Your nervousness will go away once you see a stock shoot higher after you tell yourself not to sell after it's popped however much percent. The only way to see this happen is to let it happen. It's all about discipline.
Controlling Jittery Emotions
- Thread starter SaigonTed26
- Start date
Forget about the psycho babble. The reason you fee this way is because you dont have enough capital. If your risk was 1cent per basis point you wont panic. Reduce your size and just make wider stop losses.
That doesn't work, I tried that many years ago, get up from trading chair, stumble over cat and broke my nose in four places, get blood all over brand new white rug till EMS shows up, they laugh so much, dropped me in rose bushes on way out, got major infection from all the scratches.
I went on to throwing baseballs at the wall or ceiling till you could see the brick or insulation was falling on my head. Sometimes I'd miss and hit the CRT's, another trip to Best Buy. Then I went for Hypnosis a few times a year, I still go, much cheaper than carpenter coming over, LOL. I find it allows me to feel much more relaxed and calm in other areas of life, like dealing with people. Can even laugh at folks at Wally World. LOL
http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/photos/page/200
Hi All,
Thanks for the responses, I will heed what you all said! I agree with the last post, since I don't have a lot of capital and are not diversified enough, it makes it more stressful than it should be. But, I will also work on the other things so I don't panic or over-think positions I shouldn't. Thanks again!
Thanks for the responses, I will heed what you all said! I agree with the last post, since I don't have a lot of capital and are not diversified enough, it makes it more stressful than it should be. But, I will also work on the other things so I don't panic or over-think positions I shouldn't. Thanks again!
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Great points;
I am a trader/target shooter/hunter for decades.
Mainly;
dry fire,plenty, use no .22 rim fires. And use plenty of ''live '' fire;
.22 rimfire.Long story short, Sa-Ted;
forget the psychobable.
Champ Olympic shooters have to hit better than 95%, snipers do not, but they[snipers] may have computers, plenty of practice/training /notes.Winning traders/investors do also.
Ps My heart still screams/POUNDS/races before i pulled the trigger on a 9 pont big deer/this year,.Emotions [controlled]are just part of it......
I repeat this to calm the nerves: "well, I've seen weirder things happen."
This helps calm me down and wait to see what it actually does, not pre-emptively act based on what I think will happen.
This helps calm me down and wait to see what it actually does, not pre-emptively act based on what I think will happen.
I keep in my trading log (Excel spreadsheet) a column titled "Cost of error" in which I input for every trade the cost (or gain, but this is pretty rare) of any discipline error (deviation from my trading rules).
This has convinced me deep enough that my discipline errors cost me way more than I benefit of these, and as a result I am now quite motivated to follow my plan regardless of what I "feel" on the spot.
Also, another help (for me) has been to move away from scalping, and focus on large reward:risk setups ... a quick estimate of the cost of any discipline error then amounts to the potential reward of the trade, which is always far greater than the cost of being stopped - this also proved quite powerful to me, especially as I am really convinced that profitability comes from the correct execution of a large number of trade, and that current trade outcome doesn't matter that much - unless you stop yourself out of what would otherwise have been a big winner.
This has convinced me deep enough that my discipline errors cost me way more than I benefit of these, and as a result I am now quite motivated to follow my plan regardless of what I "feel" on the spot.
Also, another help (for me) has been to move away from scalping, and focus on large reward:risk setups ... a quick estimate of the cost of any discipline error then amounts to the potential reward of the trade, which is always far greater than the cost of being stopped - this also proved quite powerful to me, especially as I am really convinced that profitability comes from the correct execution of a large number of trade, and that current trade outcome doesn't matter that much - unless you stop yourself out of what would otherwise have been a big winner.
It definitely takes time and experience in these markets to be able to control your emotions. But even than, seasoned traders still find themselves sometimes panicked in trades. It's how well you can handle it and still be focused on the trade.
Quote from SaigonTed26:
Hi,
Like other people, I either panic when a stock is down and am tempted to sell or when I'm up I like to sell too early to ensure I will keep the profits I have. Are there any methods people use to control these emotions? I know one way is to just not login to my trading account, or just not watch cnbc or look at stock quotes. But in a nutshell, what do others do to fight urges to either sell too early or sell out of panic? (Besides smoking or drinking or what not ) Thanks!
I cannot trade with any emotions at all. That is why I formulate strategies and do the exact same thing at the right time EVERY time and let statistics work its magic. it works, at least for me