My experience is the same. In the meantime (i'm in a good winning streak), I have fear that my actual results is only due to luck or market conditions and not to my improving skills. How long does it take to have such a confidence that you know it is not only luck ? I even remember a market wizard winning some millions telling that he didn't have this confidence. He knew so well how it is easy to blow up on the next day. I think that fear helps me not to blow up tomorrow.
no doubt about it. Traders treat open wins different than open losses. You could flip a coin and a trader could show a net loss simply due to fear. Fear is the most expensive problem to the otherwise well balanced trader. And it is all in your head. The chart looks good, the market looks good, the account looks good, and a trader will take a profit. Why? The first words out of his mouth are, "I was afraid it would......" In this business, you have to want to succeed more than anything, and too many want it, but not bad enough to deal with their own fear. You can learn to do everything right, but you won't go far until you harness fear. I'm glad this forum was started. You see it all over this site. Traders want to look everywhere for answers, but not if it means looking at themselves. Trading for them is just one more way to run. It takes courage to deal with fear, but all the courage in the world won't free you from fear.
For me I have found that KNOWLEDGE is what conquers or removes fear from my life, in most cases. The knowledge I have gained over the years as to what setups have a high probability of profitability gives me a level of confidence which has helped remove fear from my trading. This doesn't mean I don't have a very healthy RESPECT for the market and its power. Before I gained knowledge, I lacked confidence and would often let fear control my trades. I would react, get head faked, stopped before the big move, etc. etc. etc. I am basically a discretionary directional trader. I try to have my plan complete for each trade. This allows me to simply execute my PREDETERMINED plan based on the changing conditions. I may be reacting, responding, or executing. Each person may call it something different. I believe the key is that I have PREDETERMINED what I will do given changing conditions. Then as these conditions develop I simply execute the plan. Knowledge and confidence NOT FEAR must control your trading IMO.
We fear what we don't understand (that's not original, but you can quote me on it if you want to) and I think many traders will never overcome fear, because it means accepting the uncertainty that goes hand in hand with trading. They believe that fear will go away when they find a system that works. Fear will become one of your best trading friends when you see the effect it has on others. I know what the market can do to me, and I know what it will never do for me. But I agree, when you know sometimes this trick works and sometimes it doesn't and I ususally can't tell in the middle if it is going to work or not and that's why I set it up this way and if it doesn't work then afterwards I can be as fearful as I want that it will never work again, but right now about the stupidist thing to do would be to pull this trade based on nothing else except the fact that I am afraid this might be one of the times it doesn't work then you are on your way to harnessing fear.
no jcom, I've gone new age x gen. Gotta keep up with the new way of doing things. This is stream of consciousness, not literature. Capital letters are for capital ideas, this is just the itty bitty details ee goings
whatever floats your boat or finds your lost remote kinda wish i could have followed you because it was somewhat interesting...
and I haven't even got to the empowerment part. I am an expert in fear. Had to be. Came very natural for me.
Profitseer, I had to copy out your paragraph on fear and save it. You probably just described 75% of my trading. I am working on that aspect right now. But it was helpful to see it spelled out.