Discipline
Discipline is not willpower, it is rules written down in advance that you do not have to decide on again.
Discipline — what it is?
Discipline is following your own plan regardless of the last trade's result and your current mood. Not a character trait, a habit.
It is important to understand that discipline does not turn a losing system into a profitable one. It makes a system possible at all: without it there are no statistics, and without statistics there is nothing to improve.
Discipline is measured in numbers, not intentions: the share of trades taken by plan, adherence to risk, the number of entries beyond the limit.
Discipline — how it is built?
In the app, discipline is calculated from your journal: the real account curve is compared with the one you would have had by following your own rules exactly. The gap between them is the price of being undisciplined.
Discipline — common mistakes
Treating discipline as a matter of willpower rather than of rules written down in advance.
Changing the rules to justify something you have already done.
Judging discipline by feel instead of by the journal.
Demanding perfect adherence from yourself straight away and quitting after the first slip.
Related to
Glossary
- gap
- a break between the close of one candle and the open of the next. On forex it usually appears after the weekend.