Your question really made me think about my life and if I have discipline and I was hesitant to answer the question because my life isn't very disciplined. My life has routines like most people, but discipline in terms of doing something that takes effort, not so much.

When I was younger I used to run/jog and participate in 5K and 10K runs. I also used to go to the gym and lift weights. There were many many days and sometimes most days where I didn't wan to go for the daily run or to the gym. Sometimes I would force myself and sometimes I would blow it off. It's now many years later and I no longer run, but up until 5 or so years ago i was still going to the gym. After stopping all together I told myself I needed to do something in the area of exercise so went out and joined a gym. It had been several years. I started going a few days a week, experienced and slight injury and after it healed never went back. I pay for a membership I don't use and tell myself everyday I need to go to the gym. This is a long winded answer to your question. No, I have found no example in my life where I am currently disciplined about anything that takes and effort.

I agree FOMO and revenge trading have to do with money, but I'm not clear on my beliefs about money. I know I'd prefer to be wealthy than not and I'm not. But I view money and wealth as a means of simplifying life not making a happy life. I think about trading for a living to remove myself from having to work for others or a corporation. Not so I can buy a jet. I find it hard to remove the component of money from trading. I realize and understand the objective should be to trade well regardless of the outcome and the money will come. What you are stating is psychological in nature and not something physical. I have no idea how to change the crap going on inside my head.

Kaimu 

Hi @David_R Did you find any example in your life about discipline and how much effort takes you to do it? About, FOMO, revenge trading...all is related to your beliefs about money. One of your beliefs expressed above is trading can be a good living mode. Loses and winners are always balanced around this belief. This belief is also an expectation and it's the reason why you are failing. Are you aware of that?

@David_R

Think about it the other way around, do you have any belief in your life where you do something in a disciplined manner? If so... how much does it cost you to do it?

@David_R

If it weren't for the money, what other reason would you like to pursue a career in trading?
Is there any aspect of trading that you could fall in love with and find something of greater value than a monetary reward?

I'm not sure I'm following you. I don't believe I do anything in life where it takes discipline at a level that trading does. I find that my impatience translates to other parts of my life such as driving. Slow drivers that don't move over get on my nerves.

Kaimu 

@David_R Think about it the other way around, do you have any belief in your life where you do something in a disciplined manner? If so... how much does it cost you to do it?

Kaimu 

@David_R If it weren't for the money, what other reason would you like to pursue a career in trading? Is there any aspect of trading that you could fall in love with and find something of greater value than a monetary reward?

The freedom is a huge part of the attraction to trading and the possibility of having to invest less time than an 8+ a day job. Not that trading only requires an hour a day. The act of trading may take an hour.

I've always enjoyed looking at charts and doing technical analysis such as drawing trendlines and identifying support and resistance.

to me the only thing that really changed my game and improved my trading was focusing on longer time frame.
If you take trades based on 4hour charts you can only be wrong 6 times per day, if you take trades based on 10min charts you can be wrong hundred of times.

Impose a minimum duration to your trades, you set and forget.

Leave the details on the side.
How do funds make money? they go lond and wait. The government is always bailing everyone out, it prints money and market always go up (a part from a few months every X years in which they go down.

I know it's a simplification, but look at the charts. I think we lose time and money because we over complicate things.

My neighbour is a fund manager, he speak no word of English..... some years ago I met him in the elevators building, 10 minutes before the FOMC press by Yellen. I told him "are you also rushing to listen to Yellen speach?"
he answered "who the F*** is Yellen?" he had no clue.

Want to know his philosophy? he was just buying pullbacks. I don't know if he is good or not, but he manages a decent fund.

I know! you will all laugh at me since this sounds like a major semplification.

Do you want to see a real improvement? take a 50K account and take trades risking 80 USD everytime, use CFDs and size properly. You can only resize the trade after 1 hour, and you take the trade on 1 hour chart. if the trade starts to run you can add to it.
You will substantially improve your performance.

I will not laugh at you. Anyone willing to take the time to comment, make suggestions and try and help deserves my respect.

I will say that I have thought about longer timeframes. I have found some of the same issues arise regardless of timeframe. I was looking at stocks to buy and decided to purchase some shares based off of the daily chart. I told myself I would just hold it for the longer term because $33 and potentially $40/share looked reasonable. I paid about $23 and after a few bucks in profit I sold it out of fear of losing that profit. Yes, it did pull back and I got in again. this time I think it was around $26. I was going to hold it long term because of what I stated above. I bought 250 shares and after about $2 move I sold half and put in a B/E stop. As it came down further I sold the rest. That stock hit and exceeded the $33 and is now over $34 and I am not in it. This is all within the several weeks.

