Trading's Effect On Emotions

Doomberg · Jul 15, 2011

Regardless of how good a trader is we all have our bad days. It certainly is very different to a normal job, for example if you are an accountant and you have a bad day, you leave the office and when you arrive back home you can relax and forget about it, its highly likely that you will get paid exactly the same as you would of done on a good day. For traders its different, there are a lot more emotions involved because no body wants to lose what an average accountant earns a week or even a month in 1 trading day. I'm sure we've all been in situations where we may of been +100 points up by 3:30pm.. your adrenaline is pumping, and then a few errors later and you finish that evening -150 points... it can almost be like a roller coaster of emotions that can take place in a very short space of time.

Of course the most important thing is that we have more good days than bad days, but still these bad days can feel like a world of pain. For me i find it much more painful if i was up by a significant sum, only to lose all of that and more... even more so if it was because i broke my own rules! lol. Anyway the question i was going to ask is, how do you guys deal with these days? I had a very bad one on monday of this week, i'm in profit for the week but monday really did stress me out, it usually takes me 2-3 hours to wind down after an event like that. As time goes on do you just learn to shrug it off? I was talking to a friend earlier who said that you should only feel bad / kick your own ass mentally if you are not in profit by close of play on friday, which is very true i suppose.

Whats your views on this? How do you deal with the emotions?

DashRiprock · Jul 15, 2011

I find that aq bout of angry masturbation teaches me a lesson or two. If it's a really bad day I will force myself to look at pictures of men while I'm knocking one out.

0007 · Jul 15, 2011

Doomberg said:
Regardless of how good a trader is we all have our bad days. .............................
........ Whats your views on this? How do you deal with the emotions?

Get your spreadsheets out & look at your past stats which hopefully will show an average long term profitability. Treat your "bad day" just like those moments in your car: you know - those occasions that happen about every 10k miles when you or someone else does something really stupid and you have a narrow escape and subsequently think - "that was lucky - I'm still alive (and trading!)"

If you've got proper risk management in place and you're not over-trading then "bad days" are just part of trading life and should be treated as such. Nothing that a few quiet beers won't cure.

BeginnerJoe · Jul 15, 2011

A month into my trading and I have lost all emotions, except some greed is still with me. I am a cold fish.

Doomberg · Jul 15, 2011

DashRiprock said:
I find that aq bout of angry masturbation teaches me a lesson or two. If it's a really bad day I will force myself to look at pictures of men while I'm knocking one out.

No i mean like what would you do different? For you thats a pretty normal day right?

Black Swan · Jul 15, 2011

Whats your views on this? How do you deal with the emotions?

you start a lot of threads..it doesn't make me "emotional ", not interested tbh, it's just an observation..

Doomberg · Jul 15, 2011

BeginnerJoe said:
A month into my trading and I have lost all emotions, except some greed is still with me. I am a cold fish.

I wish i could be a cold fish, i end up shouting at my computer

coopster · Jul 15, 2011

DashRiprock said:
I find that aq bout of angry masturbation teaches me a lesson or two. If it's a really bad day I will force myself to look at pictures of men while I'm knocking one out.

I'm forced to read that post and look at a picture of the Hoff in your profile at the same time!!

Please make the images in my head go away!!

BeginnerJoe · Jul 15, 2011

Doomberg said:
I wish i could be a cold fish, i end up shouting at my computer

When I first started, every trade was like a roller coaster ride and I was genuinely concerned I might die from a heart attack because of the pumped up adrenaline that lasted for a whole day. Now, everything is nice and comfortable. I still talk to the charts though.

Doomberg · Jul 15, 2011

Black Swan said:
Whats your views on this? How do you deal with the emotions?

you start a lot of threads..it doesn't make me "emotional ", not interested tbh, it's just an observation..

You seem to try and trip people at any chance you get..

It doesn't make me "emotional" , not interested tbh, it's just an observation...

new_trader · Jul 15, 2011

Doomberg said:
Regardless of how good a trader is we all have our bad days. It certainly is very different to a normal job, for example if you are an accountant and you have a bad day, you leave the office and when you arrive back home you can relax and forget about it, its highly likely that you will get paid exactly the same as you would of done on a good day. For traders its different, there are a lot more emotions involved because no body wants to lose what an average accountant earns a week or even a month in 1 trading day. I'm sure we've all been in situations where we may of been +100 points up by 3:30pm.. your adrenaline is pumping, and then a few errors later and you finish that evening -150 points... it can almost be like a roller coaster of emotions that can take place in a very short space of time.

