Trading Psychology

I am confident that many traders go through negative thought cycles while trading. Negative thoughts such as the fear of losing money and the thoughts of greed and being a money glutton may haunt you in your trading career. So how do you defeat your negative trading psychology? You have two choices: to face your negative thoughts or to simply ignore it.

An important skill to learn is how to execute a trade with confidence with a trading checklist. One of the most common exercises of a retail day trader is to “pull the trigger” or entering a trade. You look at the days news, fundamentals and technicals and when you decide to open a position you simply call your broker or execute the trade online using your software or browser. Simple isn’t it? But have you has times when you got stuck between the decision making stage and the actual exercising your decision? Have you ever missed a trade because you hesitated, got cold feet or were simply indecisive at the time you needed to execute your planned trade?

So you’ve mastered your skill set in trading: reading stock charts in a technical manner and perhaps understanding the stock performance using an understanding of sound company fundamentals. While you continue to grow your knowledge of these essential skill sets of trading through the actual practise of trading, there is another factor to consider developing: your psychology whilst trading the markets. Have you ever told yourself, after seeing a stock move in your favour: “I saw that coming (but I didn’t have any money invested in that trading idea).” Have you ever wondered what stopped you from taking that trade?

Control. We like to control things. We like to control things to a certain extent. To have some grasp of the environment around us. Most people like things to be predictable. For example: waking at the same time each day, having control of the choice of breakfast, a train or bus arriving at a certain time. Work which is predictable... controllable, where certain actions you take would produce certain results. Everyone operates within their own parameters. Whenever the unexpected arrives, it could be a pleasant or horrible surprise. The market can be predictable but it also can be an unpredictable beast. Only YOU can control your trading.

You are insignificant to the market. Remember that. The market does not care about you. Nor does it knowingly give or take money from you. The market is its own beast. A great trading genre writer, Mark Douglas once wrote in “The Disciplined Trader” that “The markets are always in motion; they never stop, only pause.” The market is in constant motion, open or closed, the field of market participants have perceptions which change with each new input of data.

No one can go on trading at top speed all the time! Sometimes, you need to change gear and slightly push on the brake. Similarly, you cannot stare at the quote screen and focusing heavily on your trading all day. Take a breather and learn to relax. Learn to take time to relax from trading. You can learn to practice some yoga exercises that would prove to be beneficial to you. These would also help you to focus on your trading practices throughout the day. One of the most efficient techniques is take a long, deep breathe and hold it for 10 seconds.

There are many fools trading in the worldwide markets. Trading stocks, forex or commodities anyone can make these dumb trading mistakes. But to be a highly successful trader you must admit to your mistakes and act to fix your previous follies.

Trade Without a Plan

What the Turtle Trader trading book does is question the age old debate between nature versus nurture. Do genetics and people’s innate qualities predetermine someone’s success in the markets? Or is it someone’s personal experiences from learning, interaction with peers and direct personal practice with trading the markets determine success?

I was asked recently about what they should do when you are trading and come up with a major loser of a trade. A major losing trade is a trade which you just let go to run its course. It is no longer part of your trading portfolio but has migrated into your investment portfolio by default. Instead of cutting your losses short as every trader should do, by calculating the exact stop loss level to exit at, you held on with hopes that the price will reverse and start heading the direction you wanted it to go to.

Good trading is not enough to succeed in the markets. The secret to successful trading is in great money management. The skill of money management is required because the real business of trading is making money with money through controlling risk. And an integral part of great money management is a great risk management strategy. The heart of that strategy is the magic 2 percent. So why two percent?