Looking for advice on impulse control problems for trader with ADHD

Hi, I've been thinking about your question for a few days and wanted to share my perspective. I hope you find it helpful, and I'm happy to discuss it further.

First, I believe it’s essential to distinguish between a psychological issue and a strategy issue. In my view, many traders who struggle with "impulse control" are actually struggling from the lack of a clearly defined and proven strategy. Before attributing the problem to a condition like ADHD, which can shift responsibility away from what you can control, I would ask the most important question:

Do you have a specific strategy, with backtested data, that proves you would be profitable if you executed it flawlessly?

Without a proven edge, it's nearly impossible to practice discipline. When learning complex concepts like those from Al Brooks, it's tempting to trade everything. A better approach is to master one single setup first.

Here's a path to doing that:

1. Perfect One Setup in Replay: Know your exact entry and exit criteria. Understand what a perfect setup looks like and, just as importantly, when the conditions aren't right and you should not trade.

2. Build Unconscious Competence: Practice until you can spot your setup with a glance. You should get so good that you can anticipate when the setup might occur and what the probable outcomes are before they happen.

Only after you have mastered a strategy can you accurately diagnose your issues with impulse control. The vague problem of "a lack of discipline" can then be broken down into specific, manageable categories.

For example, let's say you identify revenge trading as a major issue. You can then focus solely on rehabilitating that one habit.

• Create a Rule: "I will not place another trade for 10 minutes after any trade." Use a timer.

• Observe the Feeling: During that 10-minute pause, become aware of the emotions that arise—the urge to jump back in and win your money back.

• Separate Feeling from Action: Realize that you do not have to act on this feeling. You can choose to observe its control over you without succumbing to it. The feeling may never disappear entirely, but you can learn not to act on it. (There is even software for platforms like NinjaTrader that can be programmed to lock you out of trading for a set period).

Once you've made progress on that one issue, you can apply the same method to others: not sticking to your strategy, taking profits too early, or oversizing. By breaking the big problem of "impulse control" into smaller steps, you can systematically address each one and build lasting discipline.

BTC is a methodology of understanding how the market operates.  What you describe though is how you interpret the markets through your lens.

The benefit is that ADHD allows an individual to focus and learn areas of interest at a high rate.  However, there is the drawback of patience during periods of "boredom" and an impatience to perhaps perform.

You may find a tendency to want to trade very small timeframes, and this can be difficult as the variance and opportunity is greater, and so is the potential for taking trades at inopportune times.

A meditation practice may be of use, as well as not trading less than the 5 minute chart until sufficient skill is built.  This allows you to see "the signal" vs the noise.  Afterwards, one can move to a faster frame if able to maintain consistency.

Consistency in approach and selection, and the patience to operate from that frame can lead to success.  It will be a balancing act, which is always personal for each individual.

Hopefully helpful and good trades to you!

for a very long time, i have always thought ADHD should be accepted until i understood that 90% of the people cannot stay on one task for a long time (or even short time) before their mind drifts away and leads to compulsive thoughts. which if you really think about is a HUGE drawback for traders. I have dealt with this personally and you have no idea how i have taken the power back from the mind. MY suggestion:

FIRST - READ THE BOOK "POWER OF NOW"- Eckhart tolle. 
Read it first thing in the morning, when you are fresh and well rested. gives you slightly better chance to focus for a longer period. 

Second- READ IT AGAIN. and practice staying present all the time even during normal activities. (trust me) it works. in the beginning you may feel this might be pointless but knowing that this will improve your ability to make sound decisions while trading and during day to day activities is worth the try.

THIRD - read the book " trading mindfully - gary dayton". - this book will bridge the gap between any conflict you might have about how the first book will help with trading.

also youtube ted talk video : Unwavering Focus - Dandapani. 

ADHD should not be accepted as a problem that has no solution. your mind is a muscle, just because we cannot see it grow does not mean it doesn't grow, when we work on it. you will notice that your awareness will dramatically increase by reading and practising the ideas in these two books.

I hope this resonates with you a little, as i was once in the same boat. 

Trade the 10 or 15m chart, regardless if one has ADHD or not. It's a good timeframe to be.

A lot of good ideas here, all these things make sense:

1. meditation practice (perhaps that might help)

2. not using smaller timeframes, sticking to 5m or even higher

3. Trying 10m or 15m (I actually love the 10m chart, I trade on 5m now but maybe I'll try it)

4. Not touching my mouse (that's going to be hard because I'm always doing something with it, but maybe that's the problem)

5. Not taking any trades for a week but still watching the market (there's an interesting idea, I actually thought of that earlier today, might give it a try)

Any other ideas?

I'm going to review my trades this weekend to see what type of setups and trading conditions may lead me to more impulsive entries.

I wonder if there is a difference in my impulsivity depending on the market cycle.

I wonder if using limit orders to enter trades instead of market or stop orders might help reduce impulsivity.

Thinking of other things like more mechanical rules as trade criteria or a maximum number of trades per day/week.

And a few more...

Ola Jean-Sébastien, look into self-hypnosis or induction for self discipline and impulse control, leveraging the techniques of NLP - Neuro Linguistic Programming.. such as creating achors to remind yourself before you click.

The key is to reprogram your mind to have a new neuro-pathway for action whenever the urge to click comes.. 

These can be done easily these days.. you don't need to see a therapist.. use Chatgpt to create an induction script for this purpose, then use a free ai soft voice to voiceover the script, and then listen to the tracks repeatedly until it is resolved.. you may need to create many versions of these self hypnosis tracks to find what works.. for that, you need some knowledge of NLP, which is widely available online for free..

Hope this helps..