Of course the most important thing is that we have more good days than bad days, but still these bad days can feel like a world of pain. For me i find it much more painful if i was up by a significant sum, only to lose all of that and more... even more so if it was because i broke my own rules! lol. Anyway the question i was going to ask is, how do you guys deal with these days? I had a very bad one on monday of this week, i'm in profit for the week but monday really did stress me out, it usually takes me 2-3 hours to wind down after an event like that. As time goes on do you just learn to shrug it off? I was talking to a friend earlier who said that you should only feel bad / kick your own ass mentally if you are not in profit by close of play on friday, which is very true i suppose.

Whats your views on this? How do you deal with the emotions?

You talk about 'good' days and 'bad' days so it looks to me as if your trading is still a hit-and-miss affair and the element of uncertainty is playing havoc with your emotions and impairing your judgement. I think your friend is wrong in saying “you should only feel bad / kick your own ass mentally if you are not in profit by close of play on Friday”. You should only feel bad if you didn’t trade by your rules, and by rules I don’t mean ‘setups’. I sometimes go a whole week without a trade. The trade either jumps out at you or it doesn't.

BeginnerJoe · Jul 15, 2011

new_trader said:
You talk about 'good' days and 'bad' days so it looks to me as if your trading is still a hit-and-miss affair

It sounds as if you don't have bad days. If you are so sure of your bets, what's stopping you going all in ?

rc450 · Jul 15, 2011

coopster said:
I'm forced to read that post and look at a picture of the Hoff in your profile at the same time!!

Please make the images in my head go away!!

don't be such a prude coops it's 2011, anything goes..those images wouldn't be of the hoff in those red baywatch speedos would they?

new_trader · Jul 15, 2011

BeginnerJoe said:
It sounds as if you don't have bad days. If you are so sure of your bets, what's stopping you going all in ?

It 'sounds' that way to you because you have an uncanny ability to misinterpret everything, and I mean everything!! I have ALREADY EXPLAINED TO YOU COUNTLESS TIMES BEFORE that I have never implied that I am perfect and never take a loss. But I don't see a loss as a 'bad' day. I trade with very tight stops because I expect to get it right many more times than I get it wrong. Trading with a tight stop immediately limits my losses and protects me against unexpected or unforseen events, or, a lapse in judgement because as hard as it may be to believe, I am still human. Last night I didn't take a trade that I should have and this in my book is bad, not a bad day, just a misdemeanor.

The mistake I made early in my trading journey, and I assume Doomberg is making the same mistake, is the feeling that you need to be 'busy' whenever you are at the screen. What you must do is allow a trade to develop naturally, you shouldn't force it. You need to learn that in order to master the market you must first become its slave.

N.B: I will bookmark this post to save me having to answer the next time you ask the same idiotic question.

BeginnerJoe · Jul 15, 2011

new_trader said:
But I don't see a loss as a 'bad' day.

Do you see a loss as a good day then ?

new_trader · Jul 15, 2011

BeginnerJoe said:
Do you see a loss as a good day then ?

You can't honestly be this stupid...this is a wind up.

BeginnerJoe · Jul 15, 2011

new_trader said:
You can't honestly be this stupid...this is a wind up.

No. I am genuinely looking for clarification. For most people losing makes a bad day and should be avoided at all times. It would be worrisome if you lose and be happy with it.

market_bull · Jul 15, 2011

I'm a bit of a musician. So I will shred some guitar or play some drums. I have musical tastes that are a bit on the 'heavier' side. So, they help the day along if it's dragging balls. I also play Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

new_trader · Jul 15, 2011

BeginnerJoe said:
No. I am genuinely looking for clarification. For most people losing makes a bad day and should be avoided at all times. It would be worrisome if you lose and be happy with it.

Ok, so it was an honest question. I am neither happy nor sad when I lose or win. I will explain by quoting an analogy posted by someone else. I sincerely hope it helps you understand.

SOCRATES said:
Any enterprise that involves risk must have provision for dealing with that risk.

You cannot have profit without risk.

Risk is further accentuated when the enterprise deals in a product which is in some way perishable.
If you go to a fruit market, you will see how it is that the costermongers think nothing of tossing out the odd item of fruit that has begun to perish or has ben pecked at by a bird or is in some other way not acceptable.

They just toss them out. They don't wring their hands and moan because they have to toss out a few fruit. It is within the nature of the business that this is something they have to do so as to prevent a potentially bad situation from getting worse.
In any business where there is risk either real or implied, the provision of measures to countermand that risk are imperative.

Trading is no exception.

market_bull · Jul 15, 2011

Well said, new_trader. That post can be applied to many different things.. but yeah, fits quite well with trading!

Trading's Effect On Emotions

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