Money is a natural source of fear. We fear losing too much money, we fear not having enough money, and some of us even fear having too much money and not being worthy or responsible enough with it. Very few of us have a really healthy overall attitude about money. Money issues usually stem from our childhood, either feeling bought off by parents with too much money and not enough love or not feeling secure due to a lack of money in the household. Allowing your fears to dictate your trading days is like allowing your fear to toss you around like a dog's squeaky toy, being flung from here to there and gnawed at until finally, you break.
When we are novice traders, we enter into this venue with a healthy amount of trepidation. We would be truly naive and somewhat foolhardy not to have at least some level of anxiety and fear. After all, we are banking quite a bit on being able to learn and grow competent at the trading game. Yet, there is a difference between a healthy amount of learner's worry and fear based trading. Fear based trading means that you are trading without the benefit of your intelligent thought processes.
Understanding your fear is part of conquering it and decidedly not permitting it to make decisions for you. The other part is learning when your fears are rational and when they are less than rational. All fear has a target, meaning that all your fears have a specific and stated beginning, end, and base. If you grew up so impoverished that you family couldn't afford Band Aids then you may have the fear that without enough money you will not be safe, not even safe enough to fall down while "playing."
If you grew up in a household where money spoke the language of love, and your affections were purchased, you may have the fear that making money will mean that you will lose your ability to love your family fully and deeply. Since these fears stem from childhood experiences, it is okay to explain to your little scared voice that those experiences were of the past, and you have the power to make different choices under the same circumstances.
All fears have a legitimate base. Whether you are fearful over childhood experiences or are just scared of making a poor decision, your fears do not have to disable you as a trader. When you are executing trades, you are simply interpreting information. The more you can interpret this information without the distraction of emotion, the better your decisions are going to be.
If your fears a very serious or paralyzing, you need to deal with them swiftly and immediately. You need to get the help you need in order to execute a trade without that paralyzing fear. Whether that help is in the form of a professional or you just need to bounce some fear resolution with your significant other, finding a way to break through the fear and start dealing with your trades from an unemotional place.
Every trade that you learn to make from a rational, clear state of mind is a trade that is not only likely to go much more smoothly, but it is also more likely to teach you how to make winning trades without a white knuckled fear. Start with baby trades if you have to in order to help work your way through it.
Often one of the most powerful ways to alleviate your fear is to accept that you feel some fear, acknowledge that fear is powerful but that you are more powerful, and understand that fear or no fear, there will be times when you will make poor trading decisions. It is part of playing the game. In many cases, having this brief interlude with yourself before each trade allows you to deal directly with the issues and move through it if not around it.
When fear is a motivating factor in your trading day, you often have to go through a process in order to start real trades. If you spend some of your day visualizing trades, visualizing the process and then visualize the best case scenario, you can start your trading day by making fear only a small part of it.
Visualization, while often mocked and thought to be a method of creating a false sense of security, has been proven to bring the vast majority of those who have tried it into a clear and more intellectual state of mind. Visualization has been proven to help people lose weight, help athletes train for competitive events, and help investors watch themselves making the day's trades without being over run with fearful thoughts and actions.
Other traders have found that a few simple exercises during their morning prep time helps to get the geared up, sort of like a boxer getting ready to get ready to enter the ring. Before his gloves go on, and before his trunks are tied, the boxer goes through some of his best moves to warm up and psyche up. Deciding that you are going up against your fear (boxing gloves and all if you choose) can help you attack your daily fears and overpower them.
Some traders hold into their fears like a baby blanket. If you are using your fears to keep your trading decisions in check, you are also limiting the possibilities for your own success. Holding onto the belief that you are only able to prevent major mistakes by listening to the voices of fear in your head is a rationalization that can make you more comfortable with your fear. It also prevents you from risking too much, even on the successful trades. You can learn to prevent huge losses without the discomfort of fear. Rational and intelligent decision making is a more reliable method of trading wisely than fear based risk management.
No matter what your fears are, where they come from, or how you use them, the goal of any successful trader is to remove emotion from the trading day. While no one can do this perfectly, those who can do it very well have a higher success rating than those who don't conquer any part of their fears. If you need to go buy a case of Band Aids, then by all means. Go through the little rituals that you need to in order to get a strong handle your emotions during the trading day.
You do have the power to control your fears. They do not have to control you. The closer you become to fearless, the more readily you will find your trading days are successful and even fun. When fear takes a back seat (or at least the passenger's side) you become able to not only conquer one of the most demanding emotions of the human system, but you also enable yourself to grow as a trader. Any time a trader grows and becomes more self confident, he or she is putting his or her future their own hands. And there is not stronger trader than the one who has conquered their fear, gained control, and learned to grow all in the same intense leap forward.
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120
Date Published :
Dec 21 2008