thanks for the replies, but i was hoping this thread would be about . . . managing emotions when trading, not about me and how much i lost. so let's try to make it be about that. also i get that 1000 doesn't seem like much to people here but that was 4 weeks of my time im not getting back.
Trading plans invariably become egocentric, the trader’s chief concerns being where do I enter, where do I exit, what should my target be, what should my stop be, how much risk can I tolerate, and so on. The character of the market itself is a secondary issue at best. What is paramount is how the market can serve the ego rather than the other way around.
The market couldn't care less about the trader's entries and exits and stops. The market couldn't care less about what the trader wants. The market couldn't care less about the trader's personality or psychic needs. The market functions in a certain way. It has a certain structure. If a trader is to be truly successful, i.e., more than just "getting by", he must understand these functions and this structure, neither of which have anything whatsoever to do with
him.
One begins, of course, again, by observing the market, characterizing it, then formulating hypotheses that tentatively explain its movements. One then tests those hypotheses in order to determine whether or not they are true, i.e., predictable and reliable. Only after all this do the matters of how to take advantage of what one has determined come into the picture, i.e., entrances, exits, stops, etc. It is at this point that the process becomes almost entirely egocentric, e.g., how much risk can I tolerate, and the market itself becomes largely ignored except insofar as it serves the trader's needs and wants. But, again, the market couldn't care less about the trader's needs and wants. And this results in a perpetual frustration among those who focus on themselves rather than on the behavior of price (which is the aggregate of the behaviors of everyone who is participating in the market). If, for example, the trader is focused not only on at least breaking even but on getting to breakeven as quickly as possible, he is focusing not on the market but on himself. One of the more obvious consequences of this, particularly if the trader is "stopped out", is that the trader dwells or even obsesses over his "failed trade" and completely ignores what the market has told him by having come back to or exceeded his entry point, thus preventing him from evaluating the situation and preparing for the next trade, especially if it happens to be in the opposite direction (and if he’s daytrading, it may take place within minutes, or even seconds).
I suggest, therefore, that those who are serious about developing trading plans focus on the market and on price behavior rather than on themselves, unless they want to spend years trying to reconcile two forces which are in many ways mutually incompatible. If one enters correctly, for example, issues of stops and breakeven and size and "targets" become irrelevant. If one
doesn't enter correctly, then of course he has to exit. But his doing so has nothing to do with his hopes and needs and wants and desires. Rather it has to do with the fact that he read the market incorrectly. One should, in fact, once he has entered a trade, forget about the fact that he entered the trade at all and focus instead on the market. Only in this way will he become "available" to profit from what the market has to offer.
Nearly all traders except for beginners are in a quandary: they are eager to trade yet are afraid to trade (beginners have not yet learned fear, but they soon will unless they put together thoroughly-tested and consistently-profitable trading plans
before they begin trading). Thus traders seek to exploit the market while simultaneously insulating themselves from any negative consequences of attempting to do so. That's what the bulk of the millions of trading forum posts and blogs and books and articles and newsletters and trading rooms et al infinitum hawked at Trade-O-Rama are all about. Only an infinitesimally small number of them are focused on why price moves as it does. Which is why there are so many millions (billions?) of posts (and books and blogs and so forth). You will hear/read that emotions are a necessary and inescapable component of trading and that you must “control your emotions” in order to advance. However, the premise here is false: emotions are not a necessary and inescapable component of trading, or, at least, they are a component only for those who have no trading plan or whose trading plan looks like Swiss cheese. But your trading plan is well-thought-out and thoroughly-tested. Therefore you have nothing to be afraid of by following it. And if you have nothing to be afraid of, there is no stress (other than mild curiosity and, at worst, anticipation). And if there’s no stress, there’s nothing to get all emotional about.
If the trader feels stress, he should stop trading immediately and stay stopped until he figures out just what it is that he’s stressed about. Odds are that he isn’t as confident in his trading plan as he thought he was (or he is, but his confidence was misplaced). And if he isn’t as confident in his plan as he needs to be, then he hasn’t tested his plan as thoroughly as he should have. And while it is possible to gain the necessary confidence by trading without a plan, the chances of doing so are slim, not to mention the years required and the losses that will be accrued. Or, as Barber put it, “’Trading to learn’ is no more rational nor profitable than playing roulette to learn.”
The price we pay for self-preoccupation can be and usually is steep. But a recognition and acknowledgement of these pervasive and ultimately self-destructive thoughts can lead to a surprising fearlessness, even when the trading is particularly challenging. When we relate to each moment during the trading session as the impersonal unfolding of price prints rather than focus on how we feel about them, we find that there is nothing to fear. Our attitude toward trading shifts, egocentrism fades away, and we focus on price’s movements rather than our selves.
Reposted with permission.
