The only way to avoid frustration in the markets is to become rooted in your process. I don't need to know what your process is nor do I care. It doesn't matter, really. What matters is that your process takes the place of becoming attached to daily results. Following the process. Judging daily results by how well you remained grounded in the process. That is one more barrier that good investors must cross in order to become great.
I've mentioned countless times how I measure my decision making by the long-term expected value (EV) of the decision. I don't isolate each decision to buy, sell, hold, increase or any number of options I have on a daily basis individually. Instead, I look at the EV of the decision when weighed against my own process.
When you become rooted in the process, having confidence that the EV of your decisions will fall onto the positive side of the statistical meter over the long-term, then you can avoid frustration to a great extent. It is the frustration that comes with being rooted in results that disallows investors from functioning properly once they hit a rough patch. All of the ills that stem from frustration in the markets can be rooted in paying attention to raw results instead of attention to the process. Attention to the quality of the decision itself, as opposed to the immediate result of that decision is where peace with the markets is born from.
Knowing the EV of each of your decisions comes with time and experience. The intimate understanding of your own process. The more familiar you are with each facet of your process, the better your results over the l0ng-term. A guy like David Tepper or Bruce Kovner understands (consciously or not) the EV of each decision they are making when weighed against a long-term sample of similar decisions according to their process.
Get your process right. Get your mind right. Get your focus right. Results will follow.
