How to control your greed

I have rarely had trouble controlling my greed because I am usually focused on preserving my account from incurring losses - it’s the fear and the anxiety that comes with it that I have trouble keeping under control. I believe I have got better at it in the past few years but there’s still room for improvement.

I can relate to that. Fear and anxiety can impair our common sense when making trading decisions. But when the rules of trading are carefully followed, we can manage these emotions well.

The main thing that has ever helped me deal with my emotions has been the accumulation of trading experience. Yes, I follow the rules, but I still have had difficulty dealing with my anxiety.

Talking about dealing with your anxiety, don’t you think you need to be patient with the market or maybe take a break and rest a little? Just trying to help!

Introspection and trading experience. Some lessons take us longer to learn than others.
For me personally it’s also greed. Greed manifests in different ways for all of us.

That is what I am doing, for the most part. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn’t. What do you do?

Well…just know that the market is always there.

No matter what you trade,be it FX,Stocks or Commodities,
there is always an opportunity nearby.

Do not chase trades,let em come to you…be patient
and always book your profits once you got what you
were looking for.

I move my stops as well, when the trade has moved significantly in my direction and I know a retracement will not takeout my new stop position. What get me sometimes is what pipballer is referring to, an over ambitious profit target. This usually occurs for me when I am not starring at the computer screen and the trade reverse on me. I think this happens most during high fundamentals that tend to retrace a large percentage of the initial move.

Your trading plan has a predetermined profit target?

How to control our greed? Not really sure if there is an answer to this question. Let’s be fair - we live in a greedy world, we are all greedy in a way. Even you, who read my post now, are greedy. We trade Forex because we want to earn more money than our jobs provide us, we all want that financial freedom and here is the big mistake - we mostly concentrate on “[B]earning[/B]” rather than “[B]losing[/B]”. Therefore, you get disappointed with yourself when losing and create negative emotions that affect your decisions. Before you win, prepare to lose!

Controlling emotions is extremely difficult, no matter how many posts I see with possible ‘solutions’, we only think we can control our emotions. On the other hand, greed is not always considered a negative thing, I believe all successful businessmen are greedy in a way. This is what makes you push yourself and go for more, so greed = motivation in a way

So, I guess is how you take it or how you use it

I think many traders are accostumed to that problem. If you can’t control yourself at all, if all you want is to knock off the bad deals and open another good one, you should develop a rule. For example, not to open a deal after 2-3 unlucky ones in a row.

Be honest on your trading plan! Greed is one of the most common problem here, but it’s true traders start their trading with a proper plan! However, they lose their momentum when they face consistent SL trades in their trading, now I don’t trade anymore after making my daily trading target, thus I deal with my emotions and greed!

Yes, I agreed with u regarding open another good trade, but should develop a rule. Not to open a deal after 2-3 unlucky one in a row… For this it depends on what kind of trader, experience trader or inexperienced trader. Even experience trader hv bad trade sometime too. But depending on his trading strategy on how to tacker it back. His mind is clear and he kn what he doing. His mind is controlling his emotions. For inexperienced traders it the opposite, once he hv few bad trade in a roll he will tend to let his emotions control over his mind, n he will do revenge trading. In the end bust his account. I hv a screen shot for reference. I’m a scalper n I hunt for reverse pricing. I hv this screen shot it call double trade. If an experienced trader when he was unlucky to hv 2 bad trade in No1 n no2 his mind is clear n the 3rd trade he makes sure it a winning. But for inexperienced traders it will turn into revenge trading… Cos when he saw lost too many pips he freaken out… Mind is blank, got scare don’t know what to do.


Trader is unlikely to become successful as long as he/she lets emotions affect the process of decision making. Greed makes us forget about self discipline and take extremely risky decisions, which lead to financial ruin as a rule. My advice - stick to the plan and always remember that there is nothing easier than losing money in the Forex market.

Greed is wanting more, more, and always more.

Overcoming greed isn’t complicated, when you learn when enough is enough, you will always have enough.

It is a difficult question for any person because controlling greed is like controlling yourself and that is the most difficult task of trading. Because as a human we are greedy of money and that moment we can not control yourself.

Yes, I very agree with u, we as a human we r greedy of money. For mi my thinking that the best way for new trader to really start trading on real account is beside they must know the market well, inclusive of price action n strategy. Then when trading, open a micro account. Put a default unit like example always only trade 100unit. Until he is confident of about 100 trade hitting rate more than 80% slowly increasing the unit to 150unit. Slowly when nx he increased to 200…but…If he start to feel fear n heart start to jump when he losing pips. Jump back to 150 unit. It means he still not ready to add in more unit. This may be able to help him control his emotions as not to revenge trading of losing pips.

Well, I seem a specific trading plan is very effective in this case! Like, if you don’t allow your instant decisions and follow your trading plan so honestly, then of course you’ll not face any unexpected result! And yes, money management is also an important part of my trading plan! Thus I handle my emotions and greed in my trading!

The best way to control your greed is thinking about all the money you could lose if you get too greedy and you don’t follow your trading plan.

A written trading plan, reviewed each day, is a great way to avoid distractions as is a trading journal.