TRADING PSYCHOLOGY
Handling Negativity
Letting Go Of Resentment
by Adrienne Laris Toghraie
Each trading day brings with it an array of emotions, both positive and negative. Here's how you can get a grip on your negative emotions.If there is one thing that all traders share, it is the need to handle negative emotions so they do not sabotage our lives. In an average workday, a trader often has to deal with the roller-coaster ride of emotions as a trade goes wild. Greed, fear, shame, regret, anger, and anticipation ... all these emotions come on without warning.
Great traders experience those emotions right along with struggling traders. The difference is in how they are managed.
HANDLING TOXIC EMOTIONS
Resentment is one of the most toxic of emotions, and often occurs as a result of a loss. If a trader feels responsible for the loss, he will not feel resentment. But if he feels he is not responsible, resentment will often follow. For traders, losses can occur for reasons beyond their control; they may be the result of others' actions, actions that are unethical, irresponsible, predatory, careless, thoughtless, or purely accidental. For example, a trader may have:
- Lost a great deal of money in the market because his trading was interrupted at a crucial time by someone who demanded his attention for a trivial reason
- Suffered losses created by a market that was artificially manipulated by an individual or group that reaped great rewards for those investors and traders while incurring terrible losses for others
- Entered into a partnership with one or more traders who misrepresented their investing situation or made bad business decisions
- Purchased a trading system that came with false guarantees or inflated results or misrepresentations, only to discover its problems too late
- Employed a business service, such as an accountant or computer support company, whose poor work resulted in unreasonable losses.
...Continued in the September issue of Technical Analysis of STOCKS & COMMODITIES
Excerpted from an article originally published in the September 2005 issue of Technical Analysis of STOCKS & COMMODITIES magazine. All rights reserved. © Copyright 2005, Technical Analysis, Inc.
Return to September 2005 Contents