Why is trading really stressful? | Patrick Reid posted on the topic | LinkedIn (2024)

There was a time when I thought I wasn't good enough in my job. I suffered from imposter syndrome and believe you me it nearly crippled me. To be fair I did wing it a lot which bit me-in-the-you-know what a couple of times. Now is very different. I was pondering where I am at in my life right now and where I came from. It's incredible to think a guy at 38 can about face his career from being a creative to trading Futures contracts. I spoke to a LIFFE legend over lunch last Friday and we discussed this. What I learnt is this: 1. It doesn't matter how many Phd's you have - markets are like the weather. You can never predict them - you can only mitigate the risk you are happy to take at that given time. 2. Stars rise and fall but the long term success is based on being humble, and knowing when to cut losses. 3. If you have a rock star day trading then do something normal afterwards. Walk the dog, go and pick up a newspaper, make beans on toast. Do not believe you are special - ever. Because you are not. 4. If you are having a bad run welcome to my world. Get used to it because that is the business of trading. Also, never "get your money back" with revenge trading because that my friends is a one way ticket to the poor house. 5. If something works ask yourself 2 things. Is it both repeatable and scaleable. What ever slice of genius pie you are eating remember nothing lasts for ever. Ask the fibre optic HFT boys 10 years ago. Have a cracking Monday!Photo: Me after a big win in my second year buying dips in a bull market. I cringe at the thought but it is the truth. I used to also slap my own face and say "I got this" in an alpha type way. Thankfully I don't do that now.

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I did losses continuously for 3 years and now trading is my profession.I found 7 most common biggest trading mistakes which I did.1. Harder to understandTrading is a complex game. It’s hard to perfect and do the right thing as emotions are heavily involved.- Mastering one system is better than using 10 randomly. - Less is more. - Focus on one setup and kill in this trading game.2. Unreasonable expectationsMost traders have garbage strategy but hope of returns like a good strategy- Do not think that trading as lottery- Only returns of 2-5% puts you in the top 5% traders - Continue working hard and in 5 years, you’ll be in top 0.1% like me.3. OvertradingThe sad part of overtrading is most people don’t even understand why they do it.- Bad strategy gives low confidence- Low confidence convinces to recover the loss on same dayIt just makes you lose more money as the strategy is garbage anyways.4. That 1 TradeMost people trade nicely but someday with a bad mood they just take 1 trade and never book the loss. They wait until it erodes their capital.- Never remove stop loss.- Trade with discipline of following rules.- Do not risk big.5. ConfidenceMost people think confidence comes from reading psychology tips. Confidence comes from having a good strategy.- Reduce your risk.- Have a good strategy.- Start small.Read as many books as you want but if you have a garbage strategy, you’ll never be confident.6. FOMOIf your strategy doesn’t give you the trade you want, either change the strategy or don’t expect large returns- Understand your strategy.- Don’t be greedy.- Plan and review your trades more.Fear of Missing out and then taking trades will end up being a huge risk.7. Self beliefTrading is very competitive and requires a lot of struggles and knowledge to perform.You have to believe in yourself and work hard on the right path to become a Trader.Learn to combat self doubt, stress, emotions, late nights, failures.#intradaytrading #intradaystock #stockmarket #tradingpsychology #equitymarket #trader #investor.

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I've faced a tough situation in my trading journeyMy Biggest opponentMy Fight Against AngerTrading is a bit like wrestling a wild animal. Sometimes it's thrilling, but other times, it feels like you're battling a powerful force. And in this trading world, one emotion can be your best friend or your worst enemy: 𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗘𝗥.My journey through trading has been a rollercoaster. There were exciting highs and painful lows. Along the way, I discovered something important: Trading isn't just about numbers and charts. It's also about understanding and controlling your own emotions.Early on, anger was a frequent visitor. It showed up when a trade went wrong or when I let greed cloud my judgment. Losing money hurts, right? But then, I realized anger was making things worse.After a series of bad trades driven by anger, I took a step back. I saw that anger was my biggest problem in trading. It made me forget my trading plans, act recklessly, and make quick decisions that lost me even more money.From that moment on, I decided to manage my anger. Here are some simple strategies I used:1. 𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: I started each trading day with a few minutes of meditation. It helped me begin the day with a clear mind.2. 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴: I learned to recognize when anger was building up. Signs like a racing heart or shallow breath meant it was time to take a break.3. T𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝗝𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹: I kept a journal to write down my trades and how I felt during each one. It helped me see my patterns and make better choices.4. 𝗥𝗶𝘀𝗸 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹: I adjusted how much I risked on each trade. That way, losses didn't make me react in anger.Now, when I look back at my trading journey, I see a big change. I used to be an angry and impulsive trader. But now, I'm disciplined, patient, and making more profit. I learned that handling anger isn't just important for trading; it's a life skill.𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴. 𝘋𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶. 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘮 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶.𝗧𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗺𝗲, 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗯𝗮𝗱 𝗵𝗮𝗯𝗶𝘁 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝗯𝗲?#trading #finance #stockmarket #linkedinforcreators #linkedingrowth #tradingpsychology #psychology #personalfinance #personalbranding

