Does anyone of you guys ever have headaches when analyzing the market or when the price goes against your analysis? My headaches started with just trading, but now, even when I am doing anything associated with thinking I get a headache. The headaches started after I made a huge profit than I had ever made before. Ever since then when I fail to achieve that profit target or am working towards attaining it, I get a headache. The headaches slowly fades away when I achieve the target or I find something destructing me from thinking.
Maybe you could add more formality to your trading to become more detached from it. So you will want to enter if you see ABC and you can set an entry order at the appropriate price. Then you will have a stop-loss based on DEF and a take-profit exit order at GHI and that means you have no more decisions to make on this trade.
Also I don’t spend a lot of time looking at charts. I use a spreadsheet with a few columns of TA features that I look for as set-ups: if one of the key features is not here I don’t even bother to hunt for the rest. I don’t look at discarded charts again until the next day when the TA will have changed.
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Headaches might be more probably from anxiety rather than too much brain work.
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As above it seems that you are suffering with trade anxiety. Perhaps set out your strategy as if it were code for a robot to follow and then follow it as such. I think you need to try and work on cutting out the attachment you feel to the trades. Also might help to lower your capital.
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Thanks for the advice.
Thank you for the advice.
I’ve had them before but it isn’t a constant thing. I usually just take Tylenol for them, but it shouldn’t be affecting you all the time or I’d think anxiety could be an issue?
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Too much thinking can put you in great danger.
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It usually affects me when my confidence in a trade is low
I know, you have no idea how many pain stops I took for the past 4 days. Sometimes one isn’t enough.
The headache is an emotional signal that needs to be managed, because it won’t go away. So, how do you remedy it?
First, understand that humans have evolved to protect suffering pain at all costs. The fight or flight syndrome - fear of losing out is prevalent. FX trading is not suitable for humans.
Losing trades are nursed, because if the market proves you wrong you suffer pain. If you fail to let winning trades run, your mindset is to grab a profit or suffer pain if you don’t. Understand that price action is not linear - it moves up and down and sideways.
I cut losing trades quickly, because although I hate losing, I hate losing big, more so. There’s always another trade awaiting. I scalp a winning trade when it reaches a profit zone, move the S/L up to breakeven, and let the balance run which is an easier relief from suffering pain.
Hope that helps.
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For now I’m taking pain stops. Thank you for the advice, much appreciated. I think moving my stop loss whenever a new swing is formed would definitely help.
Good advice. We are risk averse as a species. We tend to feel more pain from loss than elation from the equivalent gain. As you say, this has to be managed.
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