Paul Osadchuk
Working hard. An ultimate tendency, finding its decisive role in every trade. Being exceedingly embraced by literally everyone, it is now considered an all-in-one premise for success, and well-being. Apparently, the idea of hard work did not pass by the trading. A resource-intensive process has evidently been spurring deep scrutiny not only of stock indicators, but also of human mentality and behaviour. Considering the untraditional working nature of trading, which is characterised by flexible schedule and incentive as one and only driver of progress, inner mentality is a foremost factor to consider.
But what are the pivotal factors for maintaining your mind to ensure successful trading? Spoiler: hard working is not the key for it.
Discipline remains a controversial subject from the point of its implementation. The question is: why discipline is needed, when the person is lacking motivation? Does it mean that discipline turns out to be a nonsense action of compelling yourself to do something you find useless? This heated debate found its rebirth with the tendency of remote working and emergence of freelance and outsource professions. The same apparently applies to trading.
From another point of view, discipline could mean restraining yourself from the disturbing factors and lack of dopamine. The working process, which envisages individual action, often results in poor productivity due to a great number of distractors and blockers, which are often reflected on the mental state. Fast-moving world set us up on the rails of rapid lifestyle and immediate action, but when we have no ability to obtain this thrill and concentrate on something single, the aforementioned distractors fit to be the easy access to fancy emotions and illusion of environment change.
That’s where discipline comes in handy. Maintaining control, considering the motivation to act the key driving factor, and limiting yourself from external stimuli should be the sort of guiding principle to you. Indeed, trading requires constant monitoring and readiness to make an important decision, and even these up-and-down actions could become tiresome and monotonous. But distractors and easy dopamine will not accelerate your brain activity. Only realisation of your initial goals and impact of your actions will give you motivation to act and concentrate.
Discipline is a part and parcel of a bigger picture, a large concept of mental control. Volatility of trading, constant changeability of the market turn out to be originators of the unique cognitive errors, which, I bet, you all are well acquainted with: FOMO (fear of missing out), and FUD (fear, uncertainty, and donut). The danger of both ideas lies in their cause of irrational and reckless decisions. Abrupt skyrocketing of the asset, or promising ICO/IPO may stimulate the immediate interest to them and decision to enter the deal. Although this can be rash, fear of missing out on a seemingly decent option can overcome consciousness and rational thinking.
Undoubtedly, the cornerstones of proper trading is mastering your emotions and strategic thinking. Only meticulous calculations can ensure the prominence of certain stock, but how to heed them with an improper mindset? Consequently, insightfulness from the technical point of view is as pivotal as maintaining emotional control in your working routine.
Hard work is often perceived as a guarantee of a successful outcome. Almost every person with many achievements will keep telling you that hard work and dedication are crucial aspects of well-being. But how sound is this statement?
Facing the music, hard work can bring no satisfactory results, and additionally it can be carried out improperly. Without a strategy, planning, assessing risks and goals, work would remain futile, however hard it could be. Only a careful approach to defined steps of your efforts will change the game and result in positive outcomes.
Work smart, not hard.
Nevertheless, trading is a realm which requires a great deal of time and energy, and hence, it is literally impossible to imagine it without hard work. Indeed, it is essential.
However, the fact is, solely hard efforts would not surely bring achievements, but its combination with cold head and rational thinking certainly will.
That’s why hard work is perceived wrongly and often misdefined either as a magic pill or, contrary, as nonsense. But it is unacceptable to be treated this way. Understanding the amount of tasks and its compliance with your trading goals is crucial to be realised. Only such a fusion will make you profits and set up your high-key mindset.
