Pushing Yourself To Work Harder

M

Money Trust

As we all know, trading is hard work and usually requires years of pragmatic experience to do well...and even then, success still isn't guaranteed. With that being said, here's my story: Currently, I'm a swing trader. I hold futures contracts for a couple days to a week during any given trade. Every now and then, I scalp the market intraday as well. My system is highly technical, while at the same time, I pay attention to the fundamentals.

Now here's my dilemma: The only time I find myself analyzing the markets or the economy is when I feel like putting on a trade, which may be every other week. I'm not satisfied w/ that habit in myself. I'd like to be a person who eats, sleeps, breathes the markets. I'd like to be that kind of person who's up at 4 in the morning trading currencies and commodities. But I'm having a hard time pushing myself to be that person...as bad as I want to be. BTW, I am profitable but I know I can do a lot better. In a way, I actually feel lazy, especially in comparison to traders I've come across who ARE the type of traders I'm looking to be. I guess you can say I want that 16-20 hour a day work ethic.

One can easily say that you must love trading to be the type of trader I'm discussing. But my love for trading is undeniable. It's all I talk and think about...but its the DOING that I'm having a hard time with.

I'm a skilled guy in terms of psychology but my biggest hurdle in psychology is applying it to myself. I'd like to know if anyone has faced a similar dilemma as myself and if so, how'd you overcome it? Or, if anyone can offer any helpful advice, it'd be greatly appreciated.
 
Quote from STC Capital:

As we all know, trading is hard work and usually requires years of pragmatic experience to do well...and even then, success still isn't guaranteed. With that being said, here's my story: Currently, I'm a swing trader. I hold futures contracts for a couple days to a week during any given trade. Every now and then, I scalp the market intraday as well. My system is highly technical, while at the same time, I pay attention to the fundamentals.

Now here's my dilemma: The only time I find myself analyzing the markets or the economy is when I feel like putting on a trade, which may be every other week. I'm not satisfied w/ that habit in myself. I'd like to be a person who eats, sleeps, breathes the markets. I'd like to be that kind of person who's up at 4 in the morning trading currencies and commodities. But I'm having a hard time pushing myself to be that person...as bad as I want to be. BTW, I am profitable but I know I can do a lot better. In a way, I actually feel lazy, especially in comparison to traders I've come across who ARE the type of traders I'm looking to be. I guess you can say I want that 16-20 hour a day work ethic.

One can easily say that you must love trading to be the type of trader I'm discussing. But my love for trading is undeniable. It's all I talk and think about...but its the DOING that I'm having a hard time with.

I'm a skilled guy in terms of psychology but my biggest hurdle in psychology is applying it to myself. I'd like to know if anyone has faced a similar dilemma as myself and if so, how'd you overcome it? Or, if anyone can offer any helpful advice, it'd be greatly appreciated.
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From personal experience my results are better the LESS time I spend thinking about the market. I think there is a great risk of over analysis, and micro managing trades.
 
Quote from STC Capital:

I'd like to know if anyone has faced a similar dilemma as myself and if so, how'd you overcome it? Or, if anyone can offer any helpful advice, it'd be greatly appreciated.
More...

I face a similar problem. I spend around 13-14 hours per day doing things related to trading. Sometimes for days and days I only code strategies and then trade during RTH. On many other days, I only think about ideas. Many days I just spend time reading ET. If I have to take an average, my time gets spent like this:
  • ET reading and replying - 4hrs
  • Reading general news (politics etc.) - 2hrs
  • Trading - 3 hrs
  • Coding/Researching strategies - 1 hrs
  • Planning/Dreaming/making realistic/ unrealistic future plans- 1 hr
  • Some other cool stuff that I do - 2hrs
    Total - 13hrs per day
I am confident that instead of above, if I spend my time like below - my productivity, PL, trading and software skills, etc. will increase much faster.
  • ET Reading and replying - 1hrs
  • Reading general news (politics etc.) - 1hr
  • Trading - 4hrs
  • Coding/Researching strategies - 4 hrs
  • Planning/Dreaming/making realistic/ unrealistic future plans- 1 hr
  • Some other cool stuff that I do - 2hrs
    Total - 13hrs per day
If you carefully compare, just making these small changes, will increase the real work that I do by a factor of 2x. I consider my real work to be Trading and Coding/Researching strategies. So, from spending 4 hrs per day on these 2 things, I would be spending 8 hrs per day on these 2 things.

