The day to day psychology of a trader

Discussion in 'Psychology' started by smallStops, Feb 19, 2015.

  1. It seems that titles wordings are important.

    I will be continuing my trader journey, via tracking my psychology day to day,
    and thus describing what are the sources of any psychological thoughts.
     
  2. Just a recap :

    the analysis of psychological stress for a trader, the causes of these
    ( 5 years of group mobbing, harassment by proxy, etc...)
    were amply examplified in these previous threads

    Part1
    http://www.elitetrader.com/et/index.php?threads/spirituality-videos.259035/

    Part2 ( 85 000 views, 300 different ip/week)
    http://www.elitetrader.com/et/index.php?threads/spirituality-videos-part-ii.266315/

    So here we change the title to make sure that - even myself who is
    now teaming up to open a psychological coaching company for traders and al -
    the reader understands :
    * events do influence the psychological state of a trader
    * the psychological state can not be understand without knowing
    what events are occuring
    * the psychological state can not be understood without a description
    of these events : the description allowing to uinderstand why the
    psychological thinking patterns are different for a specific trader,
    while it could have been different for another one.

    Feel free to PM, should you have any upset - this is what understanding
    one's psychology is all about: self-honesty , specifically for
    deeply psychological uncomfort.
     
  3. loyek590

    loyek590

    oh man, I go through days and weeks and sometimes months where that's all I do everyday. Just lose money. I make a little but I lose much more. That can go on a long time, and then it is just a matter if you have properly counted just how magnificently bad your luck can be.

    But if you survive, you have properly counted the cost

    If you win? well, isn't that just a matter of luck?
     
  4. :eek::eek::D:D:D:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::):):)

    The psy "shop" is not opened yet! But one is already queuing!
    Damn.

    Loyek590 : May I suggest you buy yourself a notebook.
    On each page you list/describe when you lost money :
    specially in childhood. Imagine a situation, where , as a kid, one actually
    lost some money, but got a great reward for it.
    Do you then feel that as an adult trader, one'd love to recreate the same
    feeling?
    There are many reasons for losses.
     
    Last edited: Feb 19, 2015
    lawrence-lugar likes this.
  5. loyek590

    loyek590

    if your first bet was a winner you are a gambler for life.
    if your first bet was a loser, "Screw me once....and we aint going to get fooled again."

    Like the man said, "Once a cat sits on a hot stove, it will never sit on a hot stove again. Or, a cold stove for that matter."
     
    itradeRisk likes this.
  6. When filling your notebook, precise situations where you said to yourself
    you were gambling.
     
  7. loyek590

    loyek590

    after I get it all on, and I know for as close to certain as I can be what my risk is, after that it is just a matter of luck. I would like to think I am a good reader of the market, but probably I am just a 50% guesser.
     
  8. Turveyd

    Turveyd

    I fixed my averaging down issue, by reducing my Margin to 50:1 then trading at 90%+ of that, so 45:1 area margin used, can only trade 1 trade at a time, problem solved.

    Max Loss, if I get carried away moving the SL is also my Margin call, which is pretty close.

    Sometimes, you've just go accept you can't beat the issue and cheat :)
     
  9. Turveyd

    Turveyd

    No such thing as LUCK, but if your profits are just random chance, then your method isn't real, you'd likely be better off with a coin flip.

    Obviously not all trades will win even with a great method, but more should win than lose and also the profits should be greater on average than the losses, on average.

    If not, keep searching and working on a method which works for you.
     
  10. From my experience, when one is determined to lose money, no matter the tricks and guards put in place, the person will find other ways to lose money (overtrading, etc...).
    So it is better - but much more difficult - to get to the root cause and heal whatever caused the problem.
     
    #10     Feb 20, 2015
    elliots11 likes this.