I remember reading a quote a long time ago "Never speculate for a specific need." I have found on a winning streak my entry,exit and stop rules are never broken.Once the winning streak trend becomes old then an occasional violation of a rule occurs. Then a loosing day happens with a few trades that are gambles. Sanity then returns and following the rules resumes. These discipline lapses are a like a monthly payment for something I don't own. Have noticed when there is a specific financial need it is tougher to stick to discipline and when there is no financial need it is much easier to stick to discipline.When other sources of income are doing well I never break the rules when they are doing poorly that is also when the discpline lapses start. Sort of like, I'm not hungry for the money this is one of my setups here's my stop here's my entry and it works. It is true that once you have reached a certain level in trading the real improvement in the bottom line is going to come from mastering the mental aspect of the game. Posted this to here other peoples ideas on the subject.
Yep....the things you mentioned are part of a zillion different reasons why we fail or succeed. Those pesky little demons seem to haunt us every time we go to pull the trigger. It would be nice if we just had an exorcism just for Traders. You know...while you are sitting there in your trading chair and your rising up in the air and your head is twisting completely around....a priest comes in and splatters holy water all over the place, smacks you upside the head and say .....BE GONE!!!!!!!..... and presto you start to make sound trading decisions all of a sudden. I guess I am asking for to much....huh?
Here's a friendly suggestion for any trader who has trouble following his own rules: any time you break a rule, no matter how small, force yourself to not trade for three days. It is fine to change the rules as you grow and your method changes/evolves- but after the fact or before the fact, NEVER mid trade. If you make it more painful to break a rule than to stick with your rules, it will be easier not to shoot yourself in the foot.
monee, I could not agree with you more! My awareness of the importance of discipline has only surfaced over the last few months after I realized that I had sufficient technical skills to trade effectively but wasn't maintaining my discipline day in and day out. When I follow my rules, bang, I'll have a great day or great week, but when I don't, it's hell. The funny thing is, for the longest time I would know when things weren't right but I wouldn't take an appropriate action and I'd regret it in the end. Now my goal is to work on maintaining my discipline every day (while of course fine tuning my technical skills). From my monitors hang Post-its with messages I've written to myself to serve as constant reminders of improvements I need to make and disciplines I need to keep. And they will stay there until these things I need to work on become second nature. For now though I need to force myself to stay on course. Good Luck.
Monee, Just trying to lighten you up bud ( my previous reply). On the serious side though, its hard to say where you are breaking down. But, here is my guess: Your not firing in your stop loss immediately after you enter the market. Am I right or wrong?
you're right, i'm being too serious about it. who gives a rip about maintaining discipline, its all fun and games anyway right? not like you're trying to run a business or make a living or anything. hey wait a minute...
Darkhorse -- interesting post agree 100 % about new strategies on the fly.... not the way to go. Sallyboy-- I'm with you.To be successful in my opinion, contrary to what has been written about the subject, you should not have any daily/monthly financial goals.Having a goal to follow your rules consistently will produce the money. Vinigar-- My stop loss is always entered in a mechanical like fashion after placing the order.The lapses in discipline occur from fudging the entry criteria.