One of the most common mistakes option traders make is trading too often.

You might think it would be something more complicated. Something like misinterpreting patterns, setting stops too loosely, or violating trading rules. But it’s not. It’s trading too frequently.

Why is this? I can’t say for sure, but I have a theory…

Most people (including me) were brought up believing they must work hard to make money. It’s almost like they can’t believe that making a lot of money could actually be easy.

Because of this, they end up trying to “work hard” at trading. And their idea of working hard is trading as often as they can.

It wouldn’t be so bad if frequent trading produced better results. But it doesn’t.

Traders who are stuck in their thinking and believe they must work hard to make money trading end up settling for bad trades just so they can feel like they’re putting in enough effort. Instead of exercising patience and waiting for a really good trade, they enter new positions regularly, no matter what!

This approach to trading is detrimental over the long haul. In the best case, your profits are reduced. And in the worst case, you’ve got to live with big losses.

Example: Jack R. made 41 trades in Sep 2007. If you do the math, that’s more than one trade a day. Now, Jack made a profit, but barely.

Then October came and his wife literally forced him to take an extended vacation. So he packed up his Cadillac SUV to drive around the country for a while and do some sight-seeing with his wife.

Since Jack is an option trader, he brought his laptop so he could still continue trading. But what he didn’t expect was that he rarely had an Internet connection.

Because he couldn’t connect to the Internet most of the day, Jack only made 26 trades in October. These trades were better planned and better executed.

Now, get this. Even though Jack “worked” nearly half as much in October, his profits more than doubled in one month’s time!

Here’s the point…

Trading doesn’t require you to work hard. Indeed, you might be sacrificing profits if you think of it this way.

Be a lazy trader instead.

Wait and watch for ideal set-ups before you risk money in a trade. Focus on making a handful of masterful trades rather than a string of so-so trades.

And stick to your trading rules. Be patient. Only take trades that meet your criteria precisely. Then sit back and enjoy your financial reward. This is why you should be a lazy trader.