When it comes to buying and selling, one with the most neglected subjects are individuals dealing with dealing psychology. Most dealers spend days, months and even years trying to find the correct program. But having a program is just component from the game. Don’t get us wrong, it can be extremely important to have a program that perfectly suits the trader, but it can be as crucial as having a money management plan, or to understand all psychology barriers that may affect the trader decisions and other issues. In order to succeed in this enterprise, there must be equilibrium between all essential aspects of dealing.
Inside the trading environment, when you lose a buy and sell, what is the initial idea that pops up in your mind? It would most likely be, “There must be something wrong with my system”, or “I knew it, I shouldn’t have taken this trade” (even when your system signaled it) But sometimes we need to dig a little deeper in order to see the nature of our mistake, and then work on it accordingly.
When it comes to buying and selling the Forex market as well as other markets, only 5% of traders achieve the ultimate goal: being consistent in profits. What exactly is interesting though is that there is certainly just a tiny difference between this 5% of traders as well as the rest of them. The top 5% grow from mistakes; mistakes are a learning experience, they learn an invaluable lesson on each and every single mistake produced. Deep in their minds, a mistake is one more chance to try it harder and do it better the subsequent time, due to the fact they know they might not get a chance the following time. And at the end, this tiny difference becomes THE huge difference.
Mistakes inside the trading environment
Most of us relate a trading mistake to the outcome (in terms of funds) of any given buy and sell. The truth is, a mistake has nothing to do with it, mistakes are created when certain guidelines are not followed. When the rules you trade by are violated. Take for instance the following scenarios:
First scenario: The program signals a buy and sell.
1. Signal taken and buy and sell turns out to become a profitable buy and sell.
Outcome with the trade: Positive, created cash.
Experience gained: Its good to follow the program, if I do this consistently the odds will turn in my favor. Confidence is gained in both the trader and the system.
Mistake produced: None.
2. Signal taken and buy and sell turns out to become a loosing trade.
Outcome from the trade: Negative, lost money.
Knowledge gained: It can be impossible to win every single buy and sell, a loosing trade is just component from the enterprise; our raw material, we know we can’t get them all correct. Even with this lost buy and sell, the trader is proud about himself for following the system. Confidence within the trader is gained.
Mistake created: None.
3. Signal not taken and trade turns out being a profitable buy and sell.
Outcome with the buy and sell: Neutral.
Knowledge gained: Frustration, the trader always seems to get in trades that turned out being loosing trades and let the profitable trades go away. Confidence is lost within the trader self.
Mistake made: Not taking a trade when the system signaled it.
4. Signal not taken and trade turns out to become a loosing buy and sell.
Outcome from the trade: Neutral.
Experience gained: The trader will commence to think “hey, I’m better than my system”. Even if the trader doesn’t think on it consciously, the trader will rationalize on each and every signal given by the program because deep in his or her mind, his or her “feeling” is more intelligent than the system itself. From this point on, the trader will try to outguess the program. This mistake has catastrophic effects on our confidence to the system. The confidence on the trader turns into overconfidence.
Mistake produced: Not taking a trade when program signaled it
Second Scenario: System does not signal a buy and sell.
1. No buy and sell is taken
Outcome of the trade: Neutral
Experience gained: Good discipline, we only need to take trades when the odds are in our favor, just when the system signals it. Confidence gained in both the trader self and also the program.
Mistake made: None
2. A trade is taken, turns out being a profitable buy and sell.
Outcome of the trade: Positive, created funds.
Knowledge gained: This mistake has the most catastrophic effects within the trader self, the system and most importantly in the trader’s buying and selling career. You may begin to think you need no system, you know better from them all. From this point on, you’ll commence to trade depending on what you think. Confidence in the system is totally lost. Confidence within the trader self turns into overconfidence.
Mistake produced: Take a trade when there was no signal from the program.
3. A trade is taken, turned out to become a loosing buy and sell.
Outcome of the trade: negative, lost money.
Knowledge gained: The trader will rethink his strategy. The following time, the trader will think it twice before getting in a trade when the program doesn’t signal it. The trader will go “Ok, it’s better to get inside the industry when my program signals it, only those trade possess a higher probability of success”. Confidence is gained inside the program.
Mistake made: Take a trade when there was no signal from the system
As you can see, there is completely no correlation among the outcome from the buy and sell and a mistake. The most catastrophic mistake even has a positive buy and sell outcome, produced money, but this could be the beginning of the end from the trader’s career. As we have already stated, mistakes must only be related to the violation of rules a trader trades by.
All these mistakes were directly related to the signals given by a system, but the same is applied when getting out of a trade. There are also mistakes related to following a dealing plan. For example, risking more money on a given trade than the amount the trader should have risked and several more.
Most mistakes may be avoided by first having a buying and selling plan. A dealing plan includes the system: the criteria we use to get in and out the marketplace, the funds management plan: how much we will risk on any given trade, and numerous other factors. Secondly, and most crucial, we must have the discipline to follow strictly our plan. We created our plan when no buy and sell was placed on, thus no psychology barriers were up front. So, the only factor we’re certain about is the fact that if we follow our plan, the decision taken is on our best interests, and within the long run, these decisions will help us have better results. We don’t need to worry about isolated events, or trades that could had give us better results at initial, but then they could have catastrophic results in our dealing career.
How to deal with mistakes
There are several possible ways to properly manage mistakes. We will suggest the one that works better for us.
Step one: Belief adjust.
Each mistake is really a learning encounter. They all have something valuable to offer. Try to counteract the natural tendency of feeling frustrated and approach mistakes in a positive manner. As opposed to yelling to everyone around and feeling disappointed, say to yourself “ok, I did something wrong, what happened? What is it?
Step two: Identify the mistake made.
Define the mistake, locate out what caused the mistake, and try as hard as you can to effectively see the nature of that mistake. Finding the mistake nature will prevent you from making the same mistake again. More than often you may find the answer where you less expected. Take for instance a trader that doesn’t follow the program. The reason behind this could be that the trader is afraid of loosing. But then, why is he or she afraid? It could be that the trader is using a program that does not fit him or her, and finds tough to follow every signal. In this case, as you can see, the nature from the mistake isn’t inside the surface. You must try as hard as you can to discover the real reason from the given mistake.
Step three: Measure the consequences of the mistake.
List the consequences of making that specific mistake, both good and bad. Good consequences are those that make us better dealers after dealing with the mistake. Think on all possible factors you can learn from what happened. For the same example above, what are the consequences of making that mistake? Well, if you don’t follow the system, you’ll gradually loose confidence in it, and this at the end will put you into trades you don’t truly want to be, and out of trades you should be in.
Step four: Take action.
Taking proper action may be the last and most essential step. In order to learn, you must adjust your behavior. Make sure that whatever you do, you become “this-mistake-proof”. By taking action we turn every single mistake into a small portion of success in our dealing career. Continuing with the same example, redefining the system would be the trader’s final step. The trader would put a program that perfectly fits him or her, so the trader doesn’t find any trouble following it in future signals.
Understanding the fact that the outcome of any buy and sell has nothing to do with a mistake will open your mind to other possibilities, where you’ll be able to realize the nature of every mistake made. This at the same time will open the doors for your buying and selling career as you work and take appropriate action on each mistake made.
The process of success is slow, and plenty of times it’s attributed to repeated mistakes made and the constant struggle to get past these mistakes, working on them accordingly. How we deal with them will shape our future as a trader, and most importantly as a person.
You can find more information about penny stock list, current NYSE stock prices, and Etrade mobile pro review