Why is Self Control Required for Day Trading?
This one is a great discussion that we think will resonate with all of us on varying levels. It revolves around the question: Why is Self Control Required for Day Trading. This topic is certainly one that we have encountered as we have progressed deeper into our trading. We all know about the important role self control plays in our everyday lives. From all the habits to taking care of our bodies, nutrition, exercise and activities that energize us, sleep routines, spirituality, personal relationships, and work responsibilities. These habits and choices have been a work in progress for most of us for our whole lives. And I’m sure many can agree the more years we are blessed to be granted, the more we want to show up and live full out in them! To be honest, the only way we can step in and up to that kind of living is by mastering Self-Control. This is a universal struggle, no matter what you do or where you’re from when you get to the core of any issue or resistance in your life, you can always break it down and find it to be an inside job that needs to be done! Self-control is complex like most topics we discuss on Market Mamas. Sometimes we need more control in a particular area, and other times the best approach is to relinquish control in a particular situation.
We know we have learned the importance of self control over time and with real experience, as with so many important lessons in life. There is always a hindsight component that does, overtime, help us to make better choices for our futures. The power of disgust, which we have mentioned previously in our Best Loser Wins episode, is a powerful force for change and I can certainly attest to feeling disgust after making poor choices that have most certainly propelled me to make better choices moving forward!
We just love this: “like a muscle, the more you exercise self-control on a consistent basis, the stronger you get. As your self control increases, the more you gain the ability to direct your life in a manner that is congruent with the true you.” This was a great visual to compare your control over yourself to strengthening a muscle over time. It does take months of consistent physical effort to transform the outward appearance of a muscle, as it similarly does with a personal practice with a real life action outcome. We love the second part of that too - with greater self control comes a stronger ability to guide your life with the choices you make and the subsequent developments! In this way, we really do have the power to create our life in the image we have for our truest selves!
Much like some of the other important topics that we have covered, this one also could use some purposeful reframing to better serve us. Self-control is a large component of personal discipline, and as the awesome Coach Amy covered so well in her interview with us recently, discipline does not need to be looked at as a punishment, but rather a gift we can give ourselves and we are worthy of! Self-control is embedded right in that larger discussion, and it’s essentially much of the same elements. It’s not about denying yourself, but about making conscious choices that will actually let you have more and feel even better about whatever that is.
Recently Kendra was chatting with Becky about how she was so hungry after running her morning miles! Becky replied, “it’s breakfast time” and Kendra’s response, “yep, will be the 2nd breakfast for today”. At that moment Kendra realized that in previous years of her life when she did not have the self-control to consistently run and exercise, she would sometimes have guilty feelings about food and a 2nd breakfast would never have been welcomed. However, the way Kendra maintains her body now, she feel great about eating. She know that she will have enough self control to balance her overall healthy diet and maintain the physical fitness standards she has set for herself. And you know what does? It bleeds over to other areas too and gives her a healthier mindset, so that inner voice says, “Go girl, live your best life, in your best body, not a perfect one, but well taken care of and loved”. In addition, of course no surprise, the convo ended with Kendra telling Becky, dude that’s a great analogy for trading. “When we exercise enough self-control to follow our discipline in our process we get to enjoy trading more and not experience guilt from it.”
We like to always remind ourselves that strong self control is self love! To add to that sentiment in this discussion, we love this quote so much! Jewish philosopher Abraham Joshua Heschel said: “Self-respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.” We truly believe that there is power in having self respect. When we know our worth and our value to those around us, our personal influence to our people, and our expansive potential as humans, it *can and ideally would cause us to behave in a stronger, more steady way. It’s powerful for us to tie our self respect to self control in this way. When we control our impulses and unhealthy or unsustainable behavior and consistently follow our rules, keep the promises we make to ourselves, and follow through on our commitments, even just to ourselves when no one else knows about a thing, we feel the pride in our hearts at the end of the day. For example, when we only execute a trade when we see an ideal setup at a key level, or if a trade goes against us, we do not deepen our stop loss, but rather take the hit when it is still small and manageable- these individual choices inside of one trading day are building us up. They are proof to ourselves that we are trustworthy, dedicated, honest and committed and so these choices to control our actions are strengthening our self respect and confidence every time. And this, over days, weeks and months, are compounding!
“Self-regulation is a better indicator of success than intelligence or talent.”
~ Psychologist Laurence D. Steinberg
There are plenty of wicked smart traders that continually boom and bust due to poorly managed emotional or psychological shortcomings. They can be very intelligent and understand a strong and generally effective trading system, but if one does not regulate their dangerous behaviors, it will be very hard to truly succeed in trading over the long term. You don’t have to be the most globally intelligent person in the room to be the best trader by any means! It is incredibly important to be skilled at resisting unhelpful urges and instincts, exercising self control, and staying committed to your predefined objective and risk management system!
It was the wise Napoleon Hill who expressed this well, stating: “Self-discipline starts with the mastery of your thoughts. If you don’t control what you think, you can’t control what you do.” This is a major component to this discussion for sure! It has been widely studied and accepted that our thoughts control our emotions and our emotions largely influence our behaviors. Our thoughts then are the catalyst for the direction of our days and ultimately, our lives! If we think we are probably just going to keep losing and making poor decisions, what do you think happens?!? Inversely, if we are confident in our minds in our quiet time alone with our thoughts that we are strong, smart, driven, dedicated, worthy, and blessed, then we are much more likely to make decisions inline with that image. Is that always easy? Hell no!! Especially in the face of a struggle. To consistently reframe a loss or a poor choice and hold steady in your faith in yourself is a tall order to always be the master of! But, exercising self control is easier and more natural when it is inline with our idea of who we are based on our internal dialogue. We have to own our thoughts with intention then to have a chance at self control, respect, and ultimate success. This is the biggest factor as to why we talk about and practice affirmations, visualizations, positive and educational content predominantly, and choose self love, even on our hard days. We are human, so there might be a moment here and there of working through the instinctual upsetting emotions of a negative outcome, sure. But with time, we can get better at reframing that much faster than ever before and focusing on finding the lesson in an experience!
So, the question at the start of this discussion was: Why is Self Control Required for Day Trading? The down and dirty of it is simple. You can be super smart and fully conceptually understand a trading edge in your market, and still be a losing trader if you do not consistently exhibit self control. If one gives into emotional impulses and urges easily, such as revenge, fear and greed, their battle with Ms. Market will be red, rough, and certainly not linear. It was Alex Garry who said: “Self-discipline paves the way to turn your dreams into reality.” Yes! That is, in our opinions, the largest contributing factor to lasting success in this industry.
We really are in charge of our destinies and so many choose to keep it simple and cruise through life, never really testing their true potential. But, if we really can create the most magnificent lives and positively impact so many beyond our immediate families with that kind of evolution, well, that sounds pretty incredible. It was the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu who is quoted as saying: “He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.” We appreciate how that really puts us in the driver's seat of our destinies. When we can master our behaviors and emotions and then truly guide our outcomes and trajectory in life, there does not need to be a limit to our potential. And that is a major factor that we love about trading the stock market. The potential upside of learning this trade is truly limitless. We market mamas intend to keep our priorities on managing what we can control and growing with every experience and opportunity. As we each improve with self control in life and certainly as a traders, we are becoming healthier, stronger, more patient and grateful women, but also more steady and consistently profitable traders! And by keeping our internal dialogue on these intentions, beliefs about ourselves and goals, it is actually coming to fruition! That’s the power of self control and it’s trickle down effect right there!