Trading Psychology Experiences

This topic is specifically about psychology experiences. If you wish, write about any useful experiences or problems you have had or are having in the field of trading psychology.

Have you had any recurring days of the year, month or week that have seen big losses or gains?I ended last week on a positive note and higher than expected. On the other hand, my worst losses have always been in the first week of each new month, so I will trade next Monday with half the usual volume if there is a trading opportunity.

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Do you think having a good, proven strategy is more important than practicing trading psychology for success? I think both are important, but being mentally prepared for trading is much harder than finding any great trading strategy.A clear, specific, uninterpretable, and thoroughly tested strategy is necessary for trading success, but even after having this strategy, it is still impossible to achieve sustainable trading success. Why?! Because to achieve sustainable trading success, every trader (every human being) must change their mental system from a survival-oriented to a probability-oriented mode.The average human, by their biology, performs worst on trading charts.

I had big issues in the beginning… Just like any other trader to be fair. However, as time passed I got numb to losing money or facing a losing trade. The reason is pretty simple. I backtested one strategy, and it was profitable over several years. That’s when I finally understood that even if I get losses, in the long term I will make it! Just gotta stick to the strategy and be disciplined, which is also a bit of challenge, but not that hard

It was an interesting experience.Those who have a proven and profitable strategy from the beginning do not experience many of the psychological scars and fears of trading, but in general, humans need to rewire their minds to trade because our brains implement survival-based emotions to survive the horrors of the past year, and this method of trading, which is based on probabilities, does not bring anything but failure. Therefore, the dopamine that the trader's brain (as a normal person) gets from making a profit must be obtained from correctly implementing the strategy, which of course requires continuous and specific training.

Today I am learning to change the tone of your internal dialogue and the tone and words of your trading journal. This is a point that seems to be of little importance, but words create our mental context, and mental context leads us to a series of actions that align with it. Have you thought about the tone and type of words in your trading journal? Have you noticed the tone and type of words you say to yourself before and after each profit or loss or during a trade and its effects? This can make a huge difference in your trading psychology.

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The average human, by their biology, performs worst on trading charts.

We're wired for pattern-seeking, loss aversion, and fight-or-flight, basically the opposite of what calm, probability-based decision making needs. Charts exploit every cognitive bias we've got. No wonder most people lose money doing this without serious discipline

That's right.I have come to the conclusion that the trader must rewrite his entire mental system for probabilistic conditions through specific exercises, not just awareness. Otherwise, sooner or later he will return all his profits to the market and will also make losses, and this cycle will repeat itself over and over again, at best.Success in trading requires migrating from a survival-oriented brain to a probability-oriented brain.

Accepting the loss. It’s one of the hardest things in trading and I think this distinguishes successful traders from the rest. I learned this through personal experience. I know that accepting 20% loss on your account is extremely hard, but it’s better to be down by 20% than blow your account.

You have made an important point. I would like to say that this is just the tip of the iceberg. It seems that we need to rebuild our entire system of thinking, which evolved about 250,000 years ago based on survival, that is, to create new neural pathways with specific training to move from a survival-oriented mind to a possibilities-oriented mind. This is a very long topic, but at the same time it is the key to the salvation of all traders of any level of knowledge.

i think emotions get under control once you have an edge...really...if there is positive edge why bother then with losses? losses are part of the game

Yes, you are absolutely right. There is a point here:A trader's fear of loss is a general issue. The type of fear a trader has should be discovered and examined by himself using trading psychology strategies, because perhaps a trader's fear of loss is more due to not only financial loss but also, for example, his inability to tolerate his opinion being wrong. Perhaps another trader is afraid of losing because of a kind of perfectionism, and another trader is afraid of losing only because of losing money.The problem is one thing, but its cause can have subtle differences in each trader.

That’s the thing: having an edge reduces emotional pressure, but it doesn’t automatically remove it. Fear can come from losing money, being wrong, breaking a winning streak or trying to recover a drawdown. Tracking the specific trigger in the journal is usually more useful than simply writing “bad psychology.”

Yes, agree that both is as important. 

Hence I use an EA/algo to trade. Programmed it for strict risk management and for it to look at the chart 24/5 for me. 

I have been achieving sustainable results ever since, risking 10% per trade. Results below:

https://www.myfxbook.com/members/SmiteFX/fortune-vt/11894893

That's absolutely true.A trading journal is essentially a tool for scanning the trader's psyche and behavior.There are many details about proper journaling, from what to write to even the tone of the sentences and the emotional charge of the words written in it.

Progress in trading by reporting violations of the trading plan rules.It is harder to disappoint others than to disappoint ourselves, so honestly reporting violations of the trading rules is an opportunity to help each other increase our responsibility in trading.Honestly reporting violations of our trading plan and solutions to fix them is a topic that you can also write here to talk more about if you like.Letting others know about your commitment can help you maintain that commitment when making your trades.

i think emotions get under control once you have an edge and high knowledge of trading structure