Now, I say the
SECOND biggest challenge, because the first challenge is to know
what the hell you are doing in the first place! Frankly, if you
don’t know that – and most beginner
and many intermediate level traders really don’t – then you’re
going to need all the distractions you can get to keep you away
from the markets so that you don’t keep losing your money!
However,
assuming that you DO know what you are doing in the markets and
have a sound plan, then the next major challenge that you face
is distraction. It goes back to what we have discussed about the
need for mental focus. However, the issue of distraction is
wider ranging. When we spoke about Focus, we were talking about
the need to focus within all the vast variety of choices
available to you in the trading world.
With
distractions, the issue is much wider and potentially worse
still. Here, we are talking about literally EVERYTHING that can
distract you from your online trading. If you are a private
trader working from your home, this can be an endless list – the
postman, your cat, the need to get some bills paid, the
shopping, the fact that it’s a sunny day and you’d rather be
outside, surfing the internet, checking your email, the
telephone, odd jobs around the house, and so on. If you are in
this position, I am sure you can add to the list.
Even if you
are an investment bank trader, there are still plenty of
distractions. Some of the above – email and the internet for
example still apply – and there are others. Chatter from your
colleagues, meaningless bullshit meetings that you MUST attend
and are not allowed to get out of, the endless stream of media
“information” and more.
At least for
the institutional trader, it is understood that Trading is a
business. It is literally his/her job. There is daily
accountability involved and it cannot therefore be mistaken for
a hobby and treated as one. However, for the person working at
home, this is a much easier mistake to fall into, especially at
the very start, when you may not have decided upon your trading
routine.
Speaking
personally, I have to say that distraction is something that I
have a big problem battling against, since I do operate from
home. The problem is that if your mind is not totally focused
upon what you are doing in the financial markets, and getting
the process right, the margin for error quietly widens and
things can start to go wrong.
The key point
to come back to is that Trading has to be a business, if it is
intended to be your primary source of income for yourself and
your family. If that is the case, then it is imperative that you
treat it with the seriousness that it deserves. That means that
even though you may be working for yourself at home, you need to
impose some business disciplines that you would find in a
standard office environment.
If at all
possible, you should establish for yourself a separate room for
your online trading. Wherever possible, you need to give very
serious thought to closing the door to family and pets in order
to concentrate on what you are doing. (Now, I know that this is
hard because my two cats basically have total access to me, and
I can’t see that changing. But as the saying goes: do what I
say, not what I do!)
Let’s not
forget that neither your friends, your pets, nor your family
would have access to you if you were working at an office job
somewhere, would they? Hence, closing the door closes out an
enormous source of distraction.
Use effective
Time Management principles to deal with other distractions. In
other words, schedule other things that need to be done
appropriately so that they do not interfere with your trading.
Maybe you need to fix upon a time when you check and deal with
your email ONCE in the day, or at most twice, but you CERTAINLY
do NOT keep looking at it every five minutes or so.
Do you know
what constantly checking your email all the time is like?
It’s like
going to your front door every few minutes to see if there is
anyone there! Did you ever think of it like that? Well, if you
would never do that, why check your email every 5 minutes?!
What’s the big
deal? Well, it takes time away from you focusing upon your
business, which is Trading, not email checking or chatting idly.
When you break your focus, then it takes a certain period of
time to restore it. If this keeps happening the whole time, your
mind is working hard just to stand still, i.e. to keep getting
back to where it left off last time.
THAT is why it
is so vital to get this under control. If not, it is not the
trading that is exhausting you, so much as the sheer amount of
clutter that you have allowed to invade your own brain.
They say that
failing to plan is planning to fail. Hence, starting today, sit
down and plan out what you can do to minimize the distractions
during your trading day. Consider the email challenge. Consider
too scheduling certain activities together, e.g. make all of
your outgoing calls at the same time, when you go out to the
shops, make sure that you get that post office visit done too.
Try to handle pieces of paper that come onto your desk ONCE, and
don’t keep coming back to them over and over again.
This is all
about organizing YOU, and you are unique. Hence, it is
impossible for me or anyone else to give you a list. You have to
come up with it yourself, and then go to work to reduce the
distraction to your trading. I’ve given you a broad hint in what
we have been discussing, but it is ultimately down to you.
Remember, your
online trading is a business, NOT a hobby. It will ultimately,
if it is not already, be your primary source of income and that
upon which your family depends. Hence, you owe it both to
yourself and to them to get serious and to get professional, no
matter whether you trade from home or on the proprietary trading
desk of the biggest firm on Wall Street.
