Stress and Trading

[taowave]

OP,what is limited-ly consistently profitable??

Is this your sole source of income?

Why don't you cut your size in half and see if the stress is gone??

Is it worth ruining your Quality Of Life??

 

[d08]

You guys have quality of life??

 

[tomorton]

You guys have quality of life??

Well KCalhoun has quality of life - he's constantly getting laid and is able to take half-hour breaks in the middle of it. I'm guessing he works from home.

 

[SPX Options Trader]

Good insight
I like these fitness bar

I thought that fitness bar image...was a costume, prop, Magical Wand.

During my early, amateur, days of trading.... I was heavily into superstition, luck, good luck charms, magic, prayer, divine intervention, a touch from the gods, being struck by lightning -- even voodoo. Whatever mystical, 6'th realm, thing it was, chances are I absorbed it blindly. 110% ignorance mode.

 

[tomorton]

I thought that fitness bar image...was a costume, prop, Magical Wand.

During my early, amateur, days of trading.... I was heavily into superstition, luck, good luck charms, magic, prayer, divine intervention, a touch from the gods, being struck by lightning -- even voodoo. Whatever mystical, 6'th realm, thing it was, chances are I absorbed it blindly. 110% ignorance mode.

I well recall recommending to a trader group meeting that if all their FA and TA and poring over P&L sheets and Chairman's statements failed and they could not make a decision, fall back on the I Ching.
Its not really supernatural but I'd say most of them thought it was.

 

[Jack1960]

Meditate.
Reduce position size.

 

[hedyellsworth]

Meditate.
Reduce position size.

Reducing position size ahead of a risk is the best decision to make in order to mitigate the risks. Whenever a trade doesn’t go according to my expectations I reduce my exposure by reducing my position size.

 

[VicBee]

Reducing position size ahead of a risk is the best decision to make in order to mitigate the risks. Whenever a trade doesn’t go according to my expectations I reduce my exposure by reducing my position size.

I've read that same suggestion from others here and I'm not entirely clear what the goal is, even if I admit to doing just that from time to time
Is it basically saying that size is what triggers the stress, not the commitment to the trade. It's like the precious line, "I believe in God, sometimes". If you believe in your entry/exit, why X and not 100X? Isn't the fear of making a mistake correlated with the disappointment of a small positive result?
I find I'm more disappointed not trusting my 100X positive trade than I am satisfied with a positive X trade. In the few instances that I reduce position size, it's because of a lack of confidence at what I see which creeps up and l freeze. To break from it, I significantly reduce size until I regain confidence.

Did I just go circular?

 

[KCalhoun]

I'm doing a lot of daytrading stocks lately, dozens of roundtrips daily.

The best stress relief is making winning trades. Also, using automated OTO orders that have my trailing or hard stop set makes a huge difference. Plus really tight .1 to .2 stops

 

[deaddog]

I'm doing a lot of daytrading stocks lately, dozens of roundtrips daily.

The best stress relief is making winning trades. Also, using automated OTO orders that have my trailing or hard stop set makes a huge difference. Plus really tight .1 to .2 stops

Why do you feel that tight stops reduce stress?
I'm assuming that you would get a lot more whipsaws.