Practice Stock Trading Systems

There are a million reasons you can give yourself to avoid practicing your stock trading.  There are many other things in your life that are more fun or more enjoyable than sitting in front of the computer and researching and executing trades.  It often seems like you are getting nothing done when you are only paper trading on your stock demo account.  It takes a certain amount of dedication to stick to a well planned practice trading plan.  It is this dedication that will make you a better trader.  Of course there is a balance between training yourself to become a better stock trader, and living your life… but I’m talking about the times when you know you should be putting in some practice and you just don’t feel like it.

The first thing to do when you feel like you are deviating from the practice plan that you have set up for yourself is to remind yourself why you are doing this in the first place.  There is a reason you are putting in the hours of reading and research.  There is a reason you are getting on to the computer every weekday morning to practice stock trading.  What is that reason?  Why are you putting in this effort?  The exact answer is different for everyone, but you would be well served to sit down and write out exactly what that reason is for you.  Maybe something like “I practice trading stock in order to learn more about how the market works, and to develop a trading system to complement my long term investments”.  Or maybe “I am following a specific stock trading system to increase my discipline in trading stock as well as learn the value of discipline in other aspects of my life”.  Even something as simple as “I practice my stock trading everyday so I can make money” will help you define your goal.  There is no better motivation for a person than to remember that what you are doing will have rewards.

If reminding yourself of the rewards for your hard work is not helping you get down to practicing, then you may have to resort to a cause/effect type of self reward structure.  If you have promised that you will paper trade the market open 3 days a week, you need to hold yourself accountable to that goal.  If the weekend comes around and you have only put in one morning of practice on your paper money account, you may have to take away something that you normally allow yourself on the weekend.  Maybe you don’t allow yourself to play that round of golf that you’ve been looking forward to.  Maybe you leave the TV off all weekend.  Maybe you don’t get to eat dessert on Saturday night.  Whatever it is that you decide to take away from yourself should mean enough to you that you think about the stock trading practice that you missed.  The key here is not to punish yourself, but to make yourself accountable.  We know the only way to get better as a day trader is to put in the time on your practice account.  You have to find a way to practice consistently.

Related Posts

1. Practice Stock Trading for 2010
2. Opening a Practice Stock Trading Account
3. Welcome to Practice Stock Trading Systems
4. Stock Trading Training
5. Learn to Trade Stocks