The Self Discipline Setup

Trading Discipline.  This Post has been working in my mind for some time.  The longer I trade the more important I realize that SELF DISCIPLINE is the most important aspect of trading.  At first glance one may think trading discipline is only maintaining self alertness and strictly following the trade plan.  After considering this for quite some time I have come to realize that Trading Discipline is much more involved and further reaching that I initially conceived.                                                          

In order to be a successful trader one has to be open, ie alert to new developments and new opportunities.  If your mind is clouded by preconceived expectations you will trade your expectations rather than the reality and you will loose almost every time.

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#1 Your 1st DISCIPLINE is the discipline of alertness unhindered by preconceptions and previous results in order to be able to see and recognize trade setups as they materialize.  The failure to see what IS, is the failure of most traders.

#2  Your 2nd DISCIPLINE is sticking to your trade plan which is your trading EDGE.  Strangely, your trade plans are preconceived trading rules that you use to react to the market as you monitor the markets Real Time without preconception.

#3  Maintaining your Physical Edge is your 3rd DISCIPLINE. You need to maintain your health and energy level and well being if you are to continue to be able to trade.  This is seriously true espescially for new traders who may be working a day job, taking care of a family in the morning and evening and trading at night.  While this may seem an almost impossible task I can assure you that it is possible as I have done it.  Get enough exercise to burn off the stress you may accumulate trading and living.  Eat the right foods to maintain a healthy body.  You do this now and you have a good shot at freeing yourself from working for someone else for a living for the rest of your life.

#4  Managing your Time is your 4th DISCIPLINE.  If you are trading, working and raising a family then you need a time discipline that goes well beyond the way that any normal man or woman lives.  You have to be able to operate and thrive with a lot less sleep than most people believe is normally healthily possible.  This is esoteric but I do not know of any other way.  Drugs won’t do it. You can operate and thrive under these conditions if you can allow yourself to learn how to stop your mind in meditation.  15 Minutes of silent mind, no self talk, no internal dialogue meditation is as good as 3 or 4 hours of sleep.  If you let yourself do this then even if your life is time compromised now, you can become a successful trader and trade yourself into a lifestyle that has much more free time.  Learn to meditate and you can give yourself more time if more time is what you need to be able to trade.  I recommend “Getting in the Gap” authored by Wayne Dyer.

Sometimes you may find yourself getting stressed and the only answer is a trading vacation.  Listen to you body. 

#5  Maintaining your flexibility is your 5th DISCIPLINE.  It is self explanatory.  Like the first discipline it is an openness to a changing market and a changing world.  None of us know what is going to happen.  What we do know is that once you learn how to trade this market you can trade any market.  You can make a living anywhere as long as you remain adaptable, open and continue to learn.

#6 Maintaining a balanced self in the world at large is the final DISCIPLINE.  The microcosm reflects the macrocosm.  What you express without reflects what you have within and what you are expressing within your self is reflected in what you have in society at large.  You can lead a balanced successful loving existence or you can live the opposite life style and try to take it all for yourself.  It is your choice.   I can tell you that the first option is a much more endurable, honorable, and enjoyable experience.  A giver is loved.  Giving is loving.  Loving is giving.  Taking is not.  A giver is successful and a taker ultimately is NOT. 

Life is full of choices. How you choose to live is the discipline of a trading living.  It is not as easy as some would indicate, but you can make a great living trading if you are willing to give it time and discipline.

note: The best book I have found on trading psychology is “Trading in the Zone” by Mark Douglas.