Sociopathy and trading

ras72 said:
Yeah... I'm a layman. You are the psychologist.

Speaking of which, I believe I am not the only one who would appreciate any practical tip you could share that could help with emotional control.
I posted yesterday or the day before in another thread some of the stuff I do. I wonder if you could help me take my mind messing to a whole new level. Thank you.
LOL :D

ras72
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Sounds like a good idea, thanks for suggestion. :)

I will think over a series of posts targeted to emotional control applied to trading.
 
cornix said:
Sounds like a good idea, thanks for suggestion. :)

I will think over a series of posts targeted to emotional control applied to trading.
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CF

I for one would be very interested in what you have to say on the subject of EQ


Thanks
RN
 
Redneck said:
CF

I for one would be very interested in what you have to say on the subject of EQ


Thanks
RN
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It recently become a bit too much "popular science" as a term, but nevertheless I consider it extremely important. For those who may not be aware: EQ is a measure of ability to recognize, analyze and use emotions to control behavior, which as a supplement to intellect can help adapt and achieve goals more effectively.

Social aspect of EI is not much related to trading due to lonely nature of the profession (except maybe old days when people traded in pits :) ), but it's self-analysis aspect is probably as important as intellectual ability to find and exploit an edge.

If you have some particular questions, I will be happy to help as much as I can.
 
youre using the wrong term. "Psychopath" is the term you are looking for, which describes individuals with little emotions. Does not mean they are criminal.

Sociopaths on the other hand are more criminal in nature. Sociopaths are often psychopaths. But not all psychopaths are sociopaths.

As for the topic, I don't think psychopaths make better traders. Nobody likes the pain of loss. Maybe they can suppress feeling the pain of losing money for a while, but if their account hits $0, I'm sure they have to feel bad.

Actually, psychopaths are arguably disadvantaged and handicapped. Having feelings helps in certain regards. When you make a mistake in a trade and feel a lot of pain, this registers with your emotions and helps you not make the same mistakes again as a learning process. Someone who lacked the pain may be able to hold alosing position longer, and if they are lucky eventually recover from it and make money. But they may still make the same mistakes that got them in the losing position in the first place. And if the investment never recovers (and there is no guarentee any investment that drops has to recover later, which is simply a fallacy people have of "it always recovers"), then having a really strong stomach for loss of money actually became detrimental to the trader because they never got out when they can.

What makes a good trader is someone who can time markets well and find opportunities to make good trades. Often a combination of technical and fundamental analysis, plus a lot of luck. Its not so much 'emotion' of not puking out at a loss only for the stock to quickly rebound without you. Most traders enter every trade with a number in mind, either implicitly or explicitly via a stop-loss. Once that loss is hit, it means you get out and you were wrong. Even if it recovers. It taught you, that you needed to time entering trades better, because anytime you enter a trade, you should be right about the timing given the fixed pain you allowed yourself to take.
 
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