The Importance Of Colors and Environments In Trading

[Brendan Egan]

This may sound a bit absurd--but I have found that the color and layout of your work environment has a dramatic impact on your trading results.

I believe this is primarily because trading is such a psychological profession that our environment plays a critical role in the outcome of our trades. But rather than try and explain why this is true, I will simply focus on a few ways to create an environment that will positively effect your trading.

There are four primary things that come to mind with trading environments--two of which are color related and two of which are more physical surroundings.

1) Office Color: Your trading office or environment should be a color that stimulates your mind and makes you feel comfortable, yet not too comfortable that you lose focus. For me, a deep blue color was exactly what I needed. Typically, trading environments should be positive places, so a brighter color yet not one that is distracting works well.

2) Platform Colors: Just as important if not more important is the color of your charts, level 2 screens, and the overall color and layout of your trading platform. I have found that most trading platforms and charting packages use depressing colors (dark grays, dark greens, etc) however most platforms also allow the user to adjust colors. By simply changing around the color scheme of your platform, you can create a new, refreshing place to trade.

3) Environmental Light: It is extremely important to have proper lighting in your trading environment. Whether it is artificial or natural light, make sure your workplace is evenly lighted and the balance of light is in line (not too bright, not too dark). This is critically important to reducing strain on both the mind and the eyes.

4) Layout of Environment: Lastly, keep your trading environment laid out properly and clean. We want this environment to be extremely functional, so take into account things you may want to do during the day. I always have water nearby, a small snack, and something else to entertain me during slow market times.

These are just a few small and inexpensive things you can do to try and improve your trading environment, which in turn should help improve your trading results. A positive, clean, organized, and functional workspace really can make a dramatic difference in your trading. Below I have provided a short video clip of my trading environment--if you have any questions or comments be sure to let me know!

[Tomross58]

Very cool set up. It looks very funcional with everything at arms reach. I see you have 4 screens and I have 3. I see that your far right screen has the 9 other stocks you follow and I like that idea but was wondering if you feel you can get a good perspective of them when they are minimized? I have wanted to do that myself and maybe its just a matter of visually getting used to it. My center screen has my platform and the side screens have the stock I follow and the other screen on the right has just one index. Your idea of following 3 indexes is also a good idea. I click on the chart and change the different time frames but I do like the idea of looking at a glance. I also have a second computer with one just screen used for Skype, e-mails and sometimes looking something up keeping my main computer dedicated to my platform. Good idea with the colors also as I know myself I am very visual and having everything just so makes a difference including the mood with "friendly" colors.


Tom

[Brendan Egan]

Tom,
I usually just use the 9 little charts to glance at and if I spot something then I pull it up on my main monitor. I definitely don't use those charts for trading but just to spot stocks that are running up or down too quickly or approaching key price points. Sometimes if the market has a big down move I can look at those 9 stocks to see which one didn't move down or which one moved down too far, etc.