I think in terms I take advantage of those who are without discipline as most of my signals are based on retail emotionally trading. Machines don't make often mistakes, they do as they are programmed. I know stats well of all my signals, I know more than most of those I compete against and yet I often think I compete against myself. What happens outside the doors of my office which is anywhere my laptops are, I have little control as when you factor in other people, you have little control, but how I work risk is disciplined. We all have different ways to trade as we do, but if you keep in mind that this is a business first and not a hobby, you have a better opportunity to do well.
I think the result of discipline can be a two edged sword. The main benefit is to free some aspects of life from decision, thereby leaving more mental space for contemplation. However, like anything taken to an extreme, it can become just another way to relegate everything to discipline just to free yourself from having to make a decision. But somewhere in between, just something simple like no meat on Friday can provide some stability to a person who has no discipline imposed on him anymore by job and family.
Yeah thanks for replying again. Like I said it has been a while since I started the thread and was questioning introducing self imposed discipline. After writing about it again it looks to me like the one thing I hope for as a result of discipline is nothing more than stability. After I blew up, I worked nine years in my own business no vacation only the 7 mkt holidays off. Talk about stability! I had stability coming out of my.... Hard to believe anybody would want any of that. And with stability comes responsibility. But I was very free when I was young yet very disciplined, and those are the days I want to revisit. But the discipline back then just kept me out of trouble and it was so severe most of the time you weren't really allowed to do anything. So that left a lot of time to just sit quietly. The paradox for me is something like music which has it's own discipline which I love, but nobody myself included can ever impose any kind of external discipline in that private part of my life because I love the music and have seen and heard the destruction misplaced discipline can wreak. For instance, I can practice the same scale over and over days or weeks or a lifetime, but nobody even myself can make me play it. So maybe discipline sets up a safe house for what I love in that as long as eveything else mundane is disciplined I can protect what I love from it's severity?
Judge not that you be not judged, and if you go that route then you have to judge what in your life is mundane and should be disciplined and what in your life is free and should never be disciplined. It gets complicated.
It's a good thread, ET. I'm tired and I know I have something to add, but not now. Two days getting ready to go on the road again. The grass was calling, it had to be mowed. The food had to be cooked, cause fast food sucks. And meanwhile the currencies are moving all over, with earthquakes and full moons coming.
Discipline embodies two concepts; responsibility and focus. Discipline is not complicated. But it does take effort and energy to execute. Discipline is being responsible to do WHAT you are supposed to do, HOW you are supposed to do it, and WHEN you are supposed to do it and pay ATTENTION to detail. Now apply that to trading or any other endeavour in life. You can even be disciplined to not be disciplined!
yeah, trading is no problem, I've been trading the same way for years and nobody or nothing can change that. But the rest of my life was totally free, no responsibility, no discipline. I set up an aquarium and out of respect for the fish started performing daily maintenence at the same times each day. This is growing season so the outdoor plants need some regular attention, even if it is just to go out and look at them. I started writing a grocery list and add to it anytime I remember something I need to get next time. That was the hardest because it is so easy to postpone getting up from the computer and going into the room where my desk is and adding one item to my used envelope that I keep my list on. All these things have started to give my life some structure to revolve around. As a musician I like to jam, but jamming is only so good for so long and then it needs some structure. The trick is not getting captured inside the structure.
You like music. I have a question for you. Who's a better pianist, Mozart or Jerry Lee Lewis? Have you ever heard of the band Tool? Not my cup of tea, but they have very unique time signatures. 6, 6 1/2. The syllables from line to line in their lyrics have been decidedly analyzed as a Fibonacci arrangement of numbers. I'm sure they didn't plan this, it just happened. They just played what they felt. And yet they have won three Grammys and have sold out arenas the world over. You said: " The trick is not getting captured inside the structure". You have the answer. Its Jerry Lee. He made the world dance.
I would say that discipline means different things to different people. It's almost a second hand thing, as it seems to embody other states of mind and practices. For this trader, discipline can mean waiting. It's really the one thing I can point to that separates how I look at the markets now vs before. And before was not a pleasant place to be, because I was always trying to make something out of nothing. My central question to myself is always"Is there a trend here and is one side being forced to do something." There are other questions which arise from that, such as time frame. So I've begun to see the concept of discipline as secondary to the market. Being in flow with the market is easier than discipline. So I guess I see it as something you need if you can't get in the flow. But I think that has a lot more to do with the world around us and how we are conditioned to think habitually in certain ways. The practice of mindfulness or meditation certainly helps.