Stress - the Root of All Bad Trading?

[TheNegotiator 13]

Okay, well maybe stress isn't entirely to blame. Lack of preparation, focus and general understanding of the market and strategy you use can also play a big part. But even with these things it's possible that subconscious stresses can be at the heart of the problem. Fear of being wrong or losing for example might change the way we prepare or even worse, prevent us from doing so at all.

 

But ultimately anything we do in trading, from planning to execution to journalling to research is potentially affected by stress. This doesn't necessarily mean stress in the obvious form (like getting stressed because your boss shouts at you for doing something wrong) but it can be much more subtle. It could be through pushing yourself to work too hard or the discomfort of uncertainty you might have. The trouble is that until we take the time to notice whether or not we are "stressed" in any way, we'll probably never notice it and how it influences our every action (or inaction). You can kind of get stuck in a loop.

 

So how do you recognize potential problems and alleviate them? The two most obvious ways perhaps are mediation and exercise. Part of meditation is about mindfulness and being aware of situations as well as yourself and your reaction to situations. The act of noticing stress can go a long way towards negating it. The act of physical exercise won't help you recognize stress (although perhaps I could be wrong here) but it is the body's natural method for destressing itself.

 

I'm sure there are additional methods people use to be conscious of their own stress and I'd be interested to hear how they do it.

[zdo 20]

Negociator,

Here it goes again

I can’t make a response that I can live with unless I reframe your ‘questions’… question your precepts... etc.

Do you mind?

Respectfully,

zdo

[SIUYA 11]

Negociator,

Here it goes again

I can’t make a response that I can live with unless I reframe your ‘questions’… question your precepts... etc.

Do you mind?

Respectfully,

zdo

 

now you have me thinking Zdo - I was wondering about the word precept (poor vocabulary on behalf of the Oztralliiann education).......so i checked out wikipedia and was wondering how it applies here given their definition?

 

Precept - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

but i guess if you take it simply as a "a rule or principle for action"

 

.....................

Personally stress can come from bad trading.....no need to complicate it any further than that..

There are plenty of f...d up people who can trade well and thrive on the stress (or excitement) and dont need meditation, medication or exercise....for them trading is a stress relief from the real world.

(I took 6 months off when i was 30 and used to wake up in the middle of the night thinking about my golf swing. I knew then it was time to go back to work because if i was going to stress about something it might as well be worth it to me.....thats my kind of stress relief - a feeling of productivity - does that make me f...d up? .)

[samuel23 10]

Stress is something that we will always have for sometime but i do not think that stress can last forever. Example; when you go for an interview and you know that this is very important you'll definitely get stress but as soon that you get the jobs and you become more familiar with things then am sure that your stress will just disappeared. In forex as well it is quite the same as at the first time you will see that you stress and then after sometime you will be more at ease with things.

[Savant 10]

Stress is good. It makes you perform better. You just have to care to release stress every day. Otherwise it can get brutal.

[zdo 20]

Stress is good. It makes you perform better. You just have to care to release stress every day. Otherwise it can get brutal.

 

Release?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The message you have entered is too short. Please...]

[Rande Howell 10]

If you understand stress as the body's (and brain's) keying up to meet challenges in the environment, you can go a long ways in understanding how to work with it. Stress is also broken down into two basic kinds, distress and eustress. Distress is the bad stuff if the challenge in the environment is not biologically threatening and only psychologically uncomfortable. Eustress the build up of chemistry in the body for performance. The difference is the beliefs the observer has about managing the challenge. To the trader, it is the difference between trading from fear vs. trading from mindful concern. Learning to observe and manage the levels of stress is the key. Bringing the belief system to a point where uncertainty is accepted as the norm, and not something to be avoided, is the driver of the stress.

Rande Howell

[straddle 10]

This reminds of well known actors that allways say tha the have "stage fright" everytime they perform but this actually helps them perform better .

 

I believe that most human emotions are bad in trading .

 

( Too much on joy a winning trade might ruin your next trade .)

