Developing Self-Discipline in Trading

By | April 12, 2016 4:07 pm

Having self-discipline in trading is  the ability to follow through your trading plan effortlessly without getting swayed away by news and views of other traders.

“The path of least resistance is what makes all rivers and some men crooked.”   – Napoleon Hill

Self-discipline is the ability to make the conscious choice (ultimately it becomes a habit) of doing the thing that will move you towards your trading goal – and sometimes it’s the hard or unnatural or unpopular thing to do.

In the trading game, you must have self-discipline. You must look at the entire forest and not focus on one tree.

Trading is a WAR Losing 1-2 Battles does not mean you have lost  a war.

If you get too caught up in each and every trade, you will lose sight of the larger goal.

The key is to care a lot about your overall trading progress, but not care too much about any individual trade.

Your Identity also plays a huge role in this because if you see yourself as someone who lacks self-discipline, then all the will power in the world will not overpower this.  You are someone, in your mind, who lacks self-discipline.

So the key components to have self-discipline in Trading are:

1) Mastering your trading strategy
2) Having a Trading Plan following it effortlessly.
3) Reviewing your trades and tracking and measuring them to assess your performance
4) Making adjustments to improve your performance and results
5) Then repeat steps 3 & 4 over and over again

If you are trading without following your method and plan and making adjustments as you assess your performance, then you are not going to be improving.  If you don’t have a method or plan, then that’s where you need to start.

Remember, anyone can have a period of winning trades, but the key is that you want a dependable, consistent income with a rising equity curve – and in order to do that, you must follow those 5 steps above

2 thoughts on “Developing Self-Discipline in Trading

  1. Ram Nene

    Self Discipline : Follow the rules when nobody is watching.

    For a trader if he doesn’t do the above in one domain of life , it shows up in his trading.
    Become angry or over excited in any point of time , it will show up in trading too..

    Well Bottom line : “Integrity”

    Reply

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