This exemple shows how important it is to protect one's psychological capital. Stuff that destroy psychological capital : - bad intimate relationships would be number 1 - trading live when simulation trading shows no consistent profitability - not taking breaks/holidays basically, best for Aisone, to look critically to: - people around him : do they really love him, are they supportive of him and his goal? If not, then he'd do well to ask himself why he is accepting these people in HIS life - how often does he take holidays to really unwind? I remember of one trader who used to take 2 weeks five star holidays every 5 weeks. He must have understood something about the goodness of holidaying. I am starting to believe 5 weeks of holidays for 2 weeks of trading would be a very good decision. - his trading per se - everything ( including money management, trading account balance management, etc....)
I used to go gliding twice a week and do acrobatics for about three hours. I only took one tow a day so I hade to ride thermals to go back upstairs (12K was my non oxy limit and 5 G's for my brain protection). So you need treatment. The best, cheapest and most pemanent is EMDR. Trading is giving you, and rightly so, a Lizard Syndrome to encourage you to quit trading. The CW OODA consequences are anxiety, fear and anger for a simple reason. Betting and hoping do not work. A human knows this deeply. I experience support, comfort and confidence as I trade. you have two sets of feeleings: one for being on the sidelines and one for being in a trade. you enter and exit. you use pain as a measure of failure limits. If I get twinges of what you feel all the time in a trade, I exit and journal to find out the answer to one and only one question. Since all the while I know that I know, when I get into your situation just a little little bit, it means I do not know ompletely that I know for a moment. I deal with that matter right then and there surgically. To stop betting and hoping as the strategy, you have to examine why you "manage "risk" and "money". Neither need managing when you know you know. All you do is "extract" the offer. your mind cannot erase and you have many things you decided to have in your mind long term. The consequence is your acquired "fears". So also add "mindfulness" studies to your list. Zinn is great and he is at U Mass. you can also use the Eastern version by doing the Chopra courses. All this stuff is also packaged for maintainance purposes. Psych K is also good traing since it lets you self-test yourself as to what is right and what is wrong. There are some very cool self montoring machines that you can attach to your computer. The boot camp of long ago posted the graphics as a person went through getting very skilled in mental stability. He also got rich and now helps others. "knowing that you know" is mostly foreign to most traders. Most trader never, in their lives, actually see the operation of the markets. Education is not the answer either. Learning is if it is purposeful. finally, the way to make money continually is to keep on the correct side of the market. So far you have said you do not know how to detect when the market is changing sides. this self fear carries over into about anything that has sides. Most things do have sides. Fighting was invented to keep the sides aware, Outcomes are not too important; mostly it is about being correct rather that being complete and in balance.
==================== Mr A; Well the markets i watch, for sure more of a roller coaster. Trends are still friends. But as far as 'temp-ticking away''; No longer fearless''. Well no longer fearless,is no problem. But'' temp- ticking away'' is part of investing or trading unless you get out/ flat. Part of maturity is''no fear risk''; oversize risk gets less fun; but that can be a good thing.Wisdom is profitable to direct And if you wre making money long SPY/related, i would sell that now also,LOL.Sure its a good uptrend but very old-extended.
This is scared money. I eat scared money for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Scared money results usually due to a weakness in strategy, which only further accentuates into lack of conviction, and other discipline issues etc as the losses only mount. My advice would be to take your time, study, plan and figure out a better strategy. The better the strategy, and the more convinced that you are about it, the less the fear, and other fear induced negative trading actions.
Where were you when I was liquidating my positions ? Next time Gold is at an all time high look me up, I think I may have some stuff to sell you. I am assuming I understand correctly, you want to hold your loosers right ? Im not sure what your plan is with your winners, but if you want to cut them short next time we can do a swap. Greed is better then fear? Greed is the love to make money. Fear is the hate of lose. Both are expectations of price NOT going a certain direction. Alternatively, you can always change your short term positions to long term ones instead of closing them. I have a feeling though you wont be a day trader within 3 trades. Here is a secret it is the key to all trading, things go up and down govern yourself accordingly mathematically, last i checked yoga did not make me money,,,, and yes, like you i tried. Turns out yoga is not a strategy you can program. If you were thinking of actually doing it yourself instead of trading well your not going to get much work done are you ?
Put tape on your web cam !! You have to watch out for this guy, he has an algo, he can remotely view your webcam and eat money out of your account while you are doing yoga. If you see him please ask him to give me back my money (in bit coin currency) before I kick his #$#
Aisone, smallStops' first post is relevant, likewise Tonkadad's and wrbtrader's, the other posts are rubbish, they're trying to deal with the problem and not the cause haven't you said it all: "However in the past number of years I've gone thru some very difficult personal experiences that tweaked me and practically made me afraid of fear." â no mention of trading you could try an NLP therapist but possibly better is a psychologist trained in hypnotism and who's had experience working with traders a psychologist by their training works with people who have problems, so the psyche should first identify your problem and suggest a course of treatment, which might be hypnotherapy. never tried it myself but I'm a believer anyway you need to research the nlp / psychologists personally via the phone, check references to be sure they're bone fide and if possible talk to prior patients, although when doing a first search via Google you may come across some ex-patients who've posted a critique on some site or other best wishes for your treatment
Message sent, thanks for the feedback, Ironplates, and good luck in your situation too. We can do this. Good suggestion and I almost did that today. I will try it if that's what it takes, and it's something I've done numerous times before when I was in better shape mentally. I knew it was hard so I left and kept the confidence instead of letting go of the position. Not sure about alcohol. I'm ADD and with alcohol I'm ADDDDDD... I have that book but haven't opened it for more than a decade. I plan to start rereading it tonight, thanks for the link. And this is Tony Robbin's approach too...basically just have to do it. Easier said than done sometimes, but in one shape or another, that's what I'm going to do. Basically what you're saying is 'keep it in perspective', if I'm not mistaken, and I can appreciate that. Well said. I appreciate your replies, thanks. Some of this is an old dog trying to implement new tricks, some of it simply an old worn dog. 'Forgive self' is very helpful and something I will try to remember to keep repeating during the day when I forgo a great trade or take a bad one, etc. I don't know exactly how I got into the habit of being so hard on myself, but like I said I'll do...'forgive self.' I believe in counseling and therapy but am less of a believer in finding a really good one. Numerous people have suggested professional help, including ones in my family who know of my struggles and challenges. I am looking into options and even some suggestions here but am not sure where it will go or where I'll go with it. Thanks all for the suggestions. Soon I will be enjoying life on the weekends more, but time off is a luxury I can't afford at this point. The next vacation I go on will be well earned and with complete relaxation, proud that I've overcome my obstacles. Thanks again for the tips and insight, noted. 'I know I know' and that's one reason why I'm fighting this, and one reason why I'll win. I'm ashamed to say 'that's me', that's what I've become. But I'll be back, so consider it only a loan, with interest.