Five Disciplines For Successful Trading

By Andrew Nyquist     Earlier in the week, I took to twitter to share a few thoughts on important disciplines required for successful trading. As many of you know, every day offers a new challenge that requires strong focus and discipline. It often takes years of experience (and scars) to get these disciplines burned into our heads, as well as our trading routines. But discipline and experience is the recipe for successful trading.

That said, I felt compelled to share these disciplines on See It Market as well (slightly modified for publication). So, without further adieu, here is the list of disciplines that I have gathered over years of trading, studying and always learning that I believe lead to successful trading.

1.  Have a process w unbreakable discipline.Great trades sometimes come with small losses. Keeping losses in check is key… there is always another day and capital is a traders lifeblood.

2.  It’s a marathon and amazing opportunities come to those with patience, available capital, and a thoughtful plan. Timeframes are key and patience can mean waiting an additional 15 mins, an hour, a day, or a week, or legging into weakness or out of strength similarly. Exiting profitable “long” trades in fractions (while raising stop-loss levels) allows you to let them run and maximizes profits.

3.  The trend is your friend but don’t marry it. Letting emotion get the best of you often leads to lost profits. Become balanced and make sure that you can make money bull or bear. Get to know yourself. Do an honest assessment and work within skills & psychology. Stretch yourself but don’t try to be someone you’re not. And that goes for life as well.

4.  Don’t second-guess yourself due to “the crowd.” Let your plan (and your stops) do the second-guessing.

5.  Respect others like you respect your money. Work hard, give freely. Make money.

Please feel free to share your successful trading strategies and disciplines in the comments below. Have a great weekend.

This article was originally published on See It Market - www.seeitmarket.com.