But that's what we need to do - patience. Strike the best high-probably opportunities, NOT every opportunity.
As a long-time trader, boredom is a problem. Repetition is the cause, like a worker making shoes every day. Trading is no longer exciting to me. Most things are certain. I'm stuck in the middle, going nowhere.
The best answer is to train a no-paid robot assistants to trade markets for me. Who are they? Automated system! My next target!
Yes, that's a problem. Theoretically, I could spot every valuable opportunities when I read the chart. But the reality is I may miss quite a few opportunities for all sort of reasons - boredom, go to toilet, mistakes (eg buy instead of sell), phone call, people and so on. These factors have to be counted when you estimate how much profits you can get in real trading.
If I'm in the market I'll surf slickdeals or fatwallet for stuff I don't need that's on sale, work out, or watch random videos on YouTube. If the market isn't presenting any opportunities, and I'm in cash I try to get away from the screen to avoid the temptation to make a boredom trade. I'll go out for lunch, drop by my parent's place, go swimming, go biking or take a walk in the park.
yes, a very common conundrum, mine is further amplified since I only make 4-6 trades per month, waiting for 2nd sigma events. But I do papertrade analyses on various option spreads constantly and seek to come up with new or refined predictive models. This part I find exciting and look forward to on a daily basis. I go to the bookstore and read books on trading, math, stats, probability. Another great tip is to go to the engineering section and read a book on design of experiments or uncertainty. Using probability, stats, uncertainty via scientific method has yeilded the best results for me as opposed to the popular textbook methods.
I like to watch funny videos in between trades. You'll need to turn up your volume in order to hear what makes this video so funny! http://media.ebaumsworld.com/niceride.wmv