Patience Is a Virtue, Especially in the Options Market

The following is a recent conversation with a local highway cop.

State Trooper: “What’s the hurry, Mr. Grossman? Why were you speeding 85 in a 65?”

Me: “Well, officer, sir, being a senior, I don’t have as much time left on this earth and, given that I have so much to do with such limited time, I have to go faster.”

State Trooper: “That’s a new one. Stay here, I’ll be right back with your ticket.”

Patience is not optional in the market; it is mandatory. Think of it like a muscle. The more you exercise it, the easier it becomes.

Here is a simple exercise to practice patience: try driving the speed limit. As one who likes to drive fast, this is very difficult for me, but I will sometimes commit to cruising the speed limit for, say, the next grueling 10 miles — usually late at night when I am not disrupting traffic. I hate every second of it, but the more I practice, the easier it becomes. I found that I don’t arrive at my destination much quicker but I tend to be more relaxed, and it is less expensive.

Patience is a virtue that pays huge in this business.

The following is from Jerry K., one of our subscribers:  “I went in big time for me on the Pick.  150 contracts.  Got in at $2.55 and quickly put in my close for 6% & watched in horror that it had dropped almost $1 in the next half hour.  I was down over $12,000 about the time the <trading room> broadcast ended.  … I was not able to check anything all day, & I was wondering whether or not I had made a very expensive move in SPY. Your comment at the end of the broadcast today about young people not doing well in day trading because they don’t have patience resonated with me all day. Well, to make a long story longer, when I finally was able to open my email here in Seattle, there were the most welcome emails from Schwab letting me know the trades were completed and I ended up making around $2500.  Once again, thank you for your guidance and wisdom.”

Jerry exercised patience and pulled a loser out of the fire, turning it into a very profitable winner. Well done!

Have you ever exited a loser, then continued to watch it as if it is still your trade, only to watch it come back into what would have been a nice profit? Talk about being a masochist and getting burned twice!  It need not happen like that. And successful, wealthy traders do not trade that way.

Of all the attributes required for success on the market, patience is right at the top. There will be days when you strike gold early on. But oftentimes, you may need to wait. The market delivers on its own time, not yours or mine.

When you properly do your homework, you will enter your trades with confidence and conviction, and then remain there until your profit targets fill. Markets do not travel in straight lines up or down; they zig zag. Like a dancing partner, the market takes two steps forward, you take two steps back. Then the market takes three steps back and you take three steps forward. When you hit your goal, thank the market, sit down and wait for the next song.

This is just one nuance we teach in our Trading Room that is likely not found anywhere else. In fact, of all the courses I took many years ago, not a single soul talked about this very key attribute. It is for this, and many other reasons, you should be in the Trading Room, if you have not already subscribed. Want to know more reasons? Click here to join us at 8 p.m., ET, this Saturday for our free Fireside Chat, Intro to Trading/Week in Review session.

Already familiar with calls and puts? Then you qualify to be in our ever-popular Trading Room. Click here for more information and to subscribe. Ahren Stephens and I host this special event, daily, 9:20 to 10:30 a.m., ET. We have over 40 years of combined experience in the stock market. You would be wise to take full advantage of it. Simply put, you won’t survive in this business by trying to learn all the expensive lessons yourself.

Join the rest of the DayTradeSPY’ers… in the Trading Room!

Create great trades!

P.S. We are excited to invite you to a free, live webinar with George Gilder on Thursday, Feb. 15, at 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. In this Startup Investing Masterclass, George is teaming up with Jon Medved, the founder of OurCrowd, to discuss investing in private placements. George and John Schroeter from Gilder’s Private Reserve will be interviewing the CEO of George’s latest AI startup pick… so you’ll be receiving a great startup pick just by attending! Click here now to attend this amazing event.