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Feeling anxious about your trading? Do these 4 things...Once upon a time I experienced anxiety and stress every time I took a trade. I had trouble sleeping and I found myself regularly checking my positions and second guessing myself constantly.But that was a long time ago now...In this post I want to share that trading should not bring anxiety or stress into your life. So how did I eliminate anxiety from my trading? I implemented 4 simple changes which anyone can adopt:Position Size: Must be small enough for you to sleep wellWorst Case Drawdown: Must be within your toleranceTimeframe & Market Selection: Should fit your lifestyleTrading System Confidence: Backtested and understood#enlightenedstocktrading#learnstocktrading#stockmarket

Can I talk to your traders? 100%November has been a phenomenal month for our mentees and part of what we do is manage their expectation. We lift them when they are down and stop them flying away when they are up. Oddly enough November has been tricky for all the wrong reasons - I have been making sure the ego is not the amigo. For all of my potential prospects it is important to offer the chance to talk to my existing ones. It just makes sense. I think every FX mentor should do it. Here are 7 things on what to expect when talking to my traders:1. I will absolutely ask their permission and most of them will say yes. That said it really is up to them. I have never been in a position where they have refused. 2. My mentees are both retail and institutional so please do not ask what their trading strategies are. They are very busy and have agreed to take time out to give feedback on what we do and how well we do it! Warts and all - they will be honest in what their experience is. 3. You can view videos on my feed here with testimonials from over 60 traders over the years. Please do dig in as it will help before you make the call. 4. Please don't ask them how much they earn. It is personal and if they wish to reveal this fine and of course up to them. TIP: You can rephrase it and ask if are they consistent in yield. 5. Part of what we do is help our mentees with careers with our vast contacts. If you are unsure of trading full-time and say wanted a career change please ask about that too. Our Executive Search arm offers a VIP service to all clients. 6. Many of our past clients are still in touch and we see them more as friends. We travel globally and will be on tour again in Q1 2024. This means a lot to us so please feel free to ask what the aftercare is like. (Hint - we think it's rather good. Biased I know) 7. When we vet our new clients they need to be curious, passionate and ambitious. Above all of that they need to be NICE. It is super important for us to make sure they are a good fit with everyone else. We love our little family at Adamis and I'm positive you will too.

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Are you trading for a living?If you are considering turning your passion for trading into your sole income source, despite having a constant high level of support from your trader coach, it is important to understand that YOU are responsible for the after-effects of your actions. A common mistake committed time and time again in the trading world, is overtrading, or even worse, revenge trading. Too often people go into trading with the disillusioned concept of the ‘get rich quick scheme’, given time and patience I guarantee that you will master the art of trading for life however trade with caution to begin with even by risking the full 1%. You will be able to place more trades and learn more from them.When it all clicks into place, trading can be a very wonderful and consistently rewarding experience. According to your trading strategy, you can take as little as 40 minutes a day viewing the charts. If that’s the case, one of your biggest challenges will be to choose what to do with all of your other free time! It is definitely not a bad problem to have.The one thing that must be included with someone’s career as a trader is balance. Far too many traders spend far too much time researching and staring at charts to enjoy all the benefits that trading can come with.Correct me if I’m wrong but when you had thought of trading for a living you undoubtedly were not thinking of sitting in front of the computer 8 hours a day. This may strike you as an obvious point to make however there are plenty of traders out there who sit in front of the computer far more than necessary. You only need a few trades a month and that is when quality over quantity applies. But how do we do it? A good way to focus on quality is to go through a check list on every single trade and if the trade is not qualified leave it alone.If your approach is consistent, your results are far more likely to be consistent than if you have no defined approach that you stick to. Over time you should be able to either make the necessary adjustments to turn the strategy into a consistently profitable one or work out whether it’s better to move on to something different. This really is the most important aspect of having a consistent approach.#trader #financialmarkets #forextrader

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You have been trading for 3 years and like the 95% -You find yourself taking trades you “knew you shouldn’t have taken”You “knew you should have waited”You “could have made X but instead you lose Y”And every other excuse that comes with being an impatient chaser.An impatient chaser is characterized by a number of psychological issues. And they can all be boiled down to a simple culprit -You have no confidence in the long term data of your system.And instead of taking the time to study your system, you are impatiently chasing after something external.Sit down with yourself and ask yourself if you are 100% committed to the internal or distracted by what other have, what others do, what you could achieve if you just got lucky.When you are looking at a market and you have undergone a proper study of your edge, you should be able to quickly recognize if the market you are looking at is optimal or non optimal for a setup. This is what is going to keep you in good trades and out of bad trades. Because consistency is not defined by how many trades you take, it is defined by your ability to stay out when others are dying to gamble.The 95% is dying to gamble.So why are you worried about what they are doing?Focus on the internal.Focus on the long term.Do not become the impatient chaser dying to gamble.#stockmarket #tradingpsychology

