Patience is one of the most underrated skills in trading. The best traders spend most of their time waiting, not trading. They know that forcing trades leads to losses, while waiting for high-probability setups leads to consistent profits. In this guide, you will learn how to develop the patience that separates professionals from amateurs.
Why Patience is So Hard in Trading
Our brains are wired for action. When we see charts moving, we feel the urge to participate. This instinct helped our ancestors survive, but it hurts our trading accounts. Understanding why patience is difficult is the first step to developing it.
The patience paradox: In most jobs, more activity equals more results. In trading, less activity often equals better results. Quality beats quantity every time.
Psychological Barriers to Patience
- Fear of missing out: You worry that the market will move without you
- Boredom: Watching charts without trading feels unproductive
- Need for validation: You want proof that your analysis is correct
- Impatience for profits: You want to grow your account faster
- Addiction to action: Trading provides excitement that waiting does not
The Two Types of Trading Patience
Patience manifests in two critical areas, and you need both to succeed:
1. Patience to Wait for Setups
This is the patience to sit on your hands when no clear opportunity exists. It means not trading just because the market is open.
Example: The Patient Trader
Sarah trades breakouts. On Monday, she identifies a stock consolidating near resistance. Instead of buying immediately, she waits for the actual breakout with volume confirmation. The stock fakes out twice before finally breaking out on Thursday. Because she waited, she enters with confidence at the right moment and catches a 15% move.
2. Patience to Let Winners Run
This is the patience to stay in profitable trades instead of taking small gains. Many traders are patient enough to wait for entries but too impatient to hold winners.
Example: Cutting Winners Short
Tom buys a stock at $50 with a target of $60. When it reaches $52, he feels anxious and sells for a quick profit. The stock then runs to $65. His impatience cost him a 30% gain because he settled for a 4% gain.
Strategies to Build Trading Patience
Strategy 1: Use a Maximum Daily Trade Limit
Set a hard limit on how many trades you can take per day or week. When you know you only have a few bullets, you become much more selective.
- Start with 2-3 trades per day maximum
- Track how this limit affects your win rate
- Adjust the limit based on your results
Strategy 2: Implement a Waiting Period
When you spot a potential trade, force yourself to wait before entering. This cooling-off period filters out impulsive trades.
The 15-minute rule: When you want to take a trade, wait 15 minutes. If it still looks good and meets all your criteria after waiting, take it. You will be surprised how many impulsive trades this eliminates.
Strategy 3: Use Alerts Instead of Watching Charts
Staring at charts all day creates pressure to trade. Set alerts for your key levels and walk away. Let the market come to you.
- Identify your key support and resistance levels
- Set price alerts at those levels
- Do something else until the alert triggers
- Only then evaluate if a trade setup exists
Strategy 4: Keep a Patience Journal
Every day, write down situations where you demonstrated patience and situations where you did not. Rate your patience on a scale of 1-10.
- What setups did you wait for correctly?
- What trades did you force?
- How did patient decisions turn out vs impatient ones?
Strategy 5: Calculate the Cost of Impatience
Review your past trades and calculate how much money impatience has cost you. Include:
- Trades taken without proper setups
- Winners closed too early
- Positions entered before confirmation
Real Numbers Make It Real
If you discover that impatience cost you $5,000 last year, that number will stick with you. The next time you feel the urge to force a trade, you will remember that $5,000.
Reframing How You Think About Waiting
Change your mental model of what waiting means:
- Old thinking: Waiting is doing nothing and wasting time
- New thinking: Waiting is actively protecting my capital and preserving my edge
Professional snipers do not shoot at everything that moves. They wait for the perfect shot. The waiting is part of the job, not separate from it.
Building Patience Through Your Routine
Morning Routine
- Review overnight developments calmly (no rushing)
- Identify 2-3 stocks with potential setups
- Write down the exact criteria that would trigger a trade
- Set alerts and step away from the screen
During Market Hours
- Only check charts when alerts trigger
- Use a checklist before every trade
- Take a 5-minute break before entering any trade
- If in doubt, wait. The trade can always be taken later
End of Day
- Review your patience score for the day
- Identify moments when you were patient and when you were not
- Plan how to improve patience tomorrow
What to Do While Waiting
Productive traders use waiting time wisely:
- Review past trades: Learn from your history
- Study charts: Build pattern recognition
- Read about trading: Improve your knowledge
- Exercise: Physical activity reduces trading anxiety
- Pursue other interests: Trading should not be your entire life
See Your Patience Patterns
Pro Trader Dashboard analyzes your trading history to show you patterns in your behavior. See which trades were patient and which were impulsive, and how each group performed.
Signs Your Patience is Improving
- You take fewer trades but make more money
- You feel comfortable with no positions
- You can watch the market move without feeling compelled to participate
- You hold winners longer and let them reach full potential
- Missing a trade no longer bothers you because you know another will come
Summary
Patience is not something you either have or do not have. It is a skill you can develop through deliberate practice. Start by limiting your trades, implementing waiting periods, and tracking your patience daily. Over time, waiting for the right setup will become natural, and your trading results will improve dramatically.
Ready to work on other aspects of trading psychology? Read our guides on building trading discipline and avoiding analysis paralysis.