fear (noun)/ an unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain, or harm.
Scared money (Urban dictionary definition)/ A person who wants to play the game that involves a monetary wager but is afraid of losing it.
The latter is a term that I also used to hear a lot with regards to Poker, especially when I used to play live in the Vic Casino on Edgeware Road. It usually involved a player sitting down at a game and proceeding to do nothing but fold for the first hour. Once they finally found the courage to enter a hand for a raise, fold, fold, fold, fold…. They had a look of relief as the dealer pushed nothing but the blinds their way. Even holding the best starting hand in poker, AA, they likely still felt nervous about getting action and would in all
likelihood prefer not too. This is how I felt after trading today. So much so that it compelled me to write about it.
Trading is a game of wins and losses.
Whilst it is not statistically impossible for every trade you take to be a winning trade; it is very unlikely. Yet even armed with this knowledge, and the trading beliefs learned from the excellent book ‘Trading in the Zone’, explaining that good trading is probability based, still the thought of taking that ‘L’ and losing what you’ve gained can be truly paralysing. This I know first-hand.
It is one thing to have an amazing in-depth knowledge of price action. To look at a chart and immediately be able to identify entry points and profit targets. To see in each and every candle the nuances that suggest what might happen next. To know each and every pattern. Yet all this knowledge is as good as useless if you cannot place the trade for fear of losing. So far this week I have made a profit. A very meagre one, but a profit none the less. However, it could’ve been much, much more if only I had followed my strategy and taken the trades when they presented themselves. Yet I found myself unable. Frozen, as I watched the trade move in my theoretical favour and then count my fictitious points that I could’ve made if I only had taken it. I knew early on even before I began trading, that it would involve a great deal of psychology.
However, I think until now, until I actually began placing real money trades, I had no idea really just how much. In trading as a whole, it is something that I believe contributes massively to the alarming statistics posted on every broker detailing just how large a percentage of their clients lose money. It is not because they cannot spot a trend, or because they don’t know about second entries after a pullback. It is the psychology involved in fighting internally with yourself and against your instincts that blows up many an account.
Making a profit is the name of the game but making profit without the correct mindset and psychology is a double-edged sword. I want to make money, but when I do, I find myself scared of giving it back which in turn affects my ability to make more.
I am genuinely grateful that my first ever trade was a loser, and that my first full week trading was also a loser. From the get-go it has helped me face the side of trading that many are fearful of. But now I am faced with a new fear. One that I MUST overcome if I am to achieve success and live the life of my dreams.
I realise now, more so than ever after this morning, that working on the mental aspect of trading is going to be much more important than the technical aspect. Without doubt. There are many stories of profitable traders who literally only trade one type of pattern. But conversely there are many, many more stories of traders who lost it all essentially because of their mindset.
I follow a gentleman by the name of Tom Hougaard. He is a high stakes trader and an inspiration. In fact, it was from stumbling across his channel that I actually felt a connection with the price action style of trading. It was simple. Uncluttered. Before this I fell afoul of the many YouTube channels telling me I needed to learn MACD, or Stochastics, or Convergence divergence blah blah blah. Yet when I saw this guy trading a simple ‘naked chart’, it resonated with me so well. He talks constantly about the psychology of trading, so much so that he has written a book on it. One that I am very much looking forward to reading, learning from, and implementing into my evolution to become a professional day trader But for now….I guess I will just have to reach down, grab my bollocks, and take the damn trade when the strategy dictates! Win….or lose.
*Edit *
I wrote the above article yesterday evening after work. This morning I traded with the words ringing in my ears ‘When the strategy presents an entry, take it. Win or lose.’ And I did. I traded well….to begin with. I was up 22 points. Not a lot I know, but I was up, I was confident, focussed and trading well. And then it happened. I could see that the market was getting ready to present a set up. I took it and unfortunately it didn’t work out and I dropped 8 points. Okay no big deal. But then I felt it. The tension brewing in my body. I could see another set up coming but this time there was a hesitation. I froze as it presented the signal. My finger resting above the mouse button. I watched as the market moved in my favour what would’ve been around 35 points. Then it pulled back and another set up presented itself, only for me to freeze and miss it again. (In the end I stopped myself taking a FOMO trade but then minutes later acting on pure instinct, even taking myself by surprise, I FOMO’d into a new trade only to drop 10 more points!)
When I used to paper trade in the beginning, I used Buy Stop Orders quite a lot. This was the perfect opportunity to use one, and yet I didn’t even consider it. In fact, now I look back I have not used one since I’ve been trading live. Why is that I wonder? Simple. Fear. Fear of it initiating my trade and then the trade immediately moving against me. There is no other explanation I can reasonably offer. Compounding this fear is also the fact that I am trading a small account and I do not have the luxury of reloading multiple times should I have a bad run. This small account means that my stops are extra tight. Usually less than 12-15 points. Add to this that I get very twitchy when a trade moves in my favour initially but then stalls. I find myself taking profit much too early. So if I take 3 trades of say 6 points each, but then have one move against me for 15, it has just wiped out what could’ve been over an hours patient trading waiting for those three trades.
All of this boils down to mindset. All of these issues, the taking profit too early, the hesitation in taking trades, the concern of losing. All of it is related to one thing. Mindset. I have a lot of work ahead of me that’s for sure, but one thing is certain and that is that I am looking forward to it, because who knows where it will lead me? At least this morning I ended up 4 points.
I suppose I didn’t so much as reach down and grab my bollocks, but just had a little rummage and fiddled with one for a while.
‘May all your winners run and run, but your losers pull up lame’
Comments