Psychology and Risk Management
• What to expect
• Risks
• Position sizing
• illusion of control
• Accepting critisism
• Paralyzed by fear
• Loss is a feedback, not a failure
• The flexible trader
• Focusing on the positive
• Short straddle
• The dynamics of greed
• The herd mentality
• Notes
Stock Market Refuting core beliefs Our views and expectations determine our trading strategy. For instance, if we are very afraid, we won’t want to take chances and, at our most extreme, we might even be afraid to place a transaction. Whether conscious or not, our expectations have a significant impact on how well we trade.
Every typical worry that traders experience has underlying core assumptions and ideas that should recognise and debunk. For instance, Mark Douglas lists four trading anxieties that lead to many trading mistakes in his book “Trading in the Zone”: being incorrect, losing money, missing out, and leaving money on the table, because of many anxieties of these fear of failing.
For instance, the fundamental presumption behind the fear of failure is the conviction that one must be wholly competent, sufficient, and successful. According to Ellis, having such a notion causes worry and anxiety, which in traders frequently results in hesitancy and self-doubt. It makes sense how this belief came to be. Growing up, we frequently experience negative repercussions for not being meticulously skilled, whether at home, school, or job. As a result, we start to assume that we must be totally competent, adequate, and successful in whatever we do. But there is a cost to this belief.
If we have the mindset that we must always succeed, we will spend all of our precious psychological energy worrying about what will happen if we fail rather than concentrating on what we are doing right now to carry out our present trading strategy. Traders who feel they must possess a high level of competence spend their whole day worrying about what they did incorrectly, what could go wrong, and how they will rebound if they fail. These ideas detract from the present experience and make it difficult to accurately and consistently interpret current market behaviour.
Let go of your fear of failure if you want to succeed in trading. You don’t need to be flawless. One is destined to make mistakes every now and again, as any seasoned trader will tell you, and if you are concerned with avoiding them, Stock Market Refuting core beliefs, you’ll be so anxious and afraid that you will make even more blunders. To disprove the fundamental idea that drives the fear of failure: Remind yourself that you don’t need to think you need to be completely competent, adequate, or successful. No trader can meet that bar, and strangely, attempting to do so would only result in failure and incompetence.