This is trading discipline

BellaBella Daily Update

A junior trader at the firm has found trading discipline.  Do you agree?  He wrote:

Overall thoughts: Implementing a new rule today of sitting on my hands until 10am. It felt pretty strange missing out on the action on the open especially on ROKU, but I made this new rule for a greater purpose because I am a disciplined trader now. It ended up working out quite well – I had my biggest day from the past few months all because I simply stayed patient on the open and waited for the setups to come to me.

I was inspired by this junior trader’s pronouncement that he is a disciplined trader to tweet on this subject.

I asked to chat with this junior trader before the open and shared my experience working with large traders presently.  I will share that with you.

The large experienced traders with whom I work, almost to a trader, are paring down what they are trading.  They are clear on what they trade best, with very specific detail on these setups.  They are not just taking a technical breakout.  There are way more variables added for a trade to make their PlayBook.  They have measured their success in their best trades and know what they do not trade well enough to keep in their PlayBook.  They are doing less, but focusing more on what they do well and with more size.

They are not perfect and are not trying to be perfect.  They are trying to improve and take more of their best trades.  And because of this they incorporate techniques to minimize overtrading, like scheduled breaks or self-talk.

They are decreasing their PlayBook.  They are focusing on trading just this decreased PlayBook.  They quickly exit trades that they recognize are outside their PlayBook.

This is professional trading discipline.

*no relevant position