FEAR! How to get rid of it

I think it is normal for all people to have fears. I believe that a person that has never experienced this feeling is not normal. But it really hurts when fear is starting to get all over us and hinders us to do the things we wanted to do. In forex, I'm sure that all we are have fears of loosing money at first. So during your early days in forex, how were you able to get rid of the fear of loosing money?

 

you must not try and get rid of fear.
learn to tame/massage/use it.

you can do this trading real money with meaningfull position and doing it long enough.

or get real mentor that will shorten the trip but you will not land your ideal system but someone elses.

 

I believe you must first be trading with money you can afford to lose. Say 25k that can be wiped out and won't change your mindset too much. If you are fearful of being broke, you are done.

If you are fearful of being wrong, well, get used to it. most other professions you can do one thing and actually get a positive result; repeat and repeat and get better at it. not really in trading.

if you are fearful of failing, well, life is short and who cares....if you are passionate about something, go for it. doesn't matter how you are judged. it's your life.

if you are fearful of never knowing everything, well, get used to that as well.

gl

 

Automation

 

If you are losing money, you should never get over the fear, for if you do you'll lose everything.

Perhaps you mean how do you get over the fear of taking the next trade after several losses when you believe your method will come out on top but your discipline is shot?

The only thing I have found that works is better set ups. If you can't improve technique and methodology but you are convinced you have a winning style, then psychology seems to be the approach.

Failing that an understanding friend with a baseball bat to enforce discipline?

 

Try to think in terms of concerns ... not fears. Be concerned about losing money for it is rational. Take that concern of monetary loss and analyse it. Do you truly believe -- I mean deep down -- that your setups have a positive expectation? If you do you need to put that concern behind you. Yet be aware that most yet to be profitable traders do not have enough sample size to believe in their setups ... even the good ones.

Do you believe you are executing those precious setups correctly and consistently? Waiting for one more tick is not correctly and having a "bad feeling" that causes you to pass on trades without defining it is not consistently. That said, analyzing trade position, prior price action etc. should properly be part of your judgement.

And then we get to the million dollar question: Can you deal with being wrong -- frequently wrong -- and still accept that if the trade had a positive expectation when you pulled the trigger you did it right? The fear of losing on "good trades" cannot mutate into "concern" for it is beyond rational thought. It most somehow be met and conquered. No one can tell you how to fight that battle.

As the best poker player I know -- a guy who in the 80's was truly world class -- always said to me: "All we can do is get our money in right hand after hand. If we do that and play within our means we have better than an 80% chance of winning consistently."

I believe he was right and, since trading is a better game than NL Hold'em, I think there are guys -- I am not yet one of them -- that get their money in right often enough to take that 80 to 90%. BTW ... those guys were going to rent a hotel ballroom and have a celebration but when they realized they were only nine of them they decided to just go out to eat -- LOL.

It ain't easy but there are guys doing it. But to do it you most conquer the fear of being wrong. It cannot be about right or wrong only about getting your money in right to start and then, as time goes on and you get better, getting it in really right to increase that positive expectation. A larger edge, even slightly larger, brings down the risk of ruin quite considerably.

 

SN and X made great points…only hope to add to them


Traders are risk managers – first – foremost – always… We must always concern ourselves with losers

Instead of fearing losers.., learn to embrace them - they are what keeps us in this business, and profitable

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I’ll repeat something I’ve already posted

In the normal world, success begets success… people love winners…, detest losers… and will even make fun of them…, go to great lengths to avoid them – in all forms..


In our world – it’s the exact opposite – and will be till the day we die

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My fact of life;

Every day I go to work, the next trade I place could end my career, could break my account, could leave my family financially devastated


Should I fear it – and thus ignore it (we do have a tendency to avoid that which we fear – unless we are adrenalin junkies)

Or do I embrace the loss, take the loss, and simply move on

Choice is pretty clear to me
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Now there could be another aspect you’re stuck on...

The how can I get good enough/ what do I need to do – so I don’t have losing trades

If indeed that is what is rolling around in the back of your head – give up trading..., for it’ll never happen


RN

 

Fear is a consequence of uncertainty. Uncertainty is the result of not trusting your trading system. Not trusting your trading system is the result of not having adequately proven your trading system through extensive backtesting. Not having adequately proven your trading system though extensive backtesting is the result of laziness or an emotional rush to trade without full preparation. Stop being lazy or rushing to trade without full preparation. The fear will go away.

 

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain