Play the Long Game: Why Patience Is a Competitive Advantage in Trading 

At some point, every football player dreams of scoring.

They picture a beautiful goal, the roar of a thousand fans, and their own face mirrored back at them in the match highlights. 

But game-winning goals are only possible with patience. 

For both elite athletes and traders, patience is the force which helps you make better decisions, manage your emotions, and see lasting success. 

Long term results are built over time, not in one short sprint.  

EC Markets x LFC Women Plank Challenge  

Watch how LFC Women demonstrate patience and stamina in this exclusive EC Markets plank challenge. 

EC Markets challenge Martha Thomas, Rachael Laws, and Gemma Bonner to a plank competition at AXA Melwood Training Centre.

Financial markets move quickly, and the world around us – from economic releases to geopolitical headlines – can demand our attention day in, day out.  

So, how do you, as a trader, remain calm and patient enough to play the long game?  

Let’s find out. 

Takeaways 

• Prepare a trading plan to keep decisions in check. 

• Be precise: fewer markets, defined stops, one trading style. 

• Let quality setups play out and avoid reacting to the market impulsively. 
  
  

Patience Lies in Planning 

Every trader needs rules. Without them, patience is impossible. 

Feeling relaxed enough to trade well starts with knowing exactly how you’re going to trade. That’s where a solid plan comes in. 

A plan drives out the noise, gives you goals to work towards, and ensures you have risk limits in place, as well as rules for how you’ll enter and exit trades.  

With these rules in place, you can trade with a clearer structure and avoid emotional decision-making.  

Here are some tips for building a trading plan: 

1. Choose your instruments: From gold and oil to forex and stocks, there are plenty of instruments out there to trade. Cast a small net and focus on just one or two. 

2. Pick a time: Consider when, and for how long, you can trade. This will help dictate which trading sessions you can join, and how many trades you can keep running at the same time. 

3. Consider Your Risk Appetite: Before trading, decide how much of your balance you can afford to lose. Let that number drive your trade types and position sizes. 

4. Prepare Your Mind: Track your emotions in a trading journal to catch impulse decisions before they happen, and consider mindfulness practices to keep your head clear. 

Find out more on How Preparation Builds Better Trades.

Do Your Research  

Although it can be tempting to start trading straight away, patience involves doing the research and groundwork first.  

Markets move in certain ways, depending on what you’re trading and when.  

Once you’ve outlined your trading approach in your plan, you can start researching how your chosen instruments and markets move, and what sort of reports or trends tend to influence  them. 

You can look at: 

• Common trading terms 

• The economic calendar 

• Related geopolitical & financial news 

• Market analysis  

These resources aren’t fortune tellers, but they can help you know what market trends to expect, when to enter or exit a trade, and how to make good decisions in the heat of the moment. 

Market Trends 

It’s also worth looking into how traders in your chosen market behave, and how their thinking drives the market.  

Instead of feeling overwhelmed by seemingly unpredictable charts, knowing how markets move in cycles, break from resistance levels, and reverse gives you a framework for what you’re actually seeing on the screen. 

Common market trends to look out for include:  

• Trending: Price moves consistently in one direction, making higher highs or lower lows. 

• Moving sideways: Price bounces between a ceiling and a floor with no clear direction. 

• Reversing: A strong trend loses momentum and begins moving the opposite way. 

• High volatility: Price moves sharply and unpredictably within short periods. 
  
  

Be Precise 

Footballers don’t sprint for ninety minutes straight, and experienced traders don’t spend hours glued to live markets. Nor do they let panic call the shots. 

Their patience is their precision.  

In trading, precision affects everything, including: 

• When you enter and exit trades 

• Where you set your stops 

• How much capital you risk 

• Which trades you skip entirely 

How to build precision in trading: 

• Focus on fewer instruments: Narrowing your focus sharpens your edge. Master one market before expanding. 

• Adopt one trading style: Pick a style that suits you – trend trading, scalping, or otherwise – and stick to it. 

• Use stop-loss orders: Set your stop-loss before you look for a take-profit. Never work backwards to justify a trade you’ve already decided to take. 

• Wait for the signs: Don’t guess the market. Wait for evidence that supports your setup, whether through technical indicators, price action, market structure, or major market events.  

• Consider your risk-reward ratio: Before every trade, make sure potential gains outweigh potential losses. If the ratio isn’t in your favour, skip the trade. 
  
  

Do The Maths 

Be precise with your overheads. 

Depending on the broker you use, trading can come with hidden costs, including:  

• Spreads: The difference between the buy and sell price. 

• Swaps: Overnight fees charged by your broker when a position is held beyond the daily market close. 

• Slippage: The gap between the execution price you expected and the actual price you received when it executed.  

The right broker changes everything. 

Those that offer tight spreads, fast order execution, and flexible leverage will make a big difference to your balance over time.  

Let Your Trades Run 

When a trade turns red, most traders wait, hoping it ticks back.  

But when a trade turns green, everything changes. Suddenly, the urge is to grab the money before it disappears. 

Of course, making gains is always good. But if you’re the sort of trader who lets losses run, and only collects small profits, then your balance will soon reflect this… imbalance.  

Instead, aim to make your average wins bigger than your average losses. Strong risk-reward discipline allows winning traders to outweigh smaller losses over time.  

Here’s how to approach it: 

• Decide in advance: Before entering a trade, decide how much you’re willing to lose, under what conditions you’ll exit, and what signals tell you a trade is still working. 

• Know your risk-to-reward ratio: Many traders aim for 1:3, meaning for every $1 risked, the target is $3 in return. At that ratio, you only need to be right 25% of the time to break even. Everything above that is profit.  

• Use take-profit orders: Set a take-profit level in advance. This locks in your target before the trade is live, which reduces emotion from the equation. 

• Let the market do the work: Set up your stops, then sit back and resist the urge to micromanage every tick.  
  
  

Take a Holiday 

The markets will always be there when you get back.  

Trading is a high performance activity.  

While consistency is always key, taking a break will do wonders for your mental health and clarity.  

Whether it’s a holiday, or just a set day each week, try to schedule in a day where you don’t check existing trades or start new ones, or check financial news.  

Bottom Line 

Trading can be exciting, and this is exactly what gets traders into trouble. Just like in football, adrenaline and FOMO can tempt even seasoned pros into making impulsive decisions. 

But when it comes to trading, working like this can lead to stress, decision fatigue, and burnout. 

The market will always present opportunities. Trying to score every goal is where things unravel.  

Wait for the right setup, make sure it aligns with your strategy, and enter with a clear head.  

This is how you play the long game.