How Many Indicators Are Too Many?

I have been trading for around 5 years and in that time, I lost money and hope more often than I can count. A common coping strategy I use when in a time of loss is to strip all the "completely useless" indicators from my charts. And 6 months later, I have more than I had before.

Recently, I have actually started to earn small amounts of money from the markets consistently but my indicator problem persists. The picture above is an example of just some of the indicators I use. So now I ask the question,

-How many indicators are too many?

There really is not an answer despite what those on reddit might tell you. I seem to always have this fantasy that I will find the perfect chart set-up with all my indicators telling me just what I want to know. And of course TradingView has Pinscript which only makes my habit worse by allowing me to create exactly what I want.
As I was thinking about chart layouts this morning I came to a conclusion that my trading will always be evolving and the way in which I view the visual output of markets will change as well. There will most likely never be a chart set-up that I will use for the next 20 years. Even when I find my edge, the process of trading will still evolve. My "edge" will never be an indicator or a set of indicators.

So I wrote this to try and help those that are experiencing the same dilemma. Just know that you are not alone in your obsession with finding that perfect layout. Add 100 indicators to your chart and then delete them all when you feel they don't belong. You will never find that perfect indicator but but neither will you stop looking. It may seems like it is all a waste of time but I assure you that everything you experience in trading is worth it and progress does happen.

Safe Trading, Frank

NoMorePaperTrading

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I don't sell memberships, signals, mentorships or anything. My only goal is to become a profitable trader.
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