Traders -Ways to Increase Willpower

  • Plan in advance and operate on the basis of habit
    • You need to have a trading plan that covers all permutations that the market can possibly throw at you. You need less willpower to follow a clearly defined plan than to try adhering to broad principles in reaction to the market.
    • Keep practicing applying your trading plan, so that you can make following the rules a habit. It is like driving, the more you do the less effort it requires progressively.
  • Motivate yourself, remind yourself of the importance of what you are doing
    • You need to remind yourself of the importance of achieving good trading results, of the importance of not throwing your hard-earned money away.
    • Use visualization techniques to picture situations where you follow your trading plan successfully. Thinking that you have lots of willpower actually makes it so.
    • Think of some trader you admire that have lots of self-control and unfazed by market movements (e.g. Ed Seykota)
  • Exercise your willpower
    • Willpower is like a muscle, the more you exert your willpower in whatever tasks, the greater your capacity for self-control.
    • You can get yourself to follow rules such as sitting up straight, opening doors with your left hand, etc.
  • Have sufficient food
    • Exercising willpower uses up glucose. Being hungry means you don’t have the energy to exert willpower.
  • Have sufficient rest
    • You can replenish your ‘willpower’ stores through sleep. Get sufficient sleep every day.