Self-Directed: Make Solitary Trading Work for You

Believe it or not, some of the best traders in the world often struggle with solitary day trading. Let's look at solitude in a different light. Rather than dreading it, let's instead embrace all that's good about solitary trading.

Loneliness Can Cause Problems for Traders

It is understandable, really, why so many struggle with solitary trading. There is nobody else there to bounce new ideas off of. Nobody else to provide timely validation about existing ideas, or to mandate proper discipline and plan compliance. Consider from the onset that practically each one of these problems caused by solitary trading can be addressed. This does not necessarily mean solved!

Also, in this age of technology, many traders also have chat rooms and virtual meet-ups, or Skype with fellow traders to break the monotony. This can add an element of human interaction they would not normally have while simply trading at home.

Try to Embrace What's Really Great About Solitary Trading

Those who prefer solitary trading may just need a little pick-me-up every so often when emotional fatigue, frustration, or even boredom creeps in. And needless to say, solitary traders will be left to do this for themselves. But what if it were as simple as embracing any one, or all of the many benefits of solitary trading? The following benefits below are possibilities!

Easy Accountability

Why worry about the potential fallout from your trading decisions when you're the judge and jury, anyway? because you have (and properly enforce) a reward and punishment system of your own. You do not have to answer to board members or angry shareholders every time you suffer a losing trade!

So rather than being hindered by indecision, stay committed to your trading plan. It likely requires only that you act decisively under very specific conditions, and without fearing negative results or consequences.

No Second Guessing from the Outside

Solitary traders may sometimes miss having validation from others before they pull the trigger on new trades. They tend to overlook another force that's decidedly in their favor. This is an outright lack of interference, "noise," or second guessing from outside sources.

Many traders routinely interfere and second guess on their own. Regardless, it is much easier to trade "quietly" and decisively as a solitary trader.

Total Control of the Entire Trading Process

It's all-too-common in most day jobs for new processes and procedures, or some "big new idea" or directive to be sprung on you suddenly. Often it is at the least-opportune time. You may not even have a say in the matter! But solitary traders will never have to encounter such things. Every trade decision that gets made—and not made—is ultimately theirs.

There's pressure there, sure, but that's also empowering, and it means they alone can elect to keep the same procedures in place forever, or change them on a dime, just as long as they have valid reasoning and are prepared to be accountable for the eventual outcome.

Conclusion

In trading, you might say that the good news and bad news are one in the same: It's all up to you. And while the pressure and solitude does weigh on all of us from time to time, try to remember that solitary trading has plenty of unique benefits, too.

And, when taken the right way, solitary trading can be simple, fulfilling, and empowering, for outside influence and interference can often be minimized—or eliminated entirely—at the sole discretion of the trader. So the next time you feel weighed down by the very nature of solitary trading, try escaping it in the most unlikely of ways: By putting the power of solitary trading right back in your favor.