As hinted, this is a mental (psychological) issue for YOU. It's basis is fear. In trading, there is finite categories of fear, INTERTWINED: * Fear of loss - This breaks down into two distinct psychological characteristics: -Lack of confidence -Lack of discipline or inability to be disciplined. Lack of Confidence encompasses all things associated with a trade. Everything from the analysis and methodology for trade selection to execution infrastructure to predictive capability of exogenous events. Lack of discipline encompasses all of the above but with direct focus on self, and your ability to react, either in accordance with a specific set of "rules", or to unexpected, unanticipated scenarios. *Fear of winning - this breaks down into a plethora of psychological characteristics, all of which can be clumped into fear of change. Fear of change involves all aspects of your life at this moment. Perhaps winning will make you more desirable financially and-or personally (aspect of relationships). Perhaps you believe you are not entitled to win (aspect of spirituality). Perhaps a successful career means more responsibility (aspect of personal growth). The possibilities of why you would fear change are nearly endless, however, the reasons are completely unique to you. There is no trading specific material for this. Self-help books and reading material is what is needed. FWIW, here is an older article with 4 fears of trading. You can decide for yourself whether or not all trading fears boil down to fear of loss or fear of winning. I recommend not over complicating the matter. Fear of loss = confidence and discipline. Fear of winning = all about you. http://www.bigtrends.com/document.jsp?documentid=914
fear of pulling the trigger.... to me is just fear of losing money. just define at what price you will exit if the price goes opposite of your position. keep your ego out and admit your wrong and cut losses with the quickness.
Dr. Ned Gandevani addresses this topic "Why Can't You Pull The Trigger" in his book "How To Become A Successful Trader"... Also SFO magazine has his article (not sure which month/year) with same title. This book analyzes trader personality types/profiles while addressing key trading issues. regards, Suri
Hey Suri, Just wanted you to know I probably own 100+ books related to trading, as I have collected over the years. Yours I look at, at least 3 or 4 times a day some days. Best trading book ever. Thanks!
Fear in various ways keeps featuring in the Psychology forum. I do not underestimate the hindrance it can be to successful trading, particularly fear of pressing the button or as it actually is - fear of clicking the mouse to trade. But if you do not have a reliable methodolgy this fear is preventing you from either making losses or making net losses from your trading. But often newcomers at ET trade with grossly insufficient market knowledge and experience. Fear it seems does not stop them from piling in and losing money. The key is to devise or adopt a reliable methodology, preferably to exploit the daily gyrations (eg CL, ES, YM) which is where the money is. Many it seems are not going to get to a reliable methodology so they should not be fretting about any fear that stops them from trading.
Read it here before you buy t - few pages missing http://books.google.com/books?id=TJDGTP9Sa5UC&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Relaxation+Response
=============== Atrader; Yes & no-yes on latter. A breakthru came years later,for me, in that losses are a business exspense; word to wise, ever ran a business???????. ============================= No such thing as a business -without business exspenses; ===========================================; hypnotism , however ,is an uneeeded/wasteful business exspence.