Do you want to see a real improvement? take a 50K account and take trades risking 80 USD everytime, use CFDs and size properly. You can only resize the trade after 1 hour, and you take the trade on 1 hour chart. if the trade starts to run you can add to it.
You will substantially improve your performance
I don't know what I CFD is. An example would help. Can you show a chart? Regardless, not sure I have the stones to do what you suggest.

SBtrader82 

to me the only thing that really changed my game and improved my trading was focusing on longer time frame. If you take trades based on 4hour charts you can only be wrong 6 times per day, if you take trades based on 10min charts you can be wrong hundred of times. Impose a minimum duration to your trades, you set and forget. Leave the details on the side. How do funds make money? they go lond and wait. The government is always bailing everyone out, it prints money and market always go up (a part from a few months every X years in which they go down. I know it's a simplification, but look at the charts. I think we lose time and money because we over complicate things. My neighbour is a fund manager, he speak no word of English..... some years ago I met him in the elevators building, 10 minutes before the FOMC press by Yellen. I told him "are you also rushing to listen to Yellen speach?" he answered "who the F*** is Yellen?" he had no clue. Want to know his philosophy? he was just buying pullbacks. I don't know if he is good or not, but he manages a decent fund. I know! you will all laugh at me since this sounds like a major semplification. Do you want to see a real improvement? take a 50K account and take trades risking 80 USD everytime, use CFDs and size properly. You can only resize the trade after 1 hour, and you take the trade on 1 hour chart. if the trade starts to run you can add to it. You will substantially improve your performance.

We are all different and have different personalities. You have to understand your strengths and weaknesses. For one person this means using a 4 hour chart works best and for another person this means using a 15 sec chart works best. It's your weaknesses that must dictate your trading style (Marty Schwartz).

Interesting comment. For the longest time when having difficulty trading the advice was always use a higher timeframe to reduce the noise. I found your comment interesting because given my weaknesses, one being an inability to sit in a trade, I had wondered if small timeframes would help. If the trade only lasted seconds or a minute it may surpress or at least shorten the duration of the uncomfortableness. At this point I really don't know if that would help.

I have no idea what to do.

Mies 

We are all different and have different personalities. You have to understand your strengths and weaknesses. For one person this means using a 4 hour chart works best and for another person this means using a 15sec chart works best. It's your weaknesses that must dictate your trading style (Marty Schwartz).

Hi @David_R

Reading your diary from 2021, 'Chapter 2,' and the answers to my questions, it's very clear that the issue lies in your beliefs. Even after two years, you still think the same way, meaning you see Trading as a way out of your current life situation. As you've mentioned yourself, you don't 'like' your current lifestyle. I recall you even said you 'hate' your job. This makes me believe that you've held this strong belief about your life for a long time and have a deep desire for change. The problem is that you project these expectations onto your Trading. When you lose, your mind refuses to let go of that expectation. When you win, it strongly connects to the possibility of achieving your goals, and a simple loss triggers a chain of actions that leads to negative results regarding your expectation of freedom. I think you know what your mind does when it wants something; it becomes impatient and wants it right away.

Furthermore, this is the reason why you still haven't given up Trading, even after telling yourself multiple times that you would. You see in others what you could achieve. Their results convince you that Trading can provide the way out you desire. The issue is not with your life itself, but with how you perceive it. The problem is not with your Trading, but with what you expect from it. It doesn't matter if two more years pass; if your belief doesn't change, neither will your Trading. Take some time to think about it.

Never, ever expect anything from Trading. Learn to be content with your present. Without that, you won't achieve anything through Trading. Because from Trading, you shouldn't expect anything. If you can change your present or current life situation, do it. If you can't change it, change how you think about it. There is always a way out so that your present can be fulfilling and make you feel good. Once you reach that point, your Trading will profoundly change because it won't be tied to any expectations anymore.

Stepping away from a strong expectation like the one you currently have causes pain. Your mind's reaction to pain is to get rid of it quickly. That's why you overtrade, use excessively large contract sizes, seek revenge on the market, lack of patience, and so on... There's a pain in your life, and you see Trading as an escape from that pain. I hope these comments don't bother you; they are meant with good intentions.

It's like when someone realizes they are overweight and decides that the gym is the solution. But the problem is that they don't go to the gym because they believe it's the solution itself; they go because they project their expectations of change, their desire to change their situation, onto the gym. From that perspective, even though they know changes take time, they won't succeed because they don't really want to go to the gym; they only want to change their situation and their mind will try to reach that expectation in the shortest time possible, something that is not realistic. That's your problem. You want to change your situation, and you project that onto Trading.