Discipline and patience are all about putting emotions behind and sticking to a set trading strategy even when faced with an unfavorable trading condition or scenario. From preparation to execution, being a more patient and disciplined trader can drive you towards success. It means being able to better control emotions, focus on the objective and manage efficiency to reach the desired output for the day. In the trial and error stages of trading, it is also what sets successful strategies from unreliable systems.

Once you know what to expect from your system, have the patience to wait for the price to reach the levels that your system indicates for either the point of entry or exit. If your system indicates an entry at a certain level but the market never reaches it, then move on to the next opportunity. There will always be another trade. On the other hand, discipline is the ability to be patient – to sit on your hands until your system triggers an action point. Discipline is also the ability to pull the trigger when your system indicates to do so.

Understanding why patience is important in forex trading is totally different from making it a practice. Some traders are so self-confident in their trading decisions that they forget to follow their trading plan and keep emotions out of the way. This could be a big waste on what could have been a great start or a long trading career. To stay away from these errors, it is important to always practice patience daily. Make it a habit to motivate yourself, especially if you had just recently been through a losing trade.

If you know exactly what your trading edge looks like and how to trade it there is no reason to not be a patient trader. In fact, by thoroughly mastering an effective trading edge like price action trading, you will find that you naturally increase your patience in the markets because you will know what constitutes a high-probability trade setup and what does not. Some traders decide to trade with no patience and thus gamble all their money away, other traders become skilled trading ‘snipers’ and perfect their trading strategy and trade the markets with a high-probability trading edge that is realized through the consistent application of patience.

Successful traders know through bitter experience over many years that without a strong trading discipline, their trading capital will not be preserved and their chances of trading profitability are much diminished. Successful traders also know the virtue of patience and the importance of being selective about which trades they execute and to let profitable trades run their course. Unsuccessful traders, on the other hand, are typically less disciplined and more impatient in their trading. They succumb to human emotions, second-guessing their analysis and/or professional.