Discipline in your trading

[mumuy]

Hi, I've been trading for about two years now, and still my biggest problem in trading its the fact that I always forget my trading plans and always overtrade. Even though I know the different kinds of technical indicators, I still fail my trading due to lack of discipline.

Its really hard to stick to your trading plan because its hard to have discipline, I think this is the hardest thing to do.

 

[BlindFA]

It is very hard and one of the main problem for newbies. You will hopefully learn to overcome this and not lose too much money in the process. Unfortunately some people never do over come it and end up losing a lot before finally giving up.

The best thing I did to fight this was "punish" myself when i didnt follow my plan. If i didnt follow a rule, i would punish myself by having to trade 1 week on a demo account. Stuff like this.

Best of luck

 

[Fxpipper]

Believe me, discipline is an issue that even experienced traders face on a daily basis. It's not that easy to control and let's face it, there are those times when we just let our emotions get in the way.
But here's a tip, try using a thought exercises, for one it should allow you to focus and for another, it should help with the discipline..

 

[Rob Taylor]

Its a lot easier to control your discipline if you know how to trade. My view is that traders that are having trouble controlling this aspect of their trading are not really confident in what they are doing, and they do not understand the markets to the level that is needed to bank pips week in week out. When you have a complete understanding of the markets you don't really have to worry about discipline.

 

[hayseed]

exercises

But here's a tip, try using a thought exercises, for one it should allow you to focus and for another, it should help with the discipline..

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hey fxpipper..... what are thought exercises ....h

 

[Easy Trader]

Its only tough when you haven't found something that works yet. When you know something works its easy to just implement it exactly the way it works.

Take a strategy you would like to try.
Back test it as strictly (and honestly) as you can. Your mind will try to convince you that things are good when you know you have not fully back tested it! Why the mind does this I do not know. You must do the right thing here.
Next forward test it. For me picking a timeframe has always been better that a certain count of trades. Your mind again is going to down play this length of time. Why it does this again, I do not profess to know. But somewhere in there you know what that timeframe should really be....do the right thing!
Money management and the system themselves should not be altered in any way not even entry times. Establish this criteria first. Back test over and over til you find something worth forward testing. Rinse and repeat until you find something that is profitable.....Trade the system live with a small account, if you have 3 consecutive negative months go back to demo. This may take a long time and a lot of faith. I have no clue as to why this indifference of mankind to himself exists in our minds, but it does. If you can not recognize this indifference and do the right thing when it comes to testing these trading methods out you will NEVER find what it is you came looking for, unless you know someone personally who has a very long history of profitability. best of luck

 

[Fxpipper]

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hey fxpipper..... what are thought exercises ....h

Simple, think happy thoughts and the rest happens..just kidding.
But here are a few links, just to get you started
http://www.mentalmorsels.com/thoughtexercise.html

Granted the above link is a tad corny but here's a better one..
http://www.psionicsonline.net/mental-discipline-blank-mind-exercise
And some of it, really helps you to focus and it does work, at least, it did for me.

 

[hayseed]

thoughts

hey fxpipper.... thanks..... I had googled thought exercises and quite a few links returned including your first one above about student life.....

your second link looks very interesting..... will look it over today..... thanks.....h

 

[Fxpipper]

No problem, glad to have been of help and yeah, the first one is kind of a doozy, has good content but still, the layout sucks ..
However, the second one is really good, and has helped me focus on the trades and build up the discipline I needed,

 

[michael77]

I would like to give you some advice, just follow those and see the result:

1. First of all don't be greedy.
2. Don't be emotional
3. Don't trade on false assumption.
4. Follow strong money management.
5. Follow trading strategy.
6. Don't trade without analyze the market.

 

[nalu]

Being discipline and keeping strictly to plan is very difficult because the forex market movement is not stable , the trend can easily change and so you need to have a plan that works for you to adhere strictly to it.

 

[toretton]

Its easy to say just follow the rules nd evrth will work for u. Discipline is an important question but its all about u, about ur own attitude.

 

[fxapex]

Its one of the main aspect of trading that every trader has to take care of, and most the successful traders posses this quality.

 

[triplet]

Discipline is indeed an essential in forex trading but most time trader find it difficult to be discipline because in forex market is unpredictable so there are always chances that you might see what you did not expect.

 

[ramizjilani]

Your issue is also an issue of most of the experienced Forex Traders. They also over trade sometimes. Planning is important and reviewing the plan is even more important.

 

[Karissa Graham]

Discipline is necessary in every business. Thus, Forex is a Business so obviously traders have to be well disciplined in order to bring profits from Forex trading. Otherwise, we will be a loser here

 

[alexflemj]

Speaking of discipline - do you have a strict number of trades per day or its a matter of adapting your rules according to the specific situation?