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a couple of weeks ago I went full time on my trading operation (I'm a systematic trader, building automated FX strategies with Mutlicharts).
I am working from home, and I am surprised to find myself hesitant to sit down and work as hard as I should.
I am normally a disciplined person (e.g. the last 3 years I was working long hours on my first job, and coming home to work another 6 hours on my trading).
I am guessing that my problem comes mainly from:
- for the first time in my life I work on my own, without 'rules', deadlines and all those things that help in discipline
- I work from home, and when I look for excuses for a break, there are plenty
- needing some time to get used to the new work style (?)
I kindly ask anyone who has been through this process, to share any ideas that helped you keep your discipline and motivation for the daily grind.
Please note that I am NOT talking here about finding motivation when the trader is facing losses, I am only referring to the task of keeping your ass on the chair to do systems research, read up etc..
Thanks a lot
FastBull32
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
First... Is this really a problem?
If your system you are using now is working for you who says you have to put in X hours at your desk.
Now if what you are doing is not working for you then that is different.
Don't know if this will help or not but here goes, take what you like and leave the rest.
1. I bolded without rules in the quote because you have to have trading rules, and I have a feeling you already do.
2. Can't remember how I got the advice from Big Mike a while back but creating a journal if you have not done it yet on futures.io (formerly BMT) may or may not help.
3. I am impressed that you were working before and then doing 6 hours on your trading, are you doing the same six hours now?
4. Balance in life is key, and I myself am still working on coming closer to being in balance.
Lastly, if you type discipline in the search block and click search there are 15 threads on discipline already posted that you may check out on futures.io (formerly BMT)...
When I initially went full time I took a month holiday after quitting my job. It was a time to recharge and get my mind over an 8 year career. It was a time to reflect on my life up to that point and where I was heading. After that month I was recharged and raring to go. I couldn't wait to get stuck in.
Have you taken a break since quitting your job? If not, it may be a good idea. Making the move to full time is a huge deal. I feel some time to reflect and rest before going into it is a good thing.
With that said, once you do get stuck in you really need to treat this just like you would any other job. This is not a game. This is how you make a living in the world. Write down a daily schedule of everything that needs to be done throughout every day including breaks. Don't just have a rough idea in your head. Write it down, put it on the wall. Follow it every day. This is a job.
A problem I have is that I am trying to do too many things at once. Currently I am passing the CFA while working full-time, and also I would like to have enough time to learn machine-learning to apply it to data mine.
Maybe if you are like me, a good thing is to schedule how much time you will spend on each activity, this will allow you to prioritise what is important ?
I am not a good example because I never spent the time to start my own algo, but I thought that this topic is very interesting.
