There are three traits that all successful traders will have. Those traits are, discipline,patience and consistency. These are what the team at Gorilla Futures like to call the three pillars of trading, if traders are only able to harness one or two of these traits there trading temple will topple over leading to destruction.
As many of our members are aware of we like to start out with building a strong foundation for our future trading endeavors to stand on. Working on the three pillars is no different, traders must first grasp what they are and why they are so important.
Discipline
Trading is unlike any other business venture out there, traders must be able to stay disciplined and follow there system and rules if they hope to become a successful trader. Discipline is not taking FOMO trades or taking trades that only half way fit your plan. With trading you are either all in and disciplined 100% of the time or not at all.
If you are lacking the ability to be disciplined throughout the trading session then take a day or two off to realign yourself with the three pillars of trading. No trader will be able to 100% all the time but good traders and able to know when to trade and when not to trade.
Patience
Patience is a major key to becoming a successful trader. Can you sit for hours and not take any bad trades or pass on trades that do not fit your trading plan to the T? If not this is an area that traders should focus on. One of the best way to become a patient trader is to know EXACTLY what he/she is looking for. If you know exactly what you are looking for there is no reason to be distracted and take trades that do not fit.
Consistency
Consistency is one of the major pillars, trading is based around being consistent. Are you able to take the exact same trades 100 times in a row even when you run into a losing trade? Do you journal every day,have the same morning routine,get he proper amount of sleep every day and so on? These are just a few items that successful traders do on a consistent basis.
With out consistency there is no trading, traders are required to take a random set of data and find an area to exploit and do so over and over again.
These three pillars of trading respond well when exercised in your every day life as well. The reason behind this is, it is much easier to be consistent,patient and disciplined 24/7 then only pick a few hours of the day to do so.
One of our go to books for working though these problems is The Chimp Paradox and we recommend it to all of our traders especially the ones who maybe struggling with the psychological hurdles of trading.
Do you agree? Comment down below!