Why can't I pull the trigger?

[pk3r1234]

Don't mean to sound rude, but if the OP is sooooo scared about losing money, I ain't so sure this profession is right for him. Why sweat over something that you dread doing? Instead, go find another job that you actually look forward to doing everyday. Anyway, the key to overcoming OP's problem is to gain confidence and that comes only with consecutive winning trades.

BTW I wouldn't worry about seeing a shrink. Heck, after 20+ years of trading, I still get the jitters once in a while.

One thing I've noticed is a lot of the great at home traders were trading with real money for months even on losing streaks. Also prop firms set you up with real money trading from the start. I'm slowly getting less anxious doing a few small trades here and there. I'm not going to change my strategy or anything, I believe it already works. To me it's a big start even just entering the orders, following my strategy and making some small profits. It may take a few months to build up to the first 100-200 dollars. But from what I remember profits start to add up extremely quickly after that point

 

[schizo]

One thing I've noticed is a lot of the great at home traders were trading with real money for months even on losing streaks. Also prop firms set you up with real money trading from the start. I'm slowly getting less anxious doing a few small trades here and there. I'm not going to change my strategy or anything, I believe it already works. To me it's a big start even just entering the orders, following my strategy and making some small profits. It may take a few months to build up to the first 100-200 dollars. But from what I remember profits start to add up extremely quickly after that point

Yes, start out small, perhaps trading odd lots. IB charges like $1 per 100 shares. Do that until you build confidence. Also, might I add, don't become a dreamer by always trying to hit a homerun. Go for the base hits. You want to be both nimble and consistent. It's far more gratifying to be able to hit singles time and time again than an occasional home run. The point is consistency.

 

[lawrence-lugar]

For the OP: This is a numbers game and perfect trades don't matter. You win some and lose some and as long as overall you win more then you're doing well.

I agree d08,
When I first started trading stock (i trade options now though)...I basically jumped right in...before losing around 35% of my account in three months. But at my peak, my account was up around 15%.

That lost was kind of traumatizing for me. I took like a 3-4 year break...and I then just watched/studied the market on the sideline...but couldn't...seem, to never just come back in just yet.

Psychology plays a huge part in the markets, for some more than others -- but it's still a big factor.
...kind of reminds me of the movie Top Gun 1986...when Maverick's partner died...he couldn't seem to get himself back in the cockpit

 

[murray t turtle]

I'm so disappointed in myself, I have a 27000 dollar account. I've been working on my strategy for about a year full time and when it came down to it I couldn't pull the trigger with real money. On average I'm risking less than 10 dollars a trade.. Every time I haven't pulled the trigger when I know the outcome, I would have made at least 30-80 dollars. After blowing up last year It changed me though. It's not even that I lost that much at all. My account is bigger now but it's not my money, it's my dads. He doesn't even really care if I lose money as long as I'm trading with real money but I can't even pull the trigger with 100 shares on a 3 dollar stock. He even tries to convince me to use 1000 shares. How can I get over this? I'm convinced it's an issue with my first couple of trades, If I could hit a decent trade or couple trades I'll be on my way. But I feel like I'm waiting for a perfect trade that probably won't come very often. Should I be betting with 50 shares instead? I don't want everybody to think I'm flaking out of my trading. I also remember being very cautious starting out with paper, but now I'm even more cautious. Also, commissions with my new broker are only 1 dollar a trade, so small size isn't a problem really

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You maybe more right than you think,PK;
''$3 stock''= penny stock..... Keep working,IBD[investors business daily newspaper or investors.com]maybe help you regardless of investing time frame, again not with penny stocks.................................................................................................

Another negative about penny stocks;
get rich quick [lottery]seldom works. Thanks for the question; wisdom is profitable to direct.

 

[syswizard]

Only fools like Tim Sykes play with those illiquid pink sheet stocks.....oh, and that trader that lost $100k recently on KBIO whose 52 week low is .44 and 52 week high is 45 !!!

 

[AndikaAnjani]

I agree d08,
When I first started trading stock (i trade options now though)...I basically jumped right in...before losing around 35% of my account in three months. But at my peak, my account was up around 15%.

That lost was kind of traumatizing for me. I took like a 3-4 year break...and I then just watched/studied the market on the sideline...but couldn't...seem, to never just come back in just yet.

Psychology plays a huge part in the markets, for some more than others -- but it's still a big factor.
...kind of reminds me of the movie Top Gun 1986...when Maverick's partner died...he couldn't seem to get himself back in the cockpit

Dang, what a struggle. But that's a good process.
And yeah, our psychology is the big key in the market that's why we need to hold our haste to hunt some profits or you will get yourself stressed just because of a big loss that happens to you (and this is always happened to newbies).

 

[Geoff9]

Trading I have dealt with emotions I did not know were in there. It is amazing what you find out about yourself trading, if you are honest.

 

[DoubleTop]

I believe in the 80/20 rule. When paper trading it's 80% strat. and technicals and 20 emotional. When live trading it flips just like that and we are not ready for it. Stay strong! Maybe look at trading forex where your risk can only be a few cents. But then build up in size as your increase lots and move from micro lots to full lots. Best of Luck!

 

[tommyho]

The best thing for me, I've only been trading about two yrs, is having someone help me along. Amazing how many out there are willing to do that. They shared their trading plans with me and I developed one that actually works. As I've developed confidence in that - helps with the emotions. Learning to simply follow the plan.

 

[syswizard]

They shared their trading plans with me and I developed one that actually works.

Unless you meant to equivocate trading plan with trading strategy, to me, they are two different things.
For instance, you could have a good trading plan (trade 1000 share lots, stick with stocks with avg daily volume of 2M or more, trade high flyers, etc).

But if your TRADING STRATEGY sucks, you'll still lose with a good trading plan.
This is probably why so many traders fail....they don't have both that are good.