than everyone else because it is they (the market) who will clean your clock unless you are more proficient at what you're doing...
unless your trading system is better than everyone elses who is trading against you.
having talent is great. I subscribe to the theory that to excel you've got to
work hard.
better to be too prepared and over equipped than to be under-ready.
you going to fight your way through the jungles of Vietnam you want to be
John Rambo or
Liberace?
knowing more than the guys you're trading against is always an advantage.
having been in more fights, more scraps, more tangles, win, lose or draw is gunna give you more ability to win and get yourself out of losing situations that your opponents may be caught in whereas YOU got yourself out because you knew what you were doing.
look at it this way, you're going to step into the ring against
Bob Sapp.
you're going to feel better about it knowing you trained as hard as you could for a year prior to the fight.
you still might get killed. it's not the point.
at least you'll have a smile laying there in your open coffin.
unless Bob chewed your face off.
Sam
