Thank you for such a positive feedback, Mark. It turned this way, that I became a trader while being a psychologist and this combo makes me analyze all trading actions and reactions from the point of view of a shrink. So all conclusions are based on real life experience...
Probably meditation and having religious faith are able to cope with fear and greed based emotions (the fundamental emotions of any trader/investor). Especially meditation, which includes visualization of correct trading behaviour, to make it "imprinted" into your subconsciousness. But even without any "mystical" stuff, just a little of self-analysis (to find what thoughts and emotions exactly distract your trading) and decent planning of your every step as a trader can already help. IMO, the best combo would be some homework in the form of NLP and planning plus some practice of exercises specifically designed to develop trading discipline and other qualities of successful investor/trader.
NLP is very interesting.I have tried posting stickers etc on the wall and every in the office .Maybe practising on demo/small live account consistently for a month may help install trading instincts wired to the markets. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdVQng43TUA
There can also be specially designed trading exercises geared towards development of certain self-control skills. Similar to what M. Douglas described in his books, like you take some system and execute 20 trades in a row flawlessly... There can be many professional training exercises like this, even developed personally for a trader, depending on his/her needs, skills and the particular problem.
This site explains it clearly http://www.cmsfx.com/en/forex-educa...damental-factors/central-bank-interest-rates/ http://www.cmsfx.com/en/forex-educa...r-2-fundamental-factors/fundamental-analysis/
It all begins in your mind http://www.amazon.com/Psycho-Cybernetics-New-More-Living-Life/dp/0671700758/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
The day trading and trading mainly during the day is promoted by broker's lure of high volume discounts .Brokers are also sponsoring marketing and propaganda of crappy systems into worthwhile daytrading and swing systems , in order to generate over trading commissions and fees . Out of 46 profitable systems , only 3 systems have been retained and revamped into one system.This one system trades only on dailies with wide stops,it has been improved to produce 50 % per annum return.These improvements will result in overall lower commissions for brokers , less probability of stops being hit due to wide stops and less psychology issues.Following this simple system will eliminate all other problems. The over trading and high commission trading is eliminated.
Brokers of course encourage frequent trading, but aside from that it can still be pretty profitable activity.
This contradicts your own statement.It is very difficult to achieve success from frequent trading, this frequent trading is a 50/50 game in random moves/zone with a negative expectancy after multiple spreads,stop outs,slippages ,spread widening and add human weaknesses making up 80 % of the disadvantages.One is trading frequently with the wind , and blows out frequently. A simple system with 4 to 6 trend trading trades per week can be easily managed by most people. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=218160
Difficult does not mean impossible, so no contradiction here. I day trade as well as trade longer-term for 6 years and know benefits and drawbacks of both approaches well enough... In addition to my own experience I helped a few people to deal with psychological issues of trading (mostly day trading), so there is some information available on the matter too...