My emotions were the main problem initially.
yes it is true that when we start getting emotional in our trading then the chances of getting a loss are greatly increased.
Trading is a psychosocial game. If psychology is not right in trading, it is never possible to make a profit. Emotions are a part of psychology. So if you want to survive in trading, you must control your emotions. If you want to control emotions, you have to manage discipline. You have to work according to the trading plan all the time and maintain a positive mindset. You have to be happy with whatever you get rewards from trading. Another big thing is to do regular meditation. Meditation can control emotions.
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With which broker your trading
My biggest struggles have been overtrading and changing systems the first moment they lost.
It became chronic at one point, severley affecting multiple areas of my life.
Trading is hard for sure if you suck at it. When you no longer suck it becomes quite enjoyable.
Yes, you are absolutely right. We are human being. Controlling our emotion is the most difficult thing when we are trading in this risky market.
Looking back, I laugh at how many systems I tried out just to find the non existent holy grail I though was the key to trading success.
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Every trader starts their trading journey with the wrong foot, they start looking into systems and spend quite a long time doing this. And while there at this they get sucked into a narrative and into a dream that is not real. This creates some psycologic barriers that are hard to overcome later.
Look at most new traders, they want to become a scalper or a daytrader, why is this? It is because they saw a guy that he claims that he is a daytrader so that becomes their goal.
They want to trade the 5m, 15m, 1 hour chart, why? because they saw a guy claiming that he does it and they want to do it also.
They wont listen to anyone that says that they better forget about scalping or daytrading and that they should trade longer timeframes. Why is this?
This is because they have been sucked into the dream of becoming rich trading forex and they are GREEDY bastards now, they want to scalp and daytrade because they think this will allow them to make money faster, they think that some day they will turn on their computer and scalp the market everyday and make money consistently every day.
Well if this is you, you have a problem, and yes you guessed it you are a GREEDY bastard, for me this is the hardest thing to control when you are trading your GREED.
If i could go back this would be the first thing that i would work on, on how to control my greed. Its hard because you will always see that guy that says he is a scalper or daytrader and he is making money and the temptation to try and find a way to make scalping work for you will be high, the temptation to use high leverage to make lots of trades, your mind will always tell you, well maybe i can. And everytime you listen to your mind, things might go well for some weeks, but then there is going to be that day that you are going to ā ā ā ā up and there you are again lost money, still cant controll yourself and this will happen over and over again untill you adress this problem.
If you are starting my advice would be, force yourself to control your greed, set a goal of making 2% every month for 6 months and force your mind to stick with it, 2% and you are done, dont go and try to go for 3% or 4%. If you achieve this then go for 3% for the next 6 months.
At this early stage its not important how much money you will make, the important thing is to develop your mind and be able to control yourself.
THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT and you either start doing it now, or you will hit your head on the wall ( severall times if you are as stupid as i was) and you will realize that nothing will work if you cannot controll your GREED.
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Hmmā¦most people talked about over confidence which result over trade and possibly blew up accounts. Although iām not a experienced trader but I do suffer different kind of struggles which is under-confidence
This trouble is as destructive as over-confidence. I tremble every-time when itās time to pull the trigger and hesitate and finally persuade myself iām not ready. In the end, whole year passed, I got nothing, no experiences, no loss, no gainā¦only wasted precious time and self loathing.
Do you ever see the movie Turbo? The snail? I reminded myself not to be a garden snail who settled for less. Be the Turbo and be legendary.
A quote from the movie:
āTake a chance and risk it all or play it safe and suffer defeat.ā
This is interesting - I literally cannot understand why you would delay so much.
Ive heard of it happening, and obviously goes to our different psychological makeup.
How much would you have been risking per trade? Maybe your one of those in the 0.5% risk category
Also it may be timeframe based - I panic like a ā¦ when trading intra day but end of day is no big thing.
Ironically I also panic when I place trades from weekly charts.
However donāt think you need to get rid of your fear - at least youāll always use a stop loss!
But great traders are born when they can separate their emotions from the actual trading - for example I often take trades I donāt think will work but I know from experience my thinking is usually wrong
Hi there,
Sure, i do use SL and controlled risk 2 percent of total capital per trade. But my personality is timid and always look for safety before leap. I canāt accept I enter a trade without a holy grail system. I lost a few trade and go back demoā¦ keep discarding system once found thereās chance to loseā¦
And there you have it, I was fall into the spiral of chasing holy grail due to my fear of losing.
I guess ego can run wild if not taken care. especially when truth is in front of me but yet iām so blinded by my ego.
Yes, I do agree with you, emotion is not something inherently bad. Itās like what Ancient One said from Dr. Strange movie: We never lose our demons, Mordo. We only learn to live above them
At some point we do say enough is enough when it comes to the holy Grail
Searching for the perfect system is a type of perfectionism - which is a bad thing not a good thing
I finally realized that no holy Grail was going to make me a better trader, when I had a motorbike accident.
I should have been concentrating on the road. Instead I was thinking of my new breakout system!
It was the culmination of many wasted and depressing years, but after that accident I really did just say āahh fā¦ itā better stick to what Iāve got
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Following my trading rules when after losing 2-3 trades in a row and breaking risk management rules trying to cover my drawdown
emotions can hamper your trading. I have faced the same when I started but eventually we have to find a way out.
One of mine was cutting winners too early. I was always ready to let the losers run and then when i got a winning trade even if it was 5pips id take the profit skewed my RR completely
I agree with Johnscott. There is absolutely no holy Grail in forex. There is only a quest to reach your goals, for which, you need to find a path
Hello I am new to trading but I do suffer from not having confidence to win and I suffer from having negative thoughts that Iāll lose. How I can overcome this issue?
Hi, so i have been into trading for more than a year now (live account, i did practise on a demo account for a few months before that) My first problem was that i became over confident within a few months and because of this i often found myself over trading (which just blew my account). Another problem that i faced initially was not having my control on emotional trading, but i believe with time and practise one does overcome all this.
I know what you mean. I spent along time overtrading - really just trying to make up losses sustained in the very early days.
If there is one thing I know itās how hard trading (and life) can be when you get into a vicious cycle
I lived that life for many years and probably know more than most about being a losing trader.
But there is light at the end of the tunnel. If you are wise you can digest the mistakes of others - and generally get a hold of your own psychology you can do well.
I was kicked in the teeth by the market for 8 years, lost a marriage and almost lost my sanity too
But we all have our tests, likely yours will not be as tough as mine.
The reason I post on Babypips is because if there is one thing I can relate too (as a consistently profitable trader) is the beginning trader - it might sound cliche but trying to help others has actually helped my own bottom line
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I am a very emotional person and the only difficulty I faced was to keep my emotions away from my trades.