Dealing With Doubt, Fear and Conflict While Trading

[I]jgray110: A trader from FF says a Phd found that 99.6% of forex traders lose long-term, that is telling the new trader, every trader, to pay attention to feelings, any doubt, conflict, fear, or greed is settled by money risk management, manage the risk not the reward, manage the reward by managing the risk, truth-test, how much can a trader afford to lose considering all assets, including liabilities and dependents, and bearing in mind the above statistic, it can easily all be lost.[/I]

[I]mrchilled: The only statistic that a forex trader needs to [B]worry[/B] about is % return on their trading as every other statistic (especially the one of % who lose) is unproven and made up.[/I]

Mr. Chilled, Your’e damn right, [B]Worry[/B] is an emotion that is also settled by risk management for us [B]outsiders[/B], positive % return for most of us [B]outsiders[/B] is very difficult because we have more obstacles than you guys, we have retail not wholesale. I am [B]not[/B] saying don’t trade, I am saying [B]1. manage the risk not the reward[/B], 2. manage the reward by managing the risk, 3. Loop: repeat 1 and 2.

This is from the standard live compliance form (Broker name provided on your request), WHEN YOU SELL, [B]THE DEALER IS THE BUYER[/B]. WHEN YOU BUY, [B]THE DEALER IS THE SELLER[/B]. As a result, when you lose money trading, your dealer is [B]making money[/B] on such trades, [B]in addition to[/B] any fees, commissions, or spreads the dealer may charge. And from the same form:
QUARTERLY RETAIL FOREX CUSTOMER ACCOUNT DISCLOSURE
Quarter Total Non-Discretionary Accounts % of Profitable Accounts % of Non-Profitable Accounts
4th Quarter-2009 35828 34.69% 65.31%
1st Quarter-2010 34947 28.62% 71.38%
2nd Quarter-2010 9053 31.24% 68.76%
3rd Quarter-2010 8544 30.96% 69.04%

This is from the compliance form the broker had me sign. This is fact. [B]65 to 70% of traders lose[/B]. By my definition, traders who lose are [B]outsiders[/B]. We can’t afford to fold our arms behind our back like you. Most of the people I work with are not even trading. They are struggling to make a living for their families.

Sounds to me like lake of confidence in your strategy, or even worst not having a strategy.

Whenever I lose, I won’t show any infantile reactions. I can be encouraged by a good trade, but I won’t be discouraged by a bad trade. Some others may abandon this way of life, but I won’t. People’ negative thoughts and comments on trading aren’t a headache to me. The outside world is very hard – harder than we may think. I’ll let go of the past and look forward to a brighter tomorrow. Trading is my niche; I’m comfortable with it. If you invest the time in becoming an expert then the financial reward can be huge. I’ll continue following the simple time-tested winning strategies. What benefits can you derive from an excellent speculation strategy if you fail to stick to it consistently irrespective of alternative winning and losing streaks?

I think that most of statistics of winners vs losers aren’t very reliable, because the people that win are just a few but they win big money with premium accounts and the ones that loose are many but they loose with mini or even micro accounts, there also are a lot of scamers in the market where people loose money but they are not in statistics;
so everybody just take extra care, this job is hard

If we have analyzed the market before taking up the trade then there is no question of being doubtful because we are prepared for the trading and when no doubt there is no fear and conflict in mind.

yup, the guys who usually win consistently tend to be with deep pockets. They have gotten to that level through consistency though. No magic … just raw work, trying things, strategies, systems … then ultimately landing @ one that works. Even then smart traders diversify a bit in various asset classes. They know a ‘random’ statement by some central banker or a ‘air-strike’ can disrupt their trading heavily.

If we have good knowledge regarding the forex market and able to manage the account efficiently then for sure we can eliminate all of these out of our mind.

Doubt creates fear and uncertainty, which might affect your trading which is not good at all. Having good vibes helps a lot, if your not feeling well then don’t trade at all.

What I sometimes do whan I open a trade, is set the alarm clock to 5 minutes and minimize MT4 to learn not to think and mind about every tick movement after I opened a trade. When I opened my first trade, my heart beated faster. Now, I’m more calm but the alarm clock method is still good for me. :smiley:

this is a very good method, too bad I can’t use it, or I didn’t know about it; I’m always stuck to my monitor and do bad things; I think it’s better to take decisions, enter the trade and let the transaction go, instead of adjusting it due to market change;

In beiginning we are more inthese feelings of fear and doubt. Gradually we know market nature . We learn to take risk . I wouls suggest to take small risk they will make you confident when you will be in low loss and get small profits. Youwill end your doubts as making good profits.

When I’m in doubt, the solution is very simple: I get out because you can always get back in. I won’t trade what I’m not convinced of. I get the hell out because I want to save my money and go on to the next trade.

I completely agree. If you have doubts it’s better not to trade at all. I’d rather not profit anything than lose money.

Mark Douglas said, "Most often, traders have four fears. There’s the fear of being wrong, the fear of losing money, the fear of missing out and the fear of leaving money on the table. I found that basically, those four fears accounted for probably 90% to 95% of the trading errors that we make. Let’s put it this way: If you can recognize opportunity, what’s going to prevent you from executing your trades properly? Your fear. Your fears immobilize you. Your fears distort your perception of market information in ways that don’t allow you to utilize what you know.”

Mark Douglas also said something about becoming a runner :37: …it didn’t help my trading at all:58:

All that is absolutely true, but I am not sure how it is helpful. Recognizing one’s fear in on its own does little to help you deal with that fear, although it is a first step towards that goal.

On principle I agree, but that advice is not very helpful when a trader is like me and they’re always in doubt.

The trading psychological extremely important, and the reason for that is simple: A trader is often darting in and out of instruments on short notice and is forced to make quick decisions. To accomplish this, they need a certain presence of mind.

Trading it self is conflicting when we try to analyze market. Feel what should do if enter at this point . All the time fear an doubt are with us. So trader need to have some confidence , do trading with managed plan then he can face less fear because he knows he can loose or with a specific amount .

It’s true that traders need confidence, but that is something that is hard to come by, even when you know you’re good at trading. At least that has been my experience.