Your takeaway - Analyse thouself. You have made a good start by identifying a problem and asking about it here.

1) Now, do a break-down of your daily routine, cut all the unessential tasks, increase time spent on essential tasks

2) Involve someone else (your friend, wife, girlfriend, your child, neighbour, coworker whoever) and share your earlier and new plans on how you are going to spend your daily time.

3) It becomes infinitely more easy to stick to resolutions and make personal changes when you are working on achieving it with someone instead of working it all alone. This person who you involve with yourself, should spend at least couple of hours everyday with you for first few months, working on modifying your daily usage of time.

Btw, thanks for asking this question. Replying to you, I just did a personal analysis. I am surely going to improve. This has been one instance when I learnt something about myself while trying to offer good advise to someone else. :)
 
Quote from STC Capital:

As we all know, trading is hard work and usually requires years of pragmatic experience to do well...and even then, success still isn't guaranteed. With that being said, here's my story: Currently, I'm a swing trader. I hold futures contracts for a couple days to a week during any given trade. Every now and then, I scalp the market intraday as well. My system is highly technical, while at the same time, I pay attention to the fundamentals.

Now here's my dilemma: The only time I find myself analyzing the markets or the economy is when I feel like putting on a trade, which may be every other week. I'm not satisfied w/ that habit in myself. I'd like to be a person who eats, sleeps, breathes the markets. I'd like to be that kind of person who's up at 4 in the morning trading currencies and commodities. But I'm having a hard time pushing myself to be that person...as bad as I want to be. BTW, I am profitable but I know I can do a lot better. In a way, I actually feel lazy, especially in comparison to traders I've come across who ARE the type of traders I'm looking to be. I guess you can say I want that 16-20 hour a day work ethic.

One can easily say that you must love trading to be the type of trader I'm discussing. But my love for trading is undeniable. It's all I talk and think about...but its the DOING that I'm having a hard time with.

I'm a skilled guy in terms of psychology but my biggest hurdle in psychology is applying it to myself. I'd like to know if anyone has faced a similar dilemma as myself and if so, how'd you overcome it? Or, if anyone can offer any helpful advice, it'd be greatly appreciated.
More...

Every battle is won before it's ever fought.

What does that sentence mean to you?
 
Quote from Ripley:

Every battle is won before it's ever fought.

What does that sentence mean to you?
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To me? It would mean that you're so confident in a thing that you can see the conclusion before it actually happens.
 
Quote from STC Capital:

To me? It would mean that you're so confident in a thing that you can see the conclusion before it actually happens.
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That's elementary definition of it.

To be confident in an outcome (in a world where nothing is ever 100% certain) you must have the requisite knowledge. But, there is more to it. You need a certain type of knowledge.

What kind of knowledge would you need to win?
 
The BAD news is you posted here looking for help....this speaks volumes for confidence. if you are even remotely lost, you are DOA. you are risking your entire financial safety on responses by clowns (me included)......why? credibility only based on words? impossible.

news is worthless....if you think you get it first, you don't. so never look at it. completely worthless....

fundamentals....if swing trader, with limited capital....ok, get bullish buy the dips 3-4 times, be wrong....and what capital are you left with? we need more information.....I said it before...if you love a company and really believe in the fundamentals...bet it all on the one stock. oh, a book says don't do it? lol....whatever. if you are risking over 100k.....a little different.

working "harder" is an excuse to fail. I've had friends make 500k in their jobs by working maybe 10 hours a week....and others making 30k a year by working all the time.....forget all those dumb metrics.....

I LOVE football soo much.....I watch it all the time, play fantasy football 24/7, and I know everyone's numbers....see how dumb this sounds??

no answers here.......which is your answer.
 
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