The Power of Deliberate Practice in Your Trading Routine
The 4-Step Feedback Loop for Trading Success
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One of the patterns I see the most? Traders with great capability falling short of reaching their full potential because they lack a strong, structured process to support their execution.
Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers” book popularized the idea of the “10,000-hour rule” for mastery of any skill. However, a small detail needs to be highlighted: how you practice is just as, if not more, important than how much you practice. And this changes everything!
Marko Gargenta puts it well in his post Mastery Through Deliberate Practice:
While putting in the time is necessary, it is not enough. Once you learn to drive, the years of driving do not make you that much better. Doing something that we’re comfortable with doesn’t lead to improvement. So take the proverbial “years of experience” with a grain of salt.
Through my years of coaching and meeting new traders, I've seen some achieve profitable consistency after two years of experience, and I’ve seen others struggle even after a decade. Yes, you read that right.
This discrepancy boils down to the disparity between mere practice and deliberate practice.
If you want to accelerate your trading progress, forget the idea that the biggest amount of work is through repetition of execution.
Repetition is undoubtedly important, but the way you execute and the feedback systems you have in place maximize that execution. Deliberate practice is the way to go.
What does that look like in trading?
A feedback loop with four crucial steps:
Practice
Data Collection
Evaluation
Adaptation
Today, we'll delve into the last three steps in detail so you can get to know what an elite trader’s routine looks like.
By the end of this read, you’ll be well-equipped to transform your current trading practice into deliberate practice for faster progress.
Let’s move beyond executions and examine the foundation needed to support outstanding trading performance.