Monee:
First, a quick comment on limit orders. Yes, I always use limit orders...but I don't mean to imply that I put an order in away from the market, then walk away from the screen.
Let's say the trend is up. I like to buy reactions against that trend. So the ES is moving down, and the selling starts to get a little carried away, and for one reason or another I believe that I should buy, I enter my order. Usually I enter the order close to where it's trading...but I may enter on the bid side of the quote, or perhaps just under a low if we're near one...something like that. I'm not placing order way away from the market....I don't enter an order until I see something that makes me want to buy or sell.
As it pertains to discipline, we all have our lapses. I still have them even after all these years....I think it's human! LOL. But I've gotten better over the years than I was at one time.
As crazy as it probably sounds, one of the things that was a big help to me was learning how to meditate. I learned a little on how to quiet my mind....perhaps a little about how to stand outside myself and observe myself.
At one time I did what you have mentioned...I walked away from the screen. But I really in the end didn't like that way very well...I mean there might be something that comes up.
So instead, eventually I had to grasp both intellectually and emotionally that the route to bigger money was to sit. That the market was a little like a bucking bronco....it would do everything within it's power to get you out, make you believe the move was ending. And your job was to sit, observe, observe the market, observe your own reaction to the market.
Observing yourself creates some perspective....you might think, there I go again, being fearful that I'm going to lose....I wonder why I still feel that sense of scarcity. There I go again, wanting to jump out just because it went up, just because everyone is now buying what I own. Last time I felt this sense of impatience I left a whole lot of money on the table.
It's all a psychological game I guess is what I'm saying. Meditation has helped me quiet my mind, become more focused, allowed me to watch myself instead of reacting quite so quickly.
It also helps if you're trading in alignment with the underlying trend...because the trend is a silent ally...it helps you. And I know that you know that because you don't make 20 points usually without being with the trend. If you're with the trend, it takes a while to reverse...it doesn't reverse on a dime....react, yes...reverse, no.
But just know that maintaining emotional discipline is a big part of the game...that you're human, so you'll probably screw it up at times...I do. But it gets better with time. Try meditation. I originally learned from a book called the "3 Minute Meditator" or something like that. Simple book, with lots of techniques.
OldTrader
But the flipside is this, for the overwhelming majority of people who have no interest (or stomach) in making hundreds of millions, if you can consistently take a paltry 3 pts average out of the ES on a daily basis, and can bring yourself to trade a meager 3 contracts, that comes out to $112,500 per year (minus commissions). Not pocket change, better than many professions, and enough to live quite well in most places. So there's no point in taking the black 'n white view that either you should be trading like Soros or you shouldn't be trading.
