Tactics to Become a More Patient and Disciplined Trader

[murray t turtle]

this is so true i usually carry a piece of paper around with my goals written down. anyone that doesn't believe that this works should really give it a try. i live by a piece of paper and i am so proud that my grand daughter has taken up her pawpaw's habit. i feel like there is such an advantage to making goals a tangible.

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This is so true;
I learned to write as kid. Its just like my banker dad warned me , as a kid, ''son[daughter also] always get it in writing!!'' And Walmart [WMT] tends to really lower the bids/sale on paper notebooks in SEPT. NOT a prediction not a stock tip.,

 

[Ethilaloth]

No one can better teach you how to become more patient or disciplined other than yourself. Its all in the mind, so all you need is som pipsiology class on trading psychology. Discipline and patience are virtues you just decide to possess. If you don't have them in your real life, it wont be any different in your trading life

 

[sroehling]

No one can better teach you how to become more patient or disciplined other than yourself. Its all in the mind, so all you need is som pipsiology class on trading psychology. Discipline and patience are virtues you just decide to possess. If you don't have them in your real life, it wont be any different in your trading life

Including yourself, several people have responded to say getting discipline and patience in your everyday/real life is key. In my own experience, there's definitely some overlap between good disciplines in real life and trading, but other things don't translate too well.

For example, others have talked about writing in a journal. In my opinion, this is something which is very good for both real life and trading.

In my own case, I have an engineering background in real life, which gives me an "engineer's curiosity" to attack a problem from different angles and persevere until I find a solution. This perseverance and trial-and-error helped me not give up on trading.

However, there are other disciplines and habits from real life which don't necessarily translate over too well to trading. For example, people coming from a 9-5 job will expect a steady income from trading, and may see being parked in front of a computer monitor all day long as the best, most disciplined use of their time. In reality, new traders will be very lucky to make a steady income at first. While the workflow of short-term/day-trading may be similar to a 9-5 job, it may not be the best style of trading for many, nor the best use of a their time.

Thanks for the insights. This is good food for thought.

 

[gentlerich]

Have a trading plan,back-test your strategies which helps in strong understanding of trading strategy. Take charge of your actions and apply logic instead of emotions. Learn to analyze the risk and accurate money management plan. Take the help of a mentor or seek the advice of a broker. Don't get discouraged if you make wrong trading decision rather try to understand the reason or you can trade on demo accounts first before going for live trading.

 

[maxinger]

I started trading a few years ago, and I'm primarily a longer-term position trader with stocks. Through trial and error and learning from others, I've adopted numerous tactics to become more patient and disciplined:


To summarize:

1. Avoid using market orders
2. Use alerts to watch stocks for you
3. Log out of your trading platform during market hours
4. Use dedicated accounts for specific strategies
5. Use a smaller experimental account for learning and strategy development
6. Favor systems with lots of entry signals
7. Backtest your strategies (and move towards systems trading)
8. Use smaller position sizes (big one for me)
9. Use checklists to score trades
10. Just keep on trading

For me, there's been no "silver bullet" to become more patient. I've had to work on this from multiple angles. I've also become more patient just by gaining experience and through repetition.

The list above is tailored to my style of trading, but I'd be interested to know if others have some tips, tricks and techniques they've used to become more patient.

None of your ten items talk about MIND management / control .
you cannot do nothing about the mind.

some of your actions are not correct.
At times, you have to use market orders and CHASE AFTER THE MARKET immediately!

 

[peter_pan]

Emotions combine to make traders impatient and undisciplined. Such a trading results in over trading , too much risk , entering or exiting too soon. So, a trader must put in efforts to become patient and disciplined.

• Log out of your trading platforms in between . Unless you are trading you should not spend the whole day in front of the trading platform. Give yourself some time.
  
  
• Experiment a little sometimes. Experiment with your strategy or stocks. But remember to not take huge risks in the course of experiment. Also the frequency of experiments should also be balanced.
  
  
• Use smaller position sizes. It will help you stay more focused and calm.
  
  
• If your portfolio is already full of trades be selective with entries. So choose wisely.
  
  
• Have a trading plan always and take responsibility for your trades. Do not blame destiny every time. Learn from your mistakes.

 

[Sid William]

Find your weaknesses and find the ways to eliminate them. If it is helpful then, develop a diary and write all of your daily trades. See what is going wrong, where is the scope of environment so that mistakes can be avoided.

 

[J_C_Anderson]

I`ve recently heard an interesting idea that it is impossible to be disciplined only in trading. A person could be either disciplined in general, in all aspects of her/his life, or not disciplined at all. That is why anyone who is going to improve trading discipline should start with everyday life.
A lot of traders even having strategy that is profitable itself lose and underperform just due to the lack of discipline. To my mind, if the trader would be disciplined enough to follow rules prescribed by his strategy and execute the plan based on it he would be able to deal with most of the issues caused by emotions, such as greed or fear. For example, emotions could make trader to close profitable position too early or to hold losing position too long, but if he has a detailed trading plan that describes the situations in which he should close the position, he will just have to act in accordance with this plan to be profitable (of course in case if the strategy itself is profitable, but this is entirely another sphere).
Thus, if you are going to become a consistently profitable trader, start working on your discipline.

 

[bd10]

I started trading a few years ago, and I'm primarily a longer-term position trader with stocks. Through trial and error and learning from others, I've adopted numerous tactics to become more patient and disciplined:


To summarize:

1. Avoid using market orders
2. Use alerts to watch stocks for you
3. Log out of your trading platform during market hours
4. Use dedicated accounts for specific strategies
5. Use a smaller experimental account for learning and strategy development
6. Favor systems with lots of entry signals
7. Backtest your strategies (and move towards systems trading)
8. Use smaller position sizes (big one for me)
9. Use checklists to score trades
10. Just keep on trading

For me, there's been no "silver bullet" to become more patient. I've had to work on this from multiple angles. I've also become more patient just by gaining experience and through repetition.

The list above is tailored to my style of trading, but I'd be interested to know if others have some tips, tricks and techniques they've used to become more patient.

I switched from outright to spreads only. Some might say, you can watch paint dry, but they trend. Similar risk profile to slow moving stocks or bonds. That has taught me patience. I am no longer in a rush, I can sit back, watch and wait.