How Many Markets Should I Follow and Trade at Once
You should follow enough markets to find opportunities in your trading session, but limit the number of markets so it doesn’t become too overwhelming. However, The amount of markets you choose to follow will largely depend on your style of trading.
Why You Should Limit the Number of Markets You Follow
It can often be tempting to follow as many markets as possible. More markets means more trades right? Well, not exactly.
You may become overwhelmed by the sheer amount of markets you need to analyse. If you’re having to analyse 20 markets, and multiple time frames on that market, that’s going to take a lot of time and energy!
Trying to keep up with too many markets will lead to confusion, analysis paralysis, and slower decision-making. The extra energy it takes also increases the risk of errors, since you will become more fatigued.
If you’re opening multiple trades at the same time, you also risk developing a market bias. For example, having a short trade on one or several markets may unconsciously influence you to take a similar position in a different market. Additionally, some markets may correlate with each other (e.g., USD/JPY and EUR/USD), meaning you are indirectly doubling down on risk if you trade them simultaneously.
It’s also easy to overlook the broader risk exposure, especially if the markets you follow are correlated. For example, a major economic event like an interest rate decision could affect several markets in similar ways, leading to multiple positions moving against you at once. This can expose you to big losses.
A final but important reason is that you will become more in tune with a market when you just follow one or two. You’ll better understand the characteristics and the movements, allowing you to pick out more dependable opportunities.
With this in mind, how many should you follow and trade at the same time?
How Many Markets Should You Follow?
The sweet spot lies in finding a balance between having enough markets to find a trading opportunity in your trading session, but without spreading yourself too thin.
If you tend to focus on shorter-term trading, you may find 6-8 markets to be enough. If you’re more focused on the long-term, the analysis won’t change as often and you can follow many more, perhaps up to 20.
But I’d recommend having a trading system that helps you filter which markets you focus on at any given time. This allows you to pick the best markets which are most likely to give you a trading opportunity in your trading session. While you may be following 6-20 markets, you can pick the best one or two to follow, analyse and trade in a single session.
However, if you’re new to trading then that’s not something I’d worry about for now. I’d recommend just following a couple of markets to begin with and expand to find your sweet spot.