Pointing to signs of a turnaround, with Diane Garnick, Invesco; Arthur Hogan, Jefferies; Doug Hirschhorn, trading coach; and CNBC’s Dennis Kneale. View the video online at my blog.

Losing patience can cost you a lot of money.

It’s true, the Market can be frustrating, especially when there is a lot of uncertainty. And that can lead traders to lose patience, which is a classic portfolio killer and often leads to (watch the video online now):

1. Over trading Making way too many trades
2. Making sloppy trades with no edge No edge, no trade
3. Poorly-timed trades at bad levels Trading less efficiently than you should

Fortunately, for traders, patience is a skill that can be learned. But first, you have to know the three reasons traders lose patience:

1. Fear of Missing Out You hear about others making money and have a compelling fear inside that if you don’t participate now, you’ll miss out on an opportunity to make money.
2. Boredom You get tired of sitting on the sidelines, watching things happen for others. As a trader, you want to participate and getting involved is an easy thing to do.
3. Trying to make up for previous losses We’ve all come through a time recently where we’ve lost a lot of money in our portfolios. We’re frustrated and want to make it back as quickly as we lost it.

There are four simple ways traders can learn the skill of patience:

1. Use “feelers,” small positions to help you find the direction. Like a golfer throwing blades of grass in the air to find out which way the wind is blowing, traders can use small positions to find out which way the market’s going.
2. Scale slowly into or out of positions. This allows you to express more patience with your portfolio and your trades, and will help you build the right positions at the right time.
3. Document what triggers you to lose patience. Once you recognize those triggers, you can do something about those behaviors.
4. Have a build rather than a make mentality. Trading is a game of processes. You want to build days to make weeks, build weeks to make months, and build months to make years.

Over time, having patience will allow you to be successful and your portfolio to grow.

Let’s be honest, trading is not rocket science. In fact, trading success has little to do with how smart you are. Rather, it’s more about your mental process. Successful traders generally do many of the same things, regardless of which market or product they trade. Here are five steps to successful trading (watch the video online):

1) Establish a game plan and follow it. Many traders make the mistake of trading without a game plan. And some who have a game plan fail to execute. You must have a game plan and follow through with it.

2) Only trade when you have EDGE. Just like a hitter waits for his pitch, you have to wait for the right trade — and make sure you have an edge.

3) Use solid risk management. You must have stops in place and, more importantly, you have to stick to those stops. When the market goes down and you hit that number, you have to say to yourself. ‘I put the stop there for a reason, and just because I’m losing money is not a reason to ignore a stop.’ Have the stop in place, use solid risk management, take the stop and move on to the next trade.

4) Be Resilient. You have to be able to deal with setbacks. Statistically, you’re going to lose money about half the time and make money half the time in trading. In short, you’ll have to deal with failure on a regular basis. And when it happens, you have to have a ’so what’ attitude. That doesn’t mean you don’t care, you just have to realize it’s not the end of the world. There’s always another trade, another opportunity, around the corner.

5) Keep it Simple. The market can only go up, down or sideways at any given time. Many traders try to out think the market, but at the end of the day, you have to keep it a simple game. Keeping it simple will help you improve your trading success.

The S&P has been stuck in a 300-point range, from 700 to 1,000, since last October. There are seven reasons traders fail to make money in range-bound markets.

1.) They forget to look at bigger picture and adjust style as markets adjust. Some traders think using the same investment approach for trending markets and range-bound markets is being “consistent.” But in range-bound markets, you have to be more mindful of when things are at the top of that range or falling towards the bottom.

2.) Overcomplicate things rather than just keeping it simple. In short, dummy it up a bit. Accept the fact that trading is really a game of up, down, and sideways and you can inprove your trading profits.

3.) Fear of missing out on that home-run trade. Trading is really about making small money on a lot of trades rather than hitting that $1 million trade. All traders miss out on a great trade somewhere in the world. In fact, the home run trade could actually turn out to be a whiff. Remember, sometimes the best trade is the one you don’t make.

4.) Think “I have to be right on a lot of trades to make money.” Wrong! Some of the best traders in the world have winning percentages lower than 50 percent. Success in trading really is about how much you make when you’re right, and how much you lose when you’re wrong. Keep that spread wide, and you’re on your way to success.

5.) Believe they have to trade without emotions. First of all, it’s impossible because all humans have emotions. What you need to do is learn how to control or compartmentalize them so they don’t end up making decisions for you. Keep your emotions in a bottle and you’re on your way to success.

6.) If I lose money, I stink. Sometimes, you make money on bad trades and lose money on good trades. More important is the caliber of your trades. Do they have edge? Are they high-caliber trades? Judge your success based on that information, rather than your P&L.

7.) They take losses “personal.” The market is not out to get you or anyone else. We’re just operating within its context. If you treat it like a business, you’re much more likely to have success in range-bound markets.