One thing that trips up new traders is that they are surprised at the emotions that flood into them when they begin the process of trading with real money. Their ego engages and they do not want to be wrong and they sure don’t want to lose money. The negative downward emotional spiral takes down more traders than the math, risk management, or markets ever will. Once the negativity begins it is hard to stop, so travel down the right emotional road if you truly want to be a winning trader, here is what that looks like:
Choose the emotions that you participate in carefully.
- Contentment: The trader must be satisfied that they are trading the right system for their risk tolerance and beliefs about the market.
- Hopefulness: A trader must have the belief that he will win in the long term and it is worth the effort to capture the future profits.
- Optimism: Winning traders believe that they are always getting closer to that next big winner.
- Positive Expectations: To be successful the trader must expect that in the long run his robust system will produce profits and not lose faith during draw downs.
- Enthusiasm: The winning trader enjoys the trading process and loves playing the game that is the markets.
- Passion: The traders that end up as the big winners are the ones that have the drive to keep learning, keep growing, and put in the work needed because of the energy that comes from their passion.
- Empowerment: The best traders in the market can not even imagine doing anything else but trading. They truly get joy from the freedom of being a trader and love what they do.