Tactics to Become a More Patient and Disciplined Trader

[KeLo]

Generally a good article IMO. I get what he means. He is a longer time frame trader - hence turning off his platform some days. It is not my style, but I get it.

re: checklists
See "The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right" (book)

from a review:
Already, a simple surgical checklist from the World Health Organization designed by following the ideas described here has been adopted in more than twenty countries as a standard for care and has been heralded as “the biggest clinical invention in thirty years” (The Independent).

For me, checklists are better automated.

 

[Ayn Rand]

I think what you are really trying to say is I want to be a day trader, how do I do it?

I use TD Ameritrade. It lets you paper trade. I have never done that so I do not know how it works. However, I recommend you finding something that lets you paper trade and do that lots and lots.

Where is the big money?? I actually know and may, want, maybe not, ok I will, tell you.

If you get into day trading or swing trading the big money is in when or when not to hold overnight. If you can get a clue on that you are THERE.

For you - Wait at least a year to hold overnight.

 

[Backtester451]

Don't make trades that take your patience into the red. If you are impatient trading you are impatient at other things in life. Work on making yourself patient in life and the trades will get longer.

 

[murray t turtle]

Yes, perhaps the title for #10 could be better. These are all taken from personal experience and in the context of being a longer term position & swing trader (the article itself provides more context too). By "just keep on trading", what I mean is not to become less disciplined and over-trade. Basically, over time, trading has become more natural and I've become less jittery with entries and exits, and experience & screen time helps me skip sub-par trades.

For #1, my preference is to use stop-limit orders for entry, but with some leeway to not miss the move. Or, I'll sometimes enter a position mid-day or towards to the close with one of Interactive Broker's "IBALGO" order types to try to improve vs a plain market order. I definitely like the "don't quibble over a quarter" quote; this definitely makes sense for IBD-style trading, where the primary timeframe is daily/weekly, and there's more margin for error with entries.

I hope the above provides some clarification. Thanks for the feedback.

%%
8 out of 10=80%,

 

[Handle123]

wow where to even begin on this topic? myself i focus on pre-market hour and up to pre-lunch hour, thinking surely i can focus for 4 hours. yet i still have to set alerts, electric shock device, loud noises like babies crying and telephone ringing etc. i want some adderall so bad but then i would own the world and that would be no fun.

Somewhere in there I drink 8 cups of coffee, 30 minutes of leg exercises and keep thinking are we done with 3 hours of the session? Pleaseeeeee the clock must be broken !!!! Watching little sticks goes by, waiting for one of ?? patterns to see if this works in real time to be added for programming.

Body hurts too much to swear playing golf, dog now hides when I am searching for his leash-had to call a cab when we reached 5 miles-can't carry German Shepard back. How many reruns of Gunsmoke can one watch? So I trade.

 

[sroehling]

This is all a joke right ? Or is this a troll post aimed at dumbing down our IQ ?

#1, Fast moving action right at the open, market orders are a must.
#2 not all of us trade stocks
#3 How is logging out of our trading platform during market hours going to help with discipline if we need that platform to make trades ?????
#4 Honestly, I think #4 makes u less disciplined. One account per asset class if anything.
#5 Makes u less disciplined.
#6 Lots of entry signals, again, less disciplined if your plan isn't ironclad
#7 How does this involve discipline ?
#9 How does this help discipline ?
#10 Again, how is this discipline ?

The article itself provides a lot more context for each one in my list. I also appreciate these come from personal experience and may not be suitable to different traders' style and temperament. For example, on #7, here's an excerpt from what I wrote in the article:

How does backtesting help with more patient and disciplined trading? When going into, or planning an exit from a position, having some statistics to back up trading decisions adds more confidence, composure, and patience. For example, if backtesting determined that a trailing stop yields the best performance, a trader will be less inclined to become impatient and exit early because of an individual position’s fluctuations. In general, backtesting promotes thinking in terms of statistics and probabilities rather than individual trades; in other words, trading more like a business person than a speculative gambler.​

 

[murray t turtle]

Somewhere in there I drink 8 cups of coffee, 30 minutes of leg exercises and keep thinking are we done with 3 hours of the session? Pleaseeeeee the clock must be broken !!!! Watching little sticks goes by, waiting for one of ?? patterns to see if this works in real time to be added for programming.

Body hurts too much to swear playing golf, dog now hides when I am searching for his leash-had to call a cab when we reached 5 miles-can't carry German Shepard back. How many reruns of Gunsmoke can one watch? So I trade.

%% Love coffee;
8 cups is to much/big for me.LOL-LOL, 5 miles; @ 2.5 mph, good 2 hour walk

 

[smallfil]

Buy and Hold is pretty much like Warren Buffett, buy the stock and hold onto it. Check back in 25 years and see how you have done. Position trading, you have rules, probably, stop losses on where to get out when hit. Although, longer term trading, you will be taking profits somewhere along the way. Not in 25 years but, probably, when your stop losses are hit. Then, re-enter at lower risk points to ride the trend higher yet, again. Position trading can work provided you have set rules on when to enter, when to exit and take profits and then, when to re-enter again.

 

[sroehling]

Don't make trades that take your patience into the red. If you are impatient trading you are impatient at other things in life. Work on making yourself patient in life and the trades will get longer.

This is a thought-provoking response. What I've experienced is if my position sizes are too large, my patience go into the red. Dialing back individual position sizes allows me to sit through the normal volatility/fluctuations and stick to my trading plan. In effect, I'm able to develop a "healthy level of indifference" to individual positions, such that I'm not constantly watching price action and thinking about overriding my trading plan.

 

[Ayn Rand]

Truth - No one can give you any advice unless we know what you are trading and scale.