Discipline … Over rated ?

July 2, 2011 in Blog 26 Comments

Everyone talks about the benefits and importance of discipline in all professions. And I am not going to deny that discipline plays a part in trading. After-all one needs discipline to follow a system. Discipline to even make a system, Discipline to directionally study markets. Discipline to pull the trigger and not fear losses , Discipline to exit with rules , Discipline to use stops, To Stay Out ; To Stay in, To Study Market Forces, lose, win or scratch … Regardless of what you do or say, you are not going to avoid  this critical soft trading requirement.

So I guess I  have to throw my voice into the fray and agree ; DISCIPLINE is one of the most important things to have as a Trader.

This leads us to a critical question… Is Discipline innate to some ? Are you born with it  ? Or can it be developed ? Are there factors which lead to greater discipline which we can apply to ourselves, or are there environments in which we can immerse ourselves such that discipline seems to come naturally ?

In my opinion, there are a very small handful of people who are BORN Disciplined. The natural human tendency is to move towards pleasure and away from pain. And Discipline seems to require us to move towards “PAIN”  in other words , forming discipline actually requires us moving in a direction contrary to what we may desire to actually do.

Several techniques exist for increasing discipline in individuals. Techniques such as repetition, force drills, reprogramming, etc. , but each of this methods really do not go in to the heart o the matter Which is the innate human FIGHT or FLIGHT response.

One other method is an association switch ( A technique employed in NLP ) which cause one to actually WANT TO DO what is required. This technique leads to powerful progress in any field to which it is directed. And Trading is no different.

In the next post , I will discuss the association switch and how you can begin to employ it to make change.

Stay Empowered,

Ty.