Daily Practices to Maintain Self Discipline

By | April 1, 2020 8:25 pm

Over the last 10 years I have been interacting with thousands of retail traders and a common thing I have heard is that most of them lose money in market but they are right on around 60-65% of the trades but still few trader which turn out to be big lose they lose major chuck on profit and overall turn into loss.

One of the Fundamental reason they are net lose is they do not have self-control and discipline

Maintaining self-control and discipline is one of the most essential skills required for trading success. 

Below are the few reason traders lose self-control.

  • Abandon a trading plan prematurely
  • Trading on Tips
  • Listing to Trading Guru on Social Media
  • Not Following SL
  • Take profits too early
  • Taking Impulsive Trade
  • Excessive Leverage

Trading takes patience, a trait that many traders don’t have. People who are attracted to trading are mostly rule breakers,They feel liberated when they do not have to follow any rules. They are drawn to the potential thrills that trading can provide. They may like the action, but many have difficulty maintaining discipline. If you have trouble maintaining discipline, you might want to think about developing this skill.
Just as you would do physical conditioning to prepare for a marathon, one of the “muscles” a trader needs to tone is the ability to maintain discipline. It may seem easy to maintain discipline, but when it comes down to actually maintaining discipline during the tense moments of the trading day, some traders balk. During a trade, they are under a tremendous amount of pressure. They often panic and abandon the plan or make trading errors.

Below are the Few Daily practices which we do on regular basis  that helps in maintaining self discipline

“1.  I start my day with 15 minutes of meditation exercise.  I practice deep  breathing meditation to clear my mind and keep me focused and aware of my emotions before I start trading.

2.  I go over my checklist to make sure I had a good night’s sleep, breakfast and fully Hydrated.

3.  Before I start trading, I review my EOD Plan which i make in night to review the levels i should be trading and also review by Gann Set up  This helps me decide which setups to used in a particular trading session.


4.  Once My Level come I enter the trade with my regular quantity and put my limit order  at the first target and second target and then trail my position  to maximize my profits in the trade after having pocketed earlier profits. This strategy makes me less anxious to take profits and helps me hold my position longer with a trailing stop.  It gives me good risk management and allows my winners to be much larger than losers.

5.  During my trade, if I experience any anxiety or discomfort, I take deep breaths in and out in order to maintain my focus and stick to my plan. We have developed few trading exercises like Time Out, Self Centering which helps us in tense moment when we get stopped out.

6.  After closing my trade, if I feel any anxiety, regret, or discomfort, I take a breathing session break for 5-15 minutes until I clear my mind and refocus.

7.  Once I hit my daily stop loss, I stop trading.  I also stop trading if I lose 50-75% of intraday profits.” 

Following the above Routine helps me to remain focused and Self Disciplined.

Category: Trading Psychology

About Bramesh

Bramesh Bhandari has been actively trading the Indian Stock Markets since over 15+ Years. His primary strategies are his interpretations and applications of Gann And Astro Methodologies developed over the past decade.

Leave a Reply