Ironically, when you are disciplined and don't need it, the market gives you the money. When you're pressing and looking for sure things, forget about it. It just doesn't work that way.
Pressured tradeslike lazy or foolhardy onesare never good traders. Their decisions are based on pie-in-the-sky thinking and unbridled emotions. Thoughtful logic or methodology is the essence of what is required to become a disciplined trader.
Self-awareness is the starting point to become disciplined. As well-known trader Mark Etzkorn advises:
Start slowly, and put in the time and effort required of any entrepreneur attempting to launch a new business, expect your business to go through rough times initially, and prepare yourself psychologically and financially to survive this incubation period.
The same advice holds true for the experienced investor. Trading is a business requiring solid decisions with reasonable expectations within disciplined parameters.
So, is discipline just another term for ''ultimate preparation"? Yes, we think this is very close to the core of the issue. Let's revisit the issue of discipline as discussed in Chapter 9:
To get and to keep the disciplined state of mind, we form an endless circle.
