Discipline - ideas to improve it

I doodle little pictures all day and write down numeric notes for exits, entries, pivots, stops and targets.
This really helps me focus, since I am using up my nervous energy.

These doodles I chuck out as I go.
But I do keep a detailed journal of all my trading in the computer for reference.
 
These notes are extremely important, particularly when the trade is the least bit marginal. Then, later, when you ask yourself "what was I thinking?", you'll know.
 
I do all of my scanning the night before, or I should say the morning of. I start scanning around 1am, long after the family goes to sleep, and the phones have stopped ringing. Interestingly enough, I find that its the best time for concentration as well.

I setup a worksheet and all of the information I need (from my scanning) is there. Having this battle plan allows me to focus during the day. When I'm distracted or lose focus, I watch a movie like Patton, review my plan, or start scanning for the next day if it's late enough

After my swings, I look at the stocks in my stable that present daytrading opportunities.
 
i recently created a calendar chart with checkboxes for each day. i check off every time i break my rules. at the end of the day i write down my p/l next to the row of checkboxes. i have begun what seems to be the transfer of conscious decision to follow my rules, to a subconscious decision to follow my rules. quite neat. my subconscious now 'knows' when i'm about to create a checkmark, and causes me to not even think about trading when i shouldn't.

p.s. this also applies to exits as well.
 
Quote from funky:

i recently created a calendar chart with checkboxes for each day. i check off every time i break my rules. at the end of the day i write down my p/l next to the row of checkboxes. i have begun what seems to be the transfer of conscious decision to follow my rules, to a subconscious decision to follow my rules. quite neat. my subconscious now 'knows' when i'm about to create a checkmark, and causes me to not even think about trading when i shouldn't.

p.s. this also applies to exits as well.
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That's a good idea - I shall try that.

:)

Natalie
 
Quote from Gordon Gekko:

i use microsoft outlook. i use the calendar and task features every day. haven't bought a real calendar since.
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What if power sipllies break ???


ttrader
 
I'm a born procrastinator, and I deal with it by scheduling specific time slots for things that need doing e.g.

730-755am Pre-open preparation

755-8am Review list of "trading rules"; meditate to get into right psychological frame of mind for trading.

930am-1130am Trading research

1230-2pm Boring stuff (tax, accounts, bills, opening broker accounts, checking trade statistics, reviewing notes etc)

630pm-730pm Review of days trading, more trading research,

930pm-10pm Check US markets, news, and closing prices, prepare for tomorrow

I find that not only is it useful to have a fixed time to start a task (this makes you get unpleasant things done, rather than putting them off for ages), but it is actually very useful to have a fixed time to STOP a task. This prevents you from getting carried away with something and, next thing you know, wasting 4-5 hours on it. Before I used time slots, I would often put up the blinders and focus all night on some trading issue, but then not implement it the next day, and instead just forget about it - and obviously all my other tasks for the day would not get done. Now I can do 1-2 hours of this, 1-2 hours of that, 1-2 hours of something else, and complete them all much more effectively - this results in a much more harmonious and simple progress in completing tasks and achieving goals.

Having regular daily time slots for your tasks also makes it much easier to achieve big goals by the process of achieving lots of consecutive little goals day in, day out.
 
Quote from ttrader:




Yes, charity helps in this way. It's even better to give charity on a REGULAR basis, then You'll automatically stop any failures. AT every trade You'll think ' No matter how good the trade is going to be I will have to chop off x%'. Trading is VERRRRY exciting, giving charity is endless , so You get some balance ... :cool:


ttrader
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=====
Procrastination in profit taking can pay well in a bull market;
dont recommend procrastination generally with the IRS because of penalty,interest.:cool:

Acrary;
[1]Good read on that Jack Schwager top trader writing things down;
persistant numerical order or alphahbetical order helps me also in checklist ,watch list written in blue or black,& red,green ink.

[2]Gordon g mentioned ''walking around''and his Mom mentioned ''walking around '':) also .Good habits are hard to break also and disciplined walking is free.

[3]Giving REGULARLY ,wisely to selected charity[repeat selected ] helps because the association principle;
same principle as giving Elite trader money for Jack Schwager book.

[33]Lost car keys about 1 year ago;
actually an undisciplined move of putting them in an irregular place.
===
Wisdom by definition includes doing .:cool:
 
Quote from Scientist:


I do the same. I write down a lot of stuff.

However, particularly when I'm really busy, (i.e. scalping) I tend to use an electronic notetaker. At the end of the day, I review all my notes. Listen to what's said, listen to the tone of voice they were said in, which helps enormously with recognizing the mental state during the note as well; fear, greed, lack of discipline, lack of focus, whimsical, relaxed, hasty, indecided - you name it. And you can keep your eyes on the screen.

Then I write these things down as well and my comments regarding them. I find this helps enormously with honest self-examination, since I have no excuse not to take a note.

After all, constant self-evaluation is the most important factor in succeeding in this business. We really must have an edge.

Try the notetaker. Works extremely well! :)


Have a nice Day,
~The Scientist
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Your post caught my interest. What application do you use for the notetaker. I'm assuming some application that you run on your pc that records voice? Does it organize the notes or just maintain a big sound file. This is of interest to me because while I agree with what everyone says about the importance of a journal and I have at least 15 composition books full of notes as well as about 6 binders of annotated charts I do go thru periods where I just don't journalize very well. If things are slow and boring I journal well, fast and stressful.. maybe I skip it. Opposite of what I should be doing.

I wonder if anyone else has developed bad habits during this choppy market of the past year or so. Thru 2001 I was a very disciplined trend trader, then things started to get choppy and I was forced to start taking profits a bit earlier and maybe trimming my stops a bit closer to keep the risk low during the chop. Well that evolved into an issue, now I'm having to battle the bad habits of Fear of loss, taking profits to quick and not giving my stops the full run. I have managed my risk, and rarely have a bad day but more often than I'd like to admit I've taken small wins on days when I should have had really big wins.
 
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