Is there a way …:33:
Practice. Discipline. Accountability.
Extremely difficult to control your emotions.
after i have lost many trades … i start trading without any reason , just gambling … i realised that you need to bare in mind few things inorder to avoid emotions:
1- dont be greedy .( few pips is fine)
2-dont get angry when you lose some because every day is a new day . (lose today gain tommoro)
3-when you lose an enoromus amount . (take the rest of the day off )
4-always remember that your going to lose more … if you let your emotions play you .
If there is more points please share … because i think this is the most important factor in forex…
Personally i do not risk more 1% per trade per day, one trade is all i take a day and 25-50 pips is all i need a day… i do not have to deal with emotions as i stick with my trading plan on a daily basis. When i spot a potential entry opportunity, i pull the trigger, i’m not scared. If i’m wrong -1%, if i’m right +1,1/2%
your applying point 1 which is dont be greedy … thats what iam doing these days too … trading micros , and having enough money in my account that will avoid me from being trapped in an emotional disaster
My tricks:
- Trade on daily timeframe only. Check the market once per day, put in any orders if you see a signal, and log off.
- Have a daytime job to keep your mind off the market.
- Minimise “trade talk” with non-traders. They may project their ill-informed emotions onto you. It’s not their fault, but their extreme pessimism / optimism can tilt you.
- It’s probably a good idea to avoid talking with other traders when you have a live trade as well.
Trading should be boring. If you have thoroughly backtested your system(s), losses should leave you unfazed as you would have a historical record of wins and losses from your backtest, and know what to expect.
I guess you need to dig into what emotions actually are - looking outside of the box with respect to trading to fully understand what they are and how to control them.
The way I see it is this: We as humans make rational decisions based on what has happened in the past when we are faced with the question. We look, or rather think back to the historical choice we made and analyse what the outcome was. For example was the choice made favorable or unfavorable. It’s this which contributes to your emotions when faced with the same question at some point in the future. Your emotions will run a lot higher if you know you are going to repeat a choice which was unfavorable in the past.
If you apply this to trading then it’s kind of simple. You need to have a lot of back-testing with verified results. You can use these past choices to your advantage as you know what the likely out come will be based on your own statistics. It’s these past choices which should control your emotions as you have a past benchmark to look at.
So many new traders just start trading, not really knowing if the trades they are placing are really correct, they are using trial and error. This is fine, but your emotions will be all over the place as you have no historical evidence to base your decisions on.
This is of course just my thought 
I agree with King,
But trading the daily chart is a bit slow. You have to hone your discipline to also trade the lower timeframes. But 2,3 and 4 Is helpfull. There is a book from Livermoore, who was one of the greatest traders in the 30 and 40s. I think you will like it. He also excluded himself from other traders, as their opinions poisoned him.
Look for this book on torrent, or mail me.
In my opinion when it comes how to control emotions… first thing when it comes to my mind why do you want to control your emotions? Emotions are part of excitment, part of the game, part of the trading itself…
There will be always emotions when trading, there will be joy and sadness… what you will get more depends on your strategy.
You should ask not how to control emotions but how to concentrate on trading and not getting distracted… here are some tips:
- discipline yourself, if you lack of discipline - step out from forex… this is not for you…
- accept that losses are part of this job, if you cant accept it - you will get crazy and will start posting topics like how to control my emotions
- make a plan, build a strategy and improve - improve ( dont make it over complicated)
thats it for now
Each bad trade, smack your hand with a stick,
Fear drives emotion…
Fear the Stick!!!
When the money at stake is insignificant that winning or losing is not going to matter.
But if you just want to win all the time regardless of how much money at stake, then trading is not for you.
Dance. In. Your. Seat.
A written “Trading Plan” that you follow every day or every trade will reduce your emotions because you know when to trade and when [B]NOT[/B] to trade.
Trading by emotions is a losing game.
Start building your trading plan and follow it religiously……
The best way to control your emotions is to blow your first account and analyze yourself. (in short)
Trading causes you to learn more about yourself than any endeavor. Thats why many fail to make it, because if something is wrong you’ve gotta change it before you can see your account balance grow.
Indeed emotion is an important part of trading.
Many people got their account wiped because they cannot control their emotions.
It’s an old thread, I know, but somebody else resurrected it
I saw some interesting videos by Denise Shull on this topic.
She says there’s no point trying to overcome emotions, its better to learn to become aware of them.
The trick is to not click the button.
She says it better than me, google her name
One thing that has really helped me is to use a trade manager. That way I only have to worry about entries and never about exits…the computer takes care of that. The key to making this work, though, is to adopt the mentality that you will NEVER close out a trade manually. You’ll always let the trade manager do so. This way, when you backtest your system, you can accurately predict where the trade manager would have pulled you out of the trade. If you start pulling the plug manually, you can never rely on any backtest because your actual behavior when in a trade doesn’t match the backtest’s assumed behavior. The exception to this rule is to manually close all trades before the weekend if trading on lower time frames.
It may seem like a simple tweak, but it really does help. Consider all the different “discipline” factors that one has to actually be disciplined about when trading completely manually. If you have a rule about moving your S/L to break even, you have to be disciplined about that. If you set your stop loss in a certain place, have to be disciplined about putting it there…and then be disciplined about not moving it. You have to be disciplined about moving your take profit in the same type of way. Lots of things to be disciplined about. With a trade manager you just set the S/L, T/P, and break even moves in the EA and go. Now you only have to be disciplined about two things: the first is actually pulling the trigger every time your setup is identified (no skipping signals) and the second is simply being disciplined enough to let the trade manager do what it’s suppose to do…that is resisting the impulse to tinker with exits. That’s a lot less to be disciplined about.
Get control over your emotions or you are going to end up wiping out your account. And yeah,as others have pointed out, use the stick and smack yourself lol.
On the discipline part, granted it is hard - think about it, if you are addicted to smoking (as a rule, most traders do smoke and one guess as to the “why”), how would you go about limiting yourself? Do you take any additional measures to control stress or trigger points? And the list of what you can and should do just goes on…
Of course, it does not help with so many websites prompting contrary tips on discipline - one even suggested “bingo” and how on earth does playing bingo help one to trade better is anyone’s guess.
Bottom line, rein your emotions in or you’re out…
Everyone is different, psychologically. Some are rattled easier than others, some require a greater level of reassurance and some are probably just not suited to trading. However, one thing that seems to work for most, and that is regularly promoted, is to ensure you have a very mindfull and well organised system of risk management.
you should, essentially, take most of the stress out of trade before you have even entered it. By this, I mean employ a good risk management, ensure that you have set your stop and loss levels, so that you are comfortable with the loss if it goes wrong, but equally able to let any profit run.