These are the 5 Habits of highly effect Traders. That can help build your trading discipline.
We know that positive habits in the long run, builds good discipline. Which is key to your
sucess as a trader. All of that said and done, how exactly do you enforce that sort of strict
regiment. Well im a strong believer that the way you trade in the stock market is a reflection
of who you are in real life.
I mean, im not saying the numbers and prices on stock charts are not real, but, just like
that lamborghini on a lot of day trading ads, sometimes its hard connect what you see on
the screen to something tangible in real life.
So thats why I think it's extremely important to have good daily habits outside of trading.
I do find that when my life is a mess, my trading will likely be a mess as well. In
order to trade well, I formulated 5 very strict daily habits for myself in real life.
So none of these things are directly involved with trading or the markets, but they definitely
can form a trickle down effect and help form a very solid foundation in your trading discipline.
Such as not chasing breakouts, not adding to a loser and not forgetting to hit the like
button .
First and foremost, I have been told by many people in my life that I have an extreme eye
for enforcing and follow through with detail. Which lets be real, it’s just a roundabout
way of saying, “you’re an OCD jerk”.
I mean hey, you can call it OCD or detail oriented, it doesn’t matter. This is how
I need to live my life and function smoothly. I just need my screens to line up, calendars
to be extremely detailed divided up into timeframes of 10 minutes, categorized and color coded,
all my socks to be in pairs. Ok that last one,I can let it go.
This is probably a habit that started forming in my own psyche from my former career as
a VFX designer in the film industry. With all the hyper realistic rendering of CG animation,
its extremely important to make sure the tiniest things such as rust, scratches and all the
textures on objects are well thought out and designed.
I'm the kind of person who plans everything 1- 2 weeks before the event and have them
all on my calendars. And I will do whatever I possibly can to keep them that way.
Unless I have at least 48 hours notice, Im not going to move anything on that calendar
to go to Bagholder Mike’s birthday party. I dont care if theres an open bar, hot girls
or hot guys, I’m not going if that conflicts with my schedule. Okay but if there’s free
food, I’ll reconsider it.
Like I’ve often talked to other traders, being OCD might not be great with your social
life, but it helps so much as a trader. Its this kind of attention to detail that allows
me to refrain myself from breaking concrete rules in my own trading playbook.
Here are some examples of those rules that I abide by: never short a low float runner
on day one, especially if that stock is easy to borrow. Never average down and add to a
loser, I always just take the loss and move on, 90% of the time, Im gona be happy I did
that..
And if any of the stocks I'm watching matches those criteria in the rules, I don't trade
it. A lot of times, people will say… oh Shay you missed out on this golden opportunity
to make money. But my OCD mind will say, that's fine, unless i’ll get free food, i'm not
trading it. Trading those stocks is a receipt for a disaster for me. I must follow my own
rules , and wait for set ups that match my detailed criteria.
Now the next habit that helps with my trading disciple is, have a regular workout routine,
and stick to it even during quarantine. As you may have learned from my day in the life
of a day trader video, I regularly workout and my preferred fitness is pole dancing.
Well , all the gyms have been closed for two months now, and I haven’t been able to do
the same form of workout. But, that's no excuse for not keeping fit. Because you guys know,
I don’t work out to look good. I work out so I can eat. Oh and also so I am also mentally
fit to trade.
And for me to continue enjoying food deliveries, I turned to home workouts. I especially enjoy
blogilates on YouTube, and i've been following almost all the workout plan since last month.
Key word, almost.
I find that keeping fit physically also strengthens yourr mind when trading. So you have fast
r response time when trading earnings and news catalysts. And its only with a strong
body, then you can have a strong mental capacity to recover.
Yes I still take losses and feel frustrated or mad of course, but just like the body recovering
from feeling of soreness after an intense workout session, a trained mind can recover
quickly from those trading losses. And do not let one day of loss lead to a string of
bigger losers.
And since we’re on the topic of working out and staying healthy, I just want you guys
to know about this 100% successful trader diet. Thats right, its true there is no DVD
or secret trading strategy that will make you lambos all the time, but the true secret
to trading.. Is in this proprietary Humbled Trader diet, called I eat whatever I want.
