For me, they could come from rational causes and irrational ones.
The rational causes come down to these two things:
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Preparations before a Trade, e.g. Capital, Knowledge, Skills, Timeframe Selection, Strategy Selection, Back testing & Forward testing, Journaling, Mood, Environment, etc.;
Never be satisfied with your preparations. Be vigilant about fine tuning them. Always ask one self, “How could I make them more effective and efficient? What did I learn from previous trades? What should I maintain? What should I avoid?”
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Mindset during and after a Trade, i.e. Have a Casino Mindset.
The Casino Mindset has been discussed many times by trading coaches in books, workshops, seminars for so long. But it seems some traders just don’t really put it to heart; including me for years. In my case, I just couldn’t accept even a single lose. Looking for the holy grail system was one of my toxic habits in the early days. I’m sure many of you had the same struggling too in some point in your trading journeys.
Now, during a trade when I have doubts and second thoughts I always remind myself to stick to the Plan. And every time I lose in a single trade, first, I appreciate myself for sticking to the Plan. And then, I tell myself to let it go and only focus on the aggregate number of trades, instead of mourning on that one loss or those string of losses.
For you who’re not familiar with Casino Mindset, I suggest you to watch this YouTube vlog by Adam Khoo on the subject: Trade Like a Casino for Consistent Profits by Adam Khoo.
His elaboration on the matter should be able to enlighten you to certain extent.
The key points of the Mindset are only two: (1) Manage and focus only on your Risks, the rests will take care of themselves, including profits; and (2) Only measure your trading success on the basis of large samples of trades, and hence don’t cry a river over your losses. Key Success Metrics for Trading are only: ‘Winning Ratio’ and ‘Reward to Risk Ratio’. Good-enough performances of those two on your Strategy are more than enough to make you financially independent if you’re patience and consistence enough.
If you believe you already take care of those two but they still don’t help with your nervousness or anxiety, the root cause may be from within yourself. Something irrational may be the culprit.
Things that’re already within your subconscious minds for years may block you to perform rationally. It could be due to past traumas. It could be limiting beliefs received from parents, teachers, and others, or even bad experiences. If that’s the case, no trading psychological books or articles could help you. Seek consultation from experts. Be it Psychiatrists or Coaches with expertise in alternative treatments like NLP, EFT, Hypnotherapy, Meditation, etc.
Also, there’s always a possibility that certain medical conditions are the causes. Some illnesses in nerve system, hormonal system, and digestion system are known to be able to contribute to the anxiety issue. You know what to do if that’s the case.
So, those are the possibilities why traders feeling anxious, IMO. It could be a single factor or multiple ones for each trader. There’s no single Panacea for all kinds of issues. Only you and the professional helps of your choice that could properly diagnose and treat you on that.
Cheers…