Great post - said what I've been thinking for a while about stress and discipline, but better expressed than I'd managed to formulate!eightbo wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2019 7:52 pmReducing stress is huge.stueytrader wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2019 1:00 pmI've been someone who could have benefited from perspective to help my discipline a few times over the years. Trading stress is worth considering in this area as a related issue, as I think discipline and stress are complementary issues for us traders.
I've recently begun to frame each day around the idea of having a stress-free day first with profit becoming secondary. Often I'm not making as much as I could be but at the end of each day, my mood is consistently "normal", as opposed to commonly finishing on a high or a low which feels much more sustainable and conducive to long-term success. Generally, this is all reflected by less volatility in the P&L.
For myself, pushing the risk tolerance is my main source of stress so taking smaller positions also makes the discipline "easier" (for lack of a better word). Also, trading fewer markets provides extra breathing room to allow any stress which has built up more time to alleviate.
I encourage others struggling with discipline to start utilising stress as an indicator. One that will lead you to areas of your trading which may be beneficial for you to adjust. Start journalling instances where you feel stress if you're not already and seek to eradicate severe cases.
The concept being that by reducing our stress levels, we're putting ourselves in a position to make higher quality decisions when trading.
I'd add that some stress is healthy and is a part of growth so the goal shouldn't be to eradicate it completely but rather to find and remove unjustified instances / excess amounts.
I totally agree that pushing the stress boundaries is often closely related to discipline, tilt etc. In the past, I've pushed myself way too much in terms of stress and ended up out of control. I still have elements of that, for sure, though not as bad as in my past. It's a great area to keep working on in self development.