Im a true believer of enjoying food, but in a balanced way. Yeah there1 or 2 days in a
week where I’ll eat some delicious indomie and fried spring rolls, that will cause my
face to breakout. This is the only kind of breakout I will buy.
But the rest of the week, I’ll eat healthier home made meals, smoothies and greens to balance
that. Ok
The third habit that has helped me tremendously as a trader, is embracing and learning from
solitude. I know you must be thinking that oh I must be an extrovert to have a YouTube
channel and talk in front of the camera. Bt its quite the opposite.
Im actually very introverted. Im that person who goes to parties and barely talks unless
somebody wants to talk stocks. I prefer to talk less, but listen and observe more. I
believe thats the reason we have two eyes, two ears, and only one mouth.
I know it seems contradicting because I'm talking for 15 minutes straight now in front
of the camera. The only reason I can appear outgoing and talkative right now in front
of the camera, is because I spend a lot of time by myself.
The general consensus in society is that, oh that person is a loner, he or she must
be weird. Well i'm a loner, and i'm perfectly happy this way.
It's only because I have spend so much time by myself, that I have the time and peace
to truly reflect on everything I learned and observed from the market on a daily basis,
such as how to hit the like button to get better short locates when trading.
I'm definitely not saying that you need to be a loner and shut out everyone else, but
what i'm saying is it’s worth allocating an hour or even 30 minutes of your day just
to yourself as self reflection at the end of the day after the market closes. All those
charts price action upticks downticks and screen time need time to condense and formulate
in your mind to become useful information later on.
The fourth habit of an effective trader is going to sound simple, but you’d be surprised
how many day trading beginners don’t do it. It’s simply the act of being resourceful,
and take responsibility for your own success in trading.
Yes, that means doing your own due diligence on that stock before you buy and sell, perhaps
dig up some SEC filings or even just quickly search it up on Finviz. I want to expand even
further on this topic a little bit more by saying that…
Most new traders fail, because they expect the answers and the easy money to be handed
to them. Im often very surprised by how little effort some people put into their own success,
especially when their own hard earned is invovled.
For example, I’ve made tons of very clear cut tutorial videos on how to set up trade
ideas scanner, how to set up thinkorswim for active day trading, and many others. And I
share those settings for free in the video description.
But if I can spend all that time to put them together and share them for free. I think
it’s pretty simple for any new traders to google how to input those settings, how to
load those indicators, and other simple questions like what is a stock. Typing a few words in
the search engine take only a few seconds and they are not that hard to do.
All I'm saying is, everyone should be resourceful and take responsibility for their own success.
You want to know what trading platform, what broker I use, and where to get my free weekend
watchlist? Well it only takes a click of your mouse to expand the video description to find
the answers.
And for some traders, that's just too much work. Those are probably the people who just
want signals and easy trade alerts and start banking with zero effort. And if that's the
kind of effort they want to put into their own financial success. I respect that.
As a first generation immigrant, I learned first hand from my mother how to be resourceful
and learn to take matters into our own hands. When we first arrived in Canada there were
no Google search or YouTube videos on how to learn english, how to take the bus, and
how to get legal aid, and how to file personal taxes in a completely foreign country.
We didn’t sit there and complain. We took matters into our own hands, learned to use
the library, community centers and improved our own situation slowly over years. I learned
that I'm the only person responsible for myself, and don't complain, and stop expecting everything
to be handed to me.
The fifth habit of an effective trader is, learn to admit that you might not be right
all the time. Having humility is actually an extremely important trait as a trader.
There's been too many times in the past where I'm in a trade and I'm thinking, this stock
has to go higher, I am right, it has to go my way. And my stubbornness, and inability
to admit that i'm wrong and should get out… will often make small losers become giant
losses.
After being humbled by the market so many times… I finally learned that while I can
plan for my trades and trade my plan, i'm never better than the market. The market is
right all the time. It’s is like queen Bee, you just gotta respect her.
And that's why I’ve always preached that these videos I make are just my opinions.
I’m not a guru and my opinions are not 100% correct. I'm simply sharing my experience
as a trader, who has been wrong a lot. But the market has taught me to cut my losers
small when I'm wrong and leave my winners when I'm right.
So these are my top 5 daily habits outside of the markets that have greatly improved
my performance in day trading. Being detail oriented, working out, enjoying solitude,
taking action and responsibility for my own success, and having humility.