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Why do traders give up and lose in stock markets ?Lack of confidence is one of the reasons.HOW TO BUILD MORE CONFIDENCE IN TRADINGLack of confidence comes from not knowing what you are doing. You need to research an edge you have interest in. From there move to back testing and testing on a demo account, once you feel more confident in your ability you can move on to the real account.FOLLOW THE PROCESS, NOT THE MONEYIf your plan states do ABC, then that’s what you do. Focus on following your plan. Even if you lost but you did s, following your plan that builds discipline and discipline builds habits and habits is what you will revert back to in the end. The right habits will help you build confidence.CONFIDENCE COMES FROM PROGRESSYou need to see results. There are many moving pieces in trading : technicals, fundamentals, psychology/emotions. The growth in the account only happens when the growth in other aspect does. But the results are only seen over time. You want to test an idea, the best way to do so is to test it on 200–300 trades. If it can work in back testing, it can work in the live markets. Have your brain see that enough times will help you manage emotions and have faith in the system. Progress comes from doing more.STOP WATCHING VIDEOS AND DO SOMETHINGIt is great to get knowledge from videos but the learning can’t stop there. The best learning will happen with time on the charts. No one ever got ripped by watching work out videos. Its important to know what to do in the gym, but you still got to do it. Trading is no different. Just like you gain confidence from your physique improving, you will gain confidence from your results improving. Results not improving? Learn more, do more, repeat.STOP COMPARING YOURSELF TO ANYONEYou only have one competition. That’s yourself. Be a better version of yourself this week then last week. Results will compound. As you see yourself improve, you will once again get more confident.CONSISTENCYShow up everyday. The foundation must be built before the house. You are doing the ground work now. Then comes the foundation. Then comes the house. It does not work backwards.

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Throughout history, we’ve used scary terms to define things we don’t understand. Sometimes, we even use these scary ideas to keep people away.You’ve probably heard the term “the Witching Hour.” Used for that time of night when kids should be home in bed, not out causing mischief. Of course, the stock market couldn’t be left out of a nice scary term. But why not up it a little bit? They call it the Triple Witching hour. Have you ever heard that term? It is the term used to define the final hour of trading on the third Friday of every March, June, September, and December. Why Triple Witching? Because three things happen that day and culminate in the final hour. Stock Options, Stock Index Futures, and Stock Index Option Contracts all expire. Rather than try to explain how each of those contracts works here on social media, let’s just focus on why it was given a “scary” name. Due to the contracts expiring, many traders need to purchase or sell stock to hedge their positions on their contracts. This increases the volume and volatility of trading leading up to the triple witching hour. How much does it increase? On average, it opens at 10 times higher volume and closes at five times higher volume. That higher volume can mean all kinds of things for prices of stocks in the days leading up to and after a triple witching. The trading during a triple witching, however, doesn’t typically have a long-term effect on prices.So, unless you are a professional trader dealing with expiring contracts yourself, it’s best to stay away and let the specialists do their thing. It’s kind of like the witching hour; don’t be afraid to stay up past midnight, but why not get some sleep instead?

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Throughout history, we’ve used scary terms to define things we don’t understand. Sometimes, we even use these scary ideas to keep people away.You’ve probably heard the term “the Witching Hour.” Used for that time of night when kids should be home in bed, not out causing mischief. Of course, the stock market couldn’t be left out of a nice scary term. But why not up it a little bit? They call it the Triple Witching hour. Have you ever heard that term? It is the term used to define the final hour of trading on the third Friday of every March, June, September, and December. Why Triple Witching? Because three things happen that day and culminate in the final hour. Stock Options, Stock Index Futures, and Stock Index Option Contracts all expire. Rather than try to explain how each of those contracts works here on social media, let’s just focus on why it was given a “scary” name. Due to the contracts expiring, many traders need to purchase or sell stock to hedge their positions on their contracts. This increases the volume and volatility of trading leading up to the triple witching hour. How much does it increase? On average, it opens at 10 times higher volume and closes at five times higher volume. That higher volume can mean all kinds of things for prices of stocks in the days leading up to and after a triple witching. The trading during a triple witching, however, doesn’t typically have a long-term effect on prices.So, unless you are a professional trader dealing with expiring contracts yourself, it’s best to stay away and let the specialists do their thing. It’s kind of like the witching hour; don’t be afraid to stay up past midnight, but why not get some sleep instead?

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