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Ten Common Reasons Traders Lose Discipline And How To Avoid Them.

There is very little that is new in the world of trading psychology but mastering the basics and mastering our mind is essential if we are to develop as highly efficient traders. The following are common discipline issues and suggestions to counteract them. Discipline is needed if you are to succeed as a Forex trader
1. Boredom and a need to trade for the “buzz”
Try to use dead time between trades for things like self improvement training i.e. read a book by your favorite personal development guru or learn to meditate/practice Yoga! Anything that keeps you in the right frame of mind for the job of trading. A positive mindset will have a positive impact on your bottom line over time.
2. Trading when tired.
One of the great things about trading is that we can close for business whenever we want. If you are not in the correct mindset for trading then shut the shop! There will be no customers banging on the door shouting for you to open up.
3. Not taking a loss well and revenge trading (more…)

Bill Lipschutz Quotes

 

 Sultan of Currencies in the New Market Wizards and at the time Salomon Brothers largest and most successful forex trader for 8 years. 

 

”Missing an opportunity is as bad as being on the wrong side of a trade. Some people say (after they have the opportunity to realize a profit) ‘I was only playing with the market’s money’. That’s the most ridiculous thing I ever heard.”

”When you’re in a losing streak, your ability to properly assimilate and analyze information starts to become distorted because of the impairment of the confidence factor, which is a by-product of a losing streak. You have to work very hard to restore that confidence, and cutting back trading size helps achieve that goal.”
”I don’t have a problem letting my profits run, which many traders do. You have to be able to let your profits run. I don’t think you can consistently be a winner trading if you’re banking on being right more than 50 percent of the time. You have to figure out how to make money by being right only 20 to 30 percent of the time.”
”Successful traders constantly ask themselves: What am I doing right? What am I doing wrong? How can I do what I am doing better? How can I get more information? Courage is a quality important to excel as a trader. It’s not enough to simply have the insight to see something apart from the rest of the crowd, you also need to have the courage to act on it and stay with it.”
”It’s very difficult to be different from the rest of the crowd the majority of the time, which by definition is what you’re doing if you’re a successful trader.”
”So many people want the positive rewards of being a successful trader without being willing to go through the commitment and pain. And there’s a lot of pain.”
”Avoid the temptation of wanting to be completely right.”  

Six steps for Traders

  • Define the question
  • gather information and resources
  • form hypothesis
  • perform experiment and collect data
  • analyze data
  • interpret data and draw conclusions that serve as a starting point for a new hypothesis.

1. Define the question: What is it exactly that you are trying to achieve? Are you shooting for high returns with high risk, long term gains with minimal risk, day trading, swing trading, position trading? Are you trying to make enough money to buy a new car or enough to buy a yacht? First define what it is that you want out of your trading!

2. Gather information and resources: What will be the best route to achieve your trading goals? Are you going to be a stock trader, a futures trader, a forex trader? Maybe everything? Doing the necessary research and taking the time to really get to know your market/markets is absolutely key to successful trading. Some people make great futures traders but horrible stock traders and vice-versa, while others are able to dabble in a little bit of everything and be successful. One way to see what fits you best is to try trading a little bit of everything and see where you feel the most comfortable. Start with small accounts and see what fit is a good one for you.

3. Form hypothesis: This is the fun part and where you get to design your “system” or “rules” by which to trade. Does your trading hypothesis revolve around chart patterns, trendlines, support and resistance, or are you more of a numbers kind of person that trades strictly off price? Do you use indicators? Maybe you are a programmer that has developed an algorithm. Whatever it is I believe it is important to form a hypothesis and then… (more…)