About time I got in this thread to back Aphie to a certain extent.
Let me just clear you up that I talk in different shoes. One from my current shoes and another from the shoes of others. I think some of you noticed that with the other threads but I just want to be clear with that. So from now on, I think I'll starting writing from elaboration of me, and another from the other's shoe.
1. Me. Psycho-babble... very important. I'm a system trader. I trade a lot of symbols. If I cared about each trade winning or losing, I'll be dead in 2 days. I look at trades in chunks of trade, like 50 for me. That's psychobabble... I'm doing the same thing which is trading a signal but because the way I look at it is different I can sustain the trading style as long as I feel there's an edge. I also have the time to post in ET, even during market hours.
2. Aphie's shoe seen from me. Good post. I say this a lot, there are steps. You don't teach a kindergarden kids Quants, you start from 1+1=2. Trading is mirror? Correct in any state of trading. If you have passion, you'll work hard for it. Passion leads to motivation and you're going to be working hard. You won't quit and you'll fight for your passion. If the person had passion, they wouldn't need or seek for mentors to start off with... or... they would seek it but that won't stop them from doing something to get better. Reading(study), papertrading, researching, going to seminars, networking... etc. etc.
Later on, it comes to your perception logic and your deep thinking process. Which comes from single or multiple base beliefs or traumatic instincts. You need to recognize that, because these will definitely reflect your trading decisions. You think in a way that makes you lose = the way you think(Thought Logic and Process) or what you instinctively, traumatically, or base beliefishly is causing it to make you make losing trades.
3. TraderKay. Discipline? Yes and no. Why yes? Once you start following a edging system. You'll definitely get into a losing streak. You'll have the urge to change the system. Another is you won't be able to duplicate the back-tested results. Some reasons will be slippage but also the fact that you're the one trading it. Knowing that, discipline is important, but if you know your system well enough, knowledge can let you confirm the discipline.
Why no? Discipline is not the only key. At some point, the system will not work. You'll start losing when the system should work. Was I overfitting the system? No, it's just that the market is changing. When do you change it? I've changed my system 5-6 times, all of them with completely different concepts. Is this discipline? I'm discretionarily, changed the system. Well, I knew my system well enough so once the system started lag on performance when they should have worked(very scary expression, "It should work, why doesn't it?!!". I start looking at other concepts. Fortunately, I'm very good at Equity Curve Analysis and a few other things so I can do it well.
Anyways, system trading isn't just about discipline. You are constantly making a system and thinking of it, testing stuff. You need to expand your knowledge constantly and keep up with the change of the market. It's not an easy style. You do massive amount of work after the market ends, constantly front of the computer and hand-written charts for me.