The Four Major Fears - Fear of Losing Money, Being Wrong, Missing Out, Leaving Money on the Table. All of these fears result from thinking you know what will happen next. Your trading plan must approach trading as a probabilities game, where you know in advance you will win some and lose some, but that the odds will be in your favor over time. If you approach trading thinking that you can't take a loss, then take three losses in a row (which is to be expected in most trading methods), you will be emotionally devastated and will give up on your plan.
The Four Major Fears
- Thread starter zmostatabi
- Start date
"Leaving Money on the Table" is not a FEAR, it is GREED. That when you have a profit but try and squeeze every nickle out of it only to see it turn into a loser (happens with me quite a few times with options). "Missing Out" might also fall under GREED.
"Leaving Money on the Table" I assume means an open position in stocks, options, etc. And doesn't include cash.
It can be greed. But it can also be fear. The feel of each is slightly different.
Quote from Cheese:
Where is all this stuff coming from zmostatabi? Are they your little gems for your thread openers?
Another Marc Douglas zealot I'd say
You stole the words right out of by mouth. And yes ''missing out" is greed also.
I don't think you're being greedy by "milking" a winner though. That's just good trading even when it doesn't work. What I notice though (self experience) is those who are greedy about "missing out" on making a profit are often the first to take a profit.
It only stands to reason that those who are greedy will in turn become fearful. Why is one greedy? Because he's lacking in self esteem. So if my low self esteem causes me to focus on accumulation of money at the expense of respecting risk than I'm probably one who will take a profit too soon as well.
If you think about it, why do the vast majority of traders lose? Because the game attracts those with fucked up psyches. People who are truly well developed emotionally aren't interested in the next hours move in ES. In fact those who develop self esteem instead of pride don't care about living in the biggest house or driving the best car. Paradoxically though, they're exactly the personality types who achieve in their ho-hum professions and ultimately WIND UP with those material accruements. Ah the Zen.
A great insight by Eric Hoffer:
"Pride is a sense of worth from something that is not organically part of us, while self-esteem derives from the potentialities and achievements of the self. We are proud when we identify with an imaginary self, a leader, a holy cause, a collective body or possessions. There is fear and intolerance in pride; it is sensitive and uncompromising. The less promise and potency in the self, the more imperative is the need for pride. The core of pride is self-rejection."
Thank you
No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.
Edmund Burke, "A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful", 1756
Irish orator, philosopher, & politician (1729 - 1797)
Edmund Burke, "A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful", 1756
Irish orator, philosopher, & politician (1729 - 1797)