History is strewn with oddball concepts of discipline.

Possibly your own personal history has a checkered record of uneven punishment or control passing as discipline. A common refrain is that "johnny" would do better in school if only he were to apply himself. There are well known models of discipline such as the army uses, a complete lack of any at all practiced on some unfortunate children, and a belt applied in the hopes of generating a greater interest in one childhood duty or another. There are also societal examples of the death penalty, prisons, police to enforce and politicians to proclaim as beneficial any punishment which serves their staying in power.

When was the last time you were threatened with punishment? What effect did it have on you?In fact many people equate discipline with punishment.

So let's look at the dictionary definition of discipline. Discipline is defined by Webster's as: a rule or system of rules governing conduct or activity. It is also defined as SELF Control. Both of these definitions would adequately define what is normally thought of as the needed discipline in trading. It's a word which is derived from a Latin word meaning teaching or learning. It is a word that in it's various uses also means punishment. Sometimes punishment is what occurs from a perceived or actual lack of self-control.The subject is then mixed up with a lot of very unsavory experiences in a person's life and is not welcomed with open arms by some and not always thought of as beneficial. They would rather avoid discipline. They never develop a system.

Daytraders occasionally started doing so to avoid the discipline of a job, a boss etc. As a child I received letters from distant and old aunts and uncles. I would often get money in these letters for a present for a birthday or holiday and so felt some obligation to read them. I never received a letter that did not list in great and painful detail all the things that had been happening to the health of the relative and many in their vicinity. It gave a strange view of life. I could never quite finish reading them, but I tried to at least feign interest and stumble through a couple of paragraphs, in case someone had died and I would be expected to know at least that much. Why I wondered would a young boy be interested in all these illnesses and accidents that happened in almost an endless procession? What could they be thinking? Who did they think they were talking to? After all, I guessed I could write back with a story about a bruised arm or bad cold but never did. I did occasionally somewhat briefly scribble some response and said I was just fine, being careful not to say anything disturbing. They were a somewhat sickly and disturbed bunch! No sense in rubbing it in.Sometime later I was faced with construction work in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew as a contractor. I suppose I lost a few jobs due to eventual lack of interest in the flooded rooms and mildewed ceilings and walls. After I saw a few hundred of them, my interest sagged a bit.When I have talked to traders who have been trading for some time I usually hear quite candidly about their worst trade. And also any other trades in the really painful category. Much like illness if they could write me a letter I'm sure I would be amazed at the variety of loss. They assert they would not make those mistakes again and these are somewhat like badges of courage. Usually I feel somewhat compelled to detail my worst moments. Luckily I usually just acknowledge what a terrible time they had and move on.A trading coach does not have to deal with his own mortality any more than a young boy does. He is there to put the focus on what should be being done now, not all the ills of past trading by each individual he agrees to try to help and associate with. He sometimes runs into those who are extremely hindered in their discipline by their concentration on the few majors errors that they made many of which occurred outside the realm of any trading plan. Such is the state of discipline in many traders who have had very bad losses. They are somewhat transfixed in the wake of such. They are still trying to explain and avoid their losses but they are not generally all the wiser, just more timid.



Continued fixation on past losses is not beneficial beyond design of trading plans and strategies.So what does this have to do with discipline? Self discipline is the focus that is required to professionally accomplish what plan you have in life, using the exact tools and approaches needed to do so. It is not anything to do really with punishment or losses you have had in the past. It doesn't even include the lucky times and stories from the past when perhaps you found a quarter on the curb as a child or you bought a stock and rather cluelessly watched it run up from 1 to 100.

Many times a trader will think he can learn discipline by watching others. If this were true, one would be able to become a surgeon by watching alone. If he goes to this or that boot camp or seminar or chat room discipline will somehow show up. More likely he will meander around in conversation or in his mind about the losses he had in trading. He will assert that he has now learned and wouldn't repeat those same mistakes. He will often daydream of repeating
his most fantastic gains. If he never exerts the effort to concentrate on developing confidence in a trading plan or system he will likely have other stories of a similar nature to tell in the future.

He may or may not survive as a trader. In the long run he will eventually fail unless he can somehow develop the discipline to concentrate on executing his well conceived trading plans and avoiding meandering around his mind or the markets past or current ills.