"His studies show that people with the best self-control are the ones who structure their lives so as to conserve willpower...Instead of counting on willpower to remain robust all day, they conserve it so that itâs available for emergencies and important decisions." Great article. I am a somewhat successful discretionary trader but I find it exhausting. I am finally (3 years into this) coming around to the idea that I should set up a detailed trading plan to reduce the amount of decisions I have to make in a day.
The article says that decision making gets worse as the day wears on... I live on the west coast and start trading very early in the morning. I've always considered it a tactical advantage to get up early and focus intensely on trading before dealing with anything else. I don't know how people can trade effectively late in the day. How do they stay focused?
''Afterward, all the participants were given one of the classic tests of self-control: holding your hand in ice water for as long as you can. The impulse is to pull your hand out, so self-discipline is needed to keep the hand underwater. The deciders gave up much faster; they lasted 28 seconds, less than half the 67-second average of the nondeciders. Making all those choices had apparently sapped their willpower, and it wasnât an isolated effect. It was confirmed in other experiments testing students after they went through exercises like choosing courses from the college catalog." hahahaaaa..
Unlike most who attempt to day trade or scalp, I did it completely opposite, perhaps that is why I don't find scalping to be that hard to do profitable. In 1980, I started long term stock investing using home made paper charting, mid 80's I started long term commodity trading, I had all night or weekend to make decisions. I think this is the problem with many who go into day/scalp trading in the beginning. By the time I did my first day trades, I had a handful of years to study Price Action first. Now it is so much harder for the new trader coming into day trading with all the different indicators, charting packages and a thousand books all offering dreams. Everyone wants to get rich tomorrow, but trading is a grind to wealth. Doing the same things day after flipping day, pattern after pattern. But for me going from slow decisions to half second decisions was a stairstep. Any job has nuances, and once one learns them, speed increases tenfold. When you were three, tying your shoes took forever, twenty years later you can do it in the dark.
This post prompts me to recall something really important that I can't believe I'd forgotten. When I was a kid, I heard the great concert violinist Itzhak Perlman warm up backstage before performing the Mendelssohn violin concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. What struck me at the time was how one of the world's great virtuousi warmed up -- by playing the piece he was about to perform at approximately 1/5th the speed he intended to perform it. If you want to master a musical instrument, there is absolutely no substitute for s-l-o-w practice. Thanks for reminding me that the virtues of slow practice are not limited to the musical sphere.
Same here. I was a swing trader before I was a day trader. I had years of experience trading and reading charts before I ever tried day trading.