its like that episode from the old twilight zone series... the one with the old lady whois afraid of dying, locked herself in her apartment and wont let anyone in cause she thinks its death thats trying to come in her apartment. Finally she opens the door to a good looking but wounded young man (played by Robert Redford).... she lets him in and trys to help him... and it turned out that he was the grim reaper... he tricked her. But he was nice to her and she realized she had nothing to fear... and died peacefully. OK.... sorry about the rant
I believe that a sound money management technique that keeps less than 2% of portfolio balance being lost on any individual trade and less than 5% on any option trade will keep a trader from being fearful of any trade
100% true.....And I would like to add that this doesn't usually apply until your balance is less than what you started with. Once your balance goes into the red then you will have to deal with fear.
I have said this a couple of times, but I think it bears repeating Fear tells you that you are not suffciently prepared. It is a warning not to trade. IF/WHEN you are properly prepared, you will not be afraid because; 1. You will have confidence in your setup 2. You will have confidence that you will make a profit from a certain percentage of your trades 3. You will know exactly what your maximum loss is in a given trade, and on a daily basis. If you were sufficiently prepared, instead of being afraid, you would be excited about your chances to make money. It is fear of the unknown and fear of negative consequences that cause us distress. When (if) you take the time to cover all the bases, you know everything that can happen, there are no surprises, and therefore you can enjoy the fruits of your labor. Give it a try. Steve
Interesting, fear of getting into a trade I cannot understand - no problems smacking the buy/sell buttons. Now if this thread were called fear of getting out of positions I would understand this thread. Unfortunately fear of getting into a position is outside my bailiwick (the getting out was my problem back in the day). Seriously, I would rather have fear of getting into a position than fear of the exit (greed). Exits are more important than entries, and the caution ... well the turtle beat the hare right.
No, its NOT something you want- my exit strategies are good, but i have a phone phobia. You have to be in to win. I guess its a newb thing, mostly, my disability notwithstanding (is that even a word?). Could it be something to do with how orders are placed? You "press a button", that would be ok, that i could deal with fine.
Age old techniques never lose their effectivness. Your solution is at the hand of another. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=235192&highlight=bat#post235192
Whaaaat???????? That was my idea, for a tech analysis school i was thinking of....... Aaargh. Still it was, and IS a good idea. I need a mentor.........or a wiffle bat.......or some good medication......... Heee......eeeelp.........
Think in samples of say 20/30 trades rather than worrying about the individual next entry. However good the next set up / entry is, there is always a possibility of it failing. Though if you have a proven edge, you should be up over a reasonable sample. If you are not, check your system. Mark Douglas puts it quite well when he says you should trade from the perspective of the casino, not the player. The casino has no idea who will win the next hand of Blackjack, though they can be quite sure that over a sample they will be up.