Concentrate on Execution
All of your market and strategic analysis should be done before the markets open.
The strategy design should be clear in your mind. You should have the historical
Performance Summary of your strategy at your fingertips to remind you of the
personality of the strategy, how much money it has made over time, and what its
largest string of losses in a row has been. You should know what kind of orders
you are going to place, and how you are going to communicate this to your
broker.
The last thing you should have to worry about during market hours is where the
market is going, and whether to be long or short. Your strategy will tell you all of
this. You should not be concerned about the news, or even if you are making or
losing money. You should not be concerned with analyzing the market, always
reserve this for when the market is closed.
The only thing you should be doing during market hours is concentrating on
effectively executing your strategy. If you can’t execute your strategy effectively,
there really is no point in trading. There are two sides to trading, strategy
development and trading execution. During market hours is when you should
concentrate on execution and nothing else.