Intraday Discipline Tracker

I realised during the week that two of the concepts we discussed in previous years could be combined in a way to help with intraday discipline.

The First Concept: Don’t Break the Chain

This was introduced back in 2013 via the following article: Don’t Break the Chain – A Simple Tool to Improve Consistency

Please read the article to get full instructions and to download the PDF template.

But the essential concept is the use of a tracker at end-of-day to confirm all daily pre & post-session admin tasks have been completed. The article shows the following example:

For each component of our admin we place a green tick to confirm the task is complete.

The beauty of this is that once you get a chain of ticks, it’s human nature to not want to break that chain. You will feel a natural desire to keep going as long as you can.

Mindset hack successful. Daily admin discipline achieved.

Again, review the original article to get a blank copy of this template in PDF form.

The Second Concept: Breaking your Day into Shorter Performance Blocks

This has been mentioned a few times, but the one that comes to mind is a recent 2021 social media post:

Remove the pressure to perform for hours on end. It’s just 10 minutes.

In this post, we sought to achieve complete focus on the market and our trading process.

But the concept can be used for any other performance activity or outcome. Avoiding social media. Relaxed body, smooth breathing. Positive outlook.

Or trading related outcomes. No FOMO trades. No “unfavourable conditions” trades.

Whatever disciplined outcome you seek to achieve, there’s no pressure to do this all day. Just ten minutes.

And then another 10. And another 10. And on and on.

Combining the two concepts

The idea might be immediately obvious by now.

The tracking associated with “Don’t Break the Chain” was an end-of-day process. And it’s effectiveness comes from the human desire to “not break the chain” once we have a couple of green ticks in a row.

But there is absolutely no reason why it cannot be adapted to intraday use.

Ten minutes at a time.

(Or 15 or 30 minute blocks, or whatever works for your needs!)

In this example the trader was assessing their ability to maintain focus and to ensure no invalid trades were taken in each ten minute period.

The outcome… a reasonably successful attempt with some minor slips. Worthy of review post-session to find improvement.

The following link will download the Intraday Discipline Tracker in PDF format. Be sure to print it in Landscape. https://yourtradingcoach.com/images/stories/articles-2022/intraday-discipline-tracker-template.pdf

I hope you find this useful in helping to maintain and improve your intraday discipline. It’s no quick-fix. But I expect your desire to “not break the chain” will help. And the outcome each day will highlight areas that demand improvement.

Happy Trading,

Lance Beggs

 

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