Patience & Discipline - Amateur Traders vs Professional Traders

Amateur
Traders are not sufficiently selective when entering trades. When they see volatile price movements, they become impatient and enter trades in middle of nowhere based on emotion, fear & greed rather than waiting for their system to give a buy/sell signal according to their trade plan. They want to be part of market action, as soon as they open their charts and see volatile price movements. They don't think in terms of probabilities rather they give too much emphasis to an individual trade. They fear that if they don’t place an order instantly they might lose a golden opportunity to make money and when they finally place a trade, majority of the time it’s too late and they fall on trap to professional traders and enter at a level where these professionals are exiting their positions and as a result the market retrace and take out amateur traders stop-loss.

Professional
Traders understand importance of patience and discipline in this business. They stick to their trade plan and don’t panic when they see volatile price movements. They understand that there is no place for emotion, fear & greed in trading. They know their edge and understand that if they stick to their system and follow their trade plan they would be profitable in the long run. They know that price doesn't move up or down in a straight line and that after every impulsive move there would be a corrective move to entice more buyers/sellers and they don't need to jump in the middle of a fast moving train. Rather they are looking for an opportunity to buy/sell at a discounted price (wholesale price) to get a better risk to reward ratio on majority of their trades. They assess their success or failure based on series of trades rather than an individual trade. They think in terms of probabilities and fully understand that
there is random distribution between winners and losers. As such they don't get upset if the miss out on a trade or have couple of losses nor they get excited after few winners.

It's not the mathematical skill that's critical to winning, it's the discipline of being able to stick to the system.
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