Non - sensical ramblings of a stock trader...

Your emotions are running hi because you need an income every month and you've got no savings to back you up.

Know that your system will give you an edge to make so much each month and keep that thought in mind once you are in the trade. After a while, you will be on auto pilot and you will no longer sweat out each trade. That reasoning got me over the hump with more contracts. Once I'm in lets say long, my only thoughts are: should I get out and buy back lower/add more/cut losses/or keep until target. Other than that, it's just a trade and I know I will make so much per month on average.

Good luck on your new career.
 
You certainly described very well what I think most traders will have gone through at some point in their career, I know I have and it is why I trade 1/10 the size I used to. Not surprisingly I am more consistently profitable and my quality of life is incomparable because of that one change.

You can't hope to trade putting your hopes, fears and dreams in to each trade, it will drive you crazy in short order and kill your confidence. What this means practically speaking is that you have to trade small enough that the $ amount is not enough to make a difference one way or another on each particular trade. That is your starting point and it will allow you to see if you really do have an edge. If after a few months of that you are not profitable then your emotions are not your only problem. If you are profitable then the consistency that you have achieved will allow your logic to counter your emotions and allow you to increase your size. Know this though, there may be a limit to how big you can go without the emotions seeping their way back in to the trade no matter how disciplined or wealthy you are. Working on yourself can help but again your mileage may vary.

Another strategy that can help you is the old cliché of plan your trade and trade your plan. Write down your trade parameters, make sure they adhere to your risk reward criteria and that position size is correct based on that and your money management, put in your stop and force yourself to wait for your target to be hit.

Trading in the Zone is a great book, definitely second that recommendation.

Best of luck to you.
 
Is it just me…or is it not the height of irony that in order to have a snowball’s chance in hell of succeeding at an incredibly emotion laden endeavor that you MUST reign in the very emotions that circle overhead as surely as buzzards over a desert kill? I mean is this somebody’s idea of a joke???

When I first started trading I literally had a “throw up bucket” next to my PC. No kidding. Never actually used it, but my hand used to shake like crazy when I placed a trade. Still does, just not as bad…

For me, controlling emotions is, and will always be, THE challenge. At the end of my first year of “part time” trading, I wrote this…” It seems I possess a natural affinity for statistical and conditional analysis (who’d have thunk it?), offset by a glaring inability to convert said affinity into a consistently effective, tradable system….to wit: I’m really good at the geeky stuff, but suck at making it work.” Left unsaid in this passage was the main reason for my ineffectiveness…FEAR…I had let a fear of losing become a fear of trading.

Fear…man that’s a whole separate conversation. I struggle. Getting better..but.. And yeah, I know there’s nothing that reduces fear quite like success. Sort of a cart before the horse kind of thing, tho.

Anyway. I do realize it’s all about the emotions. Course doesn’t hurt to have a trading system/strategy that actually works, and while I have no idea if mine yet qualifies, I wouldn’t trade what I’m doing for any job on the planet.

Thanks for all the words of encouragement…back at ya…

TO DA MOON………DA DUCK
 
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