How did you learn to cope with the emotions? Say you started risking $5 per trade, but currently risk $500, how was the journey like and emotions throughout? Do you still treat $5 and $50000 the same way in terms of psychology?
I stopped looking at each individual trade as a success or failure and looked at the overall portfolio value. As long as it is increasing I'm doing okay. I started considering a trade as a successor faiure not be whether I made or lost money, but by whether I followed my plan. If I follow my process and lose money I consider it a good trade with a bad out come.
Once you fully understand, accept, and OWN THE FACT that trading is... 1) NOT a game of chance (ie. not gambling) and 2) NOT a game of 100% certainty, emotion all but disappears within the confines of being human. You trade well, because trading well is what you do. Money takes care of itself. The psychology of YOUR BEING is different. If your psychological limits on risk AND reward are not in line with the activity, you will fail at trading... you can maybe pursue investing in that case. As an intraday trader, I struggle with huge rewards... it (mega-success, as defined by me) just CAN'T be that easy!... without significant and intentional effort, I won't push boundaries, regardless of what is happening on the screen. Maybe that helps a little. https://y.yarn.co/616a2436-ae3b-4e3d-ba4b-3e8a22a99245.mp4
Years ago I used to get scared of $1k daily swings in my portfolio. Last fall through first quarter I witnessed my PNL be up or down 6 figures on certain days. I was miserable and was constantly in a bad mood (apologies to my wife and kids!). I am past that now I am de-sensitized to the bigger $ swings - I just look at it as % changes. If you ramp size gradually over time it becomes psychologically easier.
%% NO way a $5 profit is any way like a $50,000 profit/but a % measure helps. 50k profits maybe more common in RE....... BUT its not anything like gambling. Worst way[emotionaly] to look @ it is in US dollars+ I like US federal reserve notes EVEN though they are almost exactly correlated, pay more attention to price than P+L, even though your mind maybe will know both of them. A man's mind\general inability to multitask could be an advantage here
You can't look treat it like real money. You are simply focused on optimizing. Worrying about what the money could buy is a major distraction so make sure you don't care.
To have a strong psychology, one needs to face his emotions. In forex, trading rationally and making decisions based on facts and figures derived from analysis keep the emotions under control.
For me it was like evolving which was though a slow process but a powerful one. Starting with small accounts helps in developing a strong trading psychology without affecting trading accounts much.
It’s a bit like a drug. At the start a win of $500 was a great feeling. But after a few wins like that, there’s no great feeling anymore. Then 1k feels good and so on. An unexpected multi-bagger win is a bit like getting a complimentary upgrade to first-class trans-Atlantic too young.