heart palpitations on waking up at 3am in the morning rooted in fear

[Handle123]

You lack testing of your method, I been there. If the close of the day is too close to your entry, hedge the position overnight or few days, if close of the day is further out, you can still hedge but strike worse from your entry and cost much less. Hedge all or partial of your position to sleeping level.

As @wrbtrader had mentioned, check with a physician on your heart, could be early warnings of something worse.

Since I learned how to hedge well past nine years, sleep like I have no positions on, my only true risk is intraday trading by automation or if veggie stew has enough spices, HAHA

 

[Stockolio]

Palindrome,

Can you please explain your definition of edge?

Do not trade intra day, you are just flipping heads or tails, vs algo's... Forget Forex, non Cyclical Commodities, and futures, those are strictly based of momentum and absolutely controlled by Wall Street... You have an edge when the odds of probability in your trade is likelier then not, let's say a non polluted mid cap at the beginning phase of deterioration, you catch it early and buy puts, you know that unless of a merger, you are likely to win your trade... That's my view of having an edge or not

 

[vanzandt]

I'm surprised none of you yo-yo's mentioned exercise yet.
Get a good brisk aerobic workout sometime during the day.
That should help.

If not... you can always try consuming massive amounts of alcohol starting at about 8PM.
(Plus, then you can post down in the politics section of ET before bedtime. You'll fit right in.)

 

[JSOP]

I'm surprised none of you yo-yo's mentioned exercise yet.
Get a good brisk aerobic workout sometime during the day.
That should help.

If not... you can always try consuming massive amounts of alcohol starting at about 8PM.
(Plus, then you can post down in the politics section of ET before bedtime. You'll fit right in.)

The problem with the guy is not his lack of exercise; it's with his positions being too large too risky. Of course exercising always helps but it won't solve his problem. He can exercise to the hilt but if he still keeps his large leveraged positions open unhedged, he will still get heart palpitations and can't sleep.

 

[jl1575]

1) Trade option, then you can set your risk limit,
2) trade Future Index, so you can intervene anytime
3) Day trade only, no position overnight, then you will miss O/N profits but avoid O/N loss.

 

[vanzandt]

The problem with the guy is not his lack of exercise; it's with his positions being too large too risky. Of course exercising always helps but it won't solve his problem. He can exercise to the hilt but if he still keeps his large leveraged positions open unhedged, he will still get heart palpitations and can't sleep.

Well yeah... that's the friggin painfully obvious that 10 posters have already pointed out and anyone with half a clue would certainly agree with.

But if he must... there's two things.

First, (and we don't know his exercise regimen which you are assuming by saying "its not his lack of exercise")... but (1) if he works out hard enough it might clear his head enough to perhaps not make stupid high risk overnight trades.... and (2)... if one works out hard enough, there is no way they are not going to go to sleep at night. At least thats my experience.
Its a stupid thread anyway.
Destriero is right once again. (did I just say that? )
What about Ambien?

 

[TommyR]

its a sign of good health. slow heart you wanna worry i prom

 

[Risepoint1879]

Whenever I hold large leveraged positions (in cash market) overnight, I invariably wake up suddenly around 3 to 3:30am eastern time with fear, my heart pounding in my chest like I've just seen a bear coming after me.
Then I grab my phone and stare at futures, currencies, etc, flipping back and forth between them. This often goes on for an hour, 2 or more.
If I hold no positions then sleep is much, much better.
Large unrealized gains that slipped away in a matter of minutes (due to complacency) also have caused me a lot of anguish, just last week missed out on 2 separate $30K and $70K profit opportunities, worse yet suffered some losses due to inaction.

How did you master the mental game?
I feel exhausted, sleep deprived, a ticking wreck inside, while projecting a chill dude facade on the outside. At the same time I've never felt more certain that trading is my passion. I feel consumed by it day and night.
Any suggestions on fear management?

You could possibly try intraday trading? I find it very nice to focus on my trades, and then be done for the day(and night). But obviously it's a whole different strategy, with new techniques to oearn.

 

[Nick Nikolo]

Thanks all. Did some more research based upon your feedback. Came upon "perceptual sets" or maps, a technical term in psychology that determines actions. The mind seems to be so powerful that it will override your rational judgment if it determines that this is in your "best" interest, whether or not it's true. 1 solution is to either reduce leverage or work on rebuilding perceptual maps, maybe both. Day trading is not for me - low risk but also low rewards. Overnight positions (from my perspective) are a must to be able to make notable progress.

 

[Overnight]

...Overnight positions (from my perspective) are a must to be able to make notable progress.

As I thought as well...Until the markets started churning out volatility swings the likes of which we have not seen since the late 1980s. And here we are again, yes?

Now we are seeing the potential of 1,000 points up in a day, 1,000 points down in a day, as demonstrated by the Dow in 2018. What is normal lately?

If it is any solace to you, I like to think back to those great moments in television which encapsulate certain issues. With ST:TNG it was the episode titled "The Inner Light". With ST:Voyager, it was the episode titled "The Thaw".