Professional traders digest huge swaths of real-time information during the market day, uncovering pockets of strength and weakness to capitalize upon through long and short positioning. They support their efforts with major investments in technology, data services and redundant lightning-fast connections. That level of intensity is not just possible when you have a real life job away from the financial markets, with data jammed onto a single smartphone screen.

Despite obvious limitations, you try to play with the big boys, taking positions that are too large to manage without continuous real-time access and periodic reads on background internals. You undermine your efforts even further by failing to place stops that will limit losses if the intraday market goes haywire while you are attending a mandatory meeting or chatting with the boss.

Fortunately, you can still succeed at the market game by taking specific steps to match risk, taking with the realities of your non-market lives. This readjustment process starts with an overhaul of the data tracked by smartphones and then places self-protection filters on position choice and size (for related reading, refer to: Protect Yourself From Market Loss ). Finally, it addresses the thorny subject of stop losses and where to place them.

Let’s assume the smartphone will be your primary market access. It is likely you have already set up quote and chart screens that show real-time pricing for open positions as well as an index summary listing the Dow, S&P 500 and a few other instruments. Now you need to add supplementary pages that provide quick and detailed snapshots on market internals to get timely warnings on reversals. rallies and other changes in market tone.

Your screens should include the following market data:

• NYSE and NASDAQ advancing stocks vs. declining stocks, also known as advance/decline or market breadth
• NYSE and NASDAQ up volume vs. down volume
• S&P Volatility Index, also known as VIX
• IShares 20-Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT ), bond futures contract or a yield index, such as the 10-Year Treasury Yield (TNX)
• Gold or SPDR Gold Shares (GLD )
• Crude oil futures or US Oil Fund (USO )
• Russell-2000 Index. futures contract or underlying ETF
• DJ Transportation Average
• DJ Utility Index
• Sector indices that include the financials, semiconductors, big techs and cyclicals.

Once in place, use this added data to make quick judgments on market tone, with a specific focus on risk-on vs. risk-off conditions. This jargon refers to algorithmic strategies that enter the market day, seeking exposure to popular momentum plays (risk-on) or popular defensive plays (risk-off), including bonds and high yielding equities. Simply stated, expect your hot plays to gain round in risk-on conditions and get sold in risk-off conditions.

Now that your smartphone is properly tuned for actionable market information, take a close look at your risk taking and management habits to ensure that remote exposure matches the time you have to watch price action or get timely updates. Position choice and size, as well as stop placement (for related reading, refer to: A Logical Method Of Stop Placement ) are the main variables in play, with all the three having enormous power to impact your profitability.

Position Choice

Consider limiting your exposure to ETFs to avoid news shocks that expose individual equities to sharp price dislocations. Of course, Powershares NASDAQ Trust (QQQ ) or SPDR S&P 500 Trust (SPY ) grind through big trend days, but safer exits are easier to find due to low spreads and the tendency for two-sided action, even when bulls or bears are in firm control of the tape .

Lower beta (for related reading, refer to: Beta: Gauging Price Fluctuations ) equities offer another good choice when you cannot watch every tick. These stocks grind through smaller price ranges than hot momentum plays and are less likely to trap your position in a loss between lunchtime and your afternoon coffee break. And it is not hard to find these stocks because many Dow Jones Industrial Average components meet this qualification.

Position Sizing

Not crazy about playing old behemoths that barely move during the market day? You can accomplish the same result by lowering position size on hot momentum plays, so they can travel through multiple points and not break the bank. This is more art than science because volatility is a moving target, always shifting from high to low and back again. As a result, it is a good idea to place a 10-day Average True Range (ATR) under the daily chart, looking out for volatility spikes that upset your reward-risk calculations (for related reading, refer to: Calculating Risk and Reward ). You can see how this indicator oscillates between mild and wild on the Yahoo (YHOO ) chart.

Start small if you cannot find the perfect size for your risk tolerance. Buying 100 shares or less of a junior biotech in a roaring uptrend can still book excellent profits while giving you time to consider an exit if the trade goes bad (for related reading, refer to: The Art Of Cutting Your Losses ). In addition, this approach works extremely well with position-building strategies where you add a second or third piece to the trade once the first tranche moves into profit.

Stop Placement

Finally, let’s talk about stop losses (for related reading, refer to: Maximize Profits With Volatility Stops ) and remote trading. Simply stated, placing physical stops are mandatory when you do not watch the markets in real time. It is an uncomfortable reality because you know how these levels get targeted by predatory algos. It is worth remembering the May 2010 flash crash when nearly every sell stop in existence was taken out and shot (for related reading, refer to: Did ETFs Cause The Flash Crash? ). Even so, you are far better off knowing exactly how much money you will lose, if proven wrong on your positions.

Complicating matters, stops often get placed at the wrong prices. The most common error occurs when setting a stop that triggers the loss you are willing to take as opposed to the dynamics of that instrument. In other words, your stop needs to go where you are proven wrong if it gets hit. This may be a few cents or multiple points from where the position is trading on a given day. In turn, this calculation impacts position size because, if the stop goes multiple points lower or higher in a short sale. the size needs to be adjusted downward to compensate for risk.

It is less painful to complete these calculations before entering a new trade than finding out you are in trouble while flipping through data pages between regular work tasks. As a rule, the farther away from the current action you can place a trade and still sleep at night, the more likely the position will eventually profit as long as your strategy is valid.

The Bottom Line

A majority of traders cannot watch every tick because they have real lives away from the financial markets. These remote players need to take specific steps to lower risk and raise the odds that positions may book reliable profits. Adding a few pages of market internals to their smartphones will provide the information they need to judge intraday price action. while controlling risk through position choice, size and stop loss placement will keep their trades safely out of the way of predatory algorithms.