One way to acquire discipline in trading

[Joe Ross]

This question was sent to me from one of our students:

“Hey Joe! When you were teaching us at our Forex office in Florida, you stressed discipline. Our head trader stresses discipline. What I want to know is if discipline can be acquired or is it just something you are born with? I’m having trouble finding it in myself.” - trader -

Personally, I believe discipline can be learned, although at times it is very painful. When I began trading, I was a very undisciplined person. But trading and the markets forced me to become disciplined. Was the discipline already there and just needed to be extracted? Or did I actually learn it? I can’t truly be sure.

One of the largest trading firms kept their offices near Yeshivas. A yeshiva is a rabbinical school that produces rabbis of the Jewish religion. The students coming out of the yeshiva were highly disciplined and made excellent traders. Was the discipline innate in those yeshiva students? Or did they learn it under the strict supervision of the rabbis who controlled their lives? I think they learned it.

I’ve mentioned previously that it can help to keep a journal if you want to learn discipline. The journal I kept was very basic and included what trades I made during the day and my reasons for getting into the trade. It is what I did with the journal that helped me to be disciplined. Anyone can make entries into a journal. I let the contents of my journal keep me in line. It became my supervisor. I took to heart what I wrote there. I no longer keep that kind of journal because it has served its purpose in making discipline into a habit in the way I trade.

[EugeneFXI]

Joe, thank you for that insight. I agree with you 100% - discipline is a learned skill, like public speaking. Its a challenge - with a rather high cost of learning through your own mistakes - but its definitely doable, and keeping a trading journal is a good way to keep yourself in line.

The problem with many traders I have talked to is not that they have a bad system, but rather go out of their way to screw it up by not following their own rules. It is hard to stay put when every instinct in your body is telling to pull the trigger or take profit.