- Your trading goals and objectives must be possible to complete. They cannot be too abstract or too high. It is best to just execute a trade rather than being overly concerned with profits or achieving unrealistic performance standards.
- You must be able to intensely concentrate on what you are doing. While trading, it's vital that you have a detailed trading plan and control risk so that you can focus on monitoring the trade. Do not allow interruptions or anything that takes away your focus.
- You must maintain control over any psychological conflicts you may have as well as keeping control over those things that cause you stress. Nothing can be allowed to interfere with your concentration.
- Your trading must have clear goals and immediate feedback. A detailed trading plan helps you keep the goals clear. Similarly, the proper signals specified beforehand allows for immediate feedback.
- You must strive for deep and effortless involvement. Work on becoming so deeply involved in your trading that the everyday worries of life tend to be cast aside.
- Maintain a decisive sense of control over all your actions.
- Become so focused on your trading that you are no longer self-conscious; there is no self-doubt or self-reproach. Just focus on your trading.
- Be so intent that time seems to just slip away. You want the hours to go by like minutes.
- To have the kind of focus and intensity I just described, plan on trading only in very short intervals. You are human, not a machine. A period of 45 minutes of intense focus has proven to be best for most traders. Take a break of at least 5 minutes before you go back to trading.