FWIW Sir I punished myself every time I broke a rule, no matter how small the rule - And I punished myself especially hard if I broke a rule and made money Now following the rules is more important than any trade's outcome btw - I don't believe you can learn discipline, I believe you become disciplined by defining and following a set of rules Redneck
Aside from getting burned by not following your rules, I can't think of any. Which is one argument for taking small positions initially (i.e. if you're going to burn yourself, don't get burned too much).
Stupid hurts! Learn that, and the rest is easy, break your rules and you are stupid, i.e. you are gambling.
No rules, it's a slow process of learning by making mistakes and you just wish you will have some money left to trade after you improve yourself. Some people are disciplined by nature though...
Automated my system 100%, and pledged not to manually enter or exit trades by burning the following mantra into my mind: "the system, the whole system, and nothing but the system".
I actually try to be flexible so sometimes I sell low in order to sell higher later and buy high in order to buy lower later as well * this works for me - but there is more to what I am saying here than what appears at first glance *
I'm also automated 100%. I unplug the keyboard from the trading machine and turn off the display during market hours. I do the rest of my work on my development machine. rt
i find losing money is the biggest deterrent. But try and get in the mindset of your job as a trader is just follow the rules. Set a predetermined account value where if breached you will stop and reasses things but until that point you shouldnt even look at your account, or your system just keep taking those trades. Probabilities dont know that you have just had 8 losing trades and are feeling like a nervous wreck, the 9th trade in this sequence is jut as likely to be a big winner as the first trade
After a while if you can't counciously realize that you're about to break your rules before you make the trade then trading isn't for you because you don't have a cautious bone in your body. Following the rules means zero arousal. There are so many traders that fail because in order to trade successfully you need to be cautious. Trading is one of the most uncautious professions there are which of course attracts the uncautious types. I seriously think the majority of traders would rather subcounciously make losing trades while getting a thrill out of it than slowly and boringly making smart trades to make a profit month upon month.