Another way this Fear surfaces is if a trader has been overly cautious on trades and has not been able to pull the trigger. And almost every trade he/she "almost" took moved exactly as the trader thought they would and would've made great profits. So, after letting multiple successful trades pass by, the trader finally musters up the confidence to pull the trigger on the very next idea that comes up. Ironically, this trade loses. Now the trader is upset. "Why does this always happen to me?" they ask. Anyone else?
take all of them and manage risk,losses are part of the game, embrace them, or you won't be trading,very important hurdle to put in your rear view mirror
Great way to get around this problem: Enlist someone to turn off your computer if you skip the first two valid trade setups of the day. Come back and try again the next day. Eventually you'll learn to trade your setups without hesitating.
This is a beautiful statement of the principles of Behavioral Finance: in action. (Sorry about the humor....) FEAR is the most important emotion to obey. Obey means act or as some people say react to. The OP does not know what he is being told, however. Read "BF or BS" on the home page of BF to find out. OR ask your self why you are unable to open a new door to the rest of your life.
It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat. --Theodore Roosevelt
I briefly had a job and got paid for closing out a traders trades based on his rules. But he was such an emotional basket case that he would shout and throw things around the office and even break things when he got stopped out if it then later moved in his favor. Eventually I got to where I would cheat and let it run beyond the stop. Pretty soon, I was no better of a trader than he was. As a matter of fact, I got to where I would violate the stop, and then encourage him to hang on, just because I didn't want to endure the tirade. They weren't actually hard stops, it was based on how you read the indicators. You'd be surprised how subjective an indicator can be if you have a biased reader.
unable or unwilling Excellent question, that could be one of those onion things, where you keep peeling away the layers. Brings to mind the saying "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate but that we are ......."
I have personally never liked trades that required a great deal of second guessing. If it looks sexy, pull the trigger. If you have to talk yourself into doing it, then "analysis leads to paralysis". The reason that the "personal comfort zone" trades frequently backfire is that you have sabotaged yourself into what you think is a low risk situation. The other point is that passing up successful trades is the norm. So what ? Is your self esteem and emotional state altered by events completely out of your control ? If you need to deal in absolutes, then trading is not the profession for you. How do losses appeal to you ? Successful traders take losses every day. Get used to it. Examine your position sizing. If the risk is as self-sabotaging as you are describing it in your post, then trade smaller or don't trade at all. You need to react without emotion and with purity of purpose. And that means not being bothered by taking losses.