 

On the other hand i dont believe in automated trades . So the best thing is something in bewteen . A person who can distance himself from emotions .

 

Like a syrgeon who does heart surgery.

He has to focus on the mechanics of the heart and not to the actual person and what his illness can do to his friends and family.

[marktheshark 10]

We are wired to have emotional responses to events which do not fit with our anticipation of what should happen. An unexpected traffic jam, for example, can cause frustration and anger. A surprise birthday party can casue exhilaration.

 

In trading, the only thing that is constant and reliable is the uncertainty itself. It thus inherently causes emotional reponses all the time. There is no question in my mind that trading is one of the most stressful activities one can do.

 

Recognizing and appreciating that uncertainty is simply part of the game is a major step in the development of a trader.

 

mark

[samuel23 10]

Stress is good. It makes you perform better. You just have to care to release stress every day. Otherwise it can get brutal.

 

Stress can't be good for someone in Forex. How can you say this?? am still wondering. Maybe this can be helpful to you but as far for myself i prefer to trade stress-less!! :doh: Anyway good luck with your release stress everyday :rofl:

[Vinayak 10]

I do get a rush out of trading that is a great stress buster, but I agree with your point. I am not a full time trader by any stretch of the imagination. However, I see it happening in 5-10 years. Its important to have a long term perspective; like reading though a lot of the content on great trading sites such as this one:cool:. This forum has helped me greatly in relieving stress as I can talk about trades here and share with others and read about what they did too.

I also make sure never to rush into a trade and take a good look at the fundamentals and technicals all the time before I enter a position on a security.

And trust me, there have been occasional instances where I've made $1000 in one day (a real rarity). I don't trade a lot, but when I do I make it count.

In a nutshell, that's what I do. I've had losses, but right now I haven't set the bar too high. Right now, I am happy with a monthly trading net income of $600.

The more I do this, though, I will want to make more money and that's when the real test comes.

[gazza 10]

Stress comes about by an unknown element or fear in your present situation. This could be lack of experience in the situation your currently in and fear of the possible outcome.

Solution to stress:

First I learnt all I could about the style of trading I wanted to do.

In my case trading the stock market on end of day Technical trading Indicators.

I purchased several books on Traders and trading and an encyclopedia on Technical Indicators and read through about them and test ran several indicators in a trial account.

Then purchased a mind developing / relaxation set of CD's. In my case the Ultimate You Mindfest self growth for busy people CD set from Learning Strategies Corp. I found the paraliminals in this series to be a great help.

(NOTE: I am not specifically promoting these CD's nor am I receiving any reward from the company by mentioning them here. Its just that these CD's worked for me.)

So learn your craft and the skills needed to become the ultimate trader. Give yourself time to learn (I took 18 months off trading to relearn and develop my skills).

Learn relaxation / mind development skills - surf the web and look through what is available. Read the forums from people who have used the system your looking at to decide if its for you.

Then as a trader you can "Enjoy the journey"

[Ammeo 10]

I always try to keep myself away from stress in trading cause i dont take high risk and never rush on anything...also i have learned trading should not be one's only goal in life and he/she should be having some secondary income source which should provide him the guarantee of a healthy living..

[sidra 10]

I certainly agree with that stress can be bad enough to destroy all your senses. It's a dangerous thing to suffer from when trading. I would recommend that you take the necessary steps to reduce it before trading again. GOD says that faith is exactly what it takes to get through uncertainty, but greed for money is the first step towards the evil. Even if you have lost in trading first time, have faith that you will make it next time, for sure! A few things that come to mind that may help you including the obvious. :thumbs up:

 

Reducing your position size so that you are comfortable with the loss if things go against you. The journey never remains the same, at times you may be sky-high with all the bounties that life gives you, but its just merely a few seconds, it can throw you down from all that height like none of those happiness were ever a part of your reality.

Make sure you have a stop loss in place as soon as you take a position. Once your trade is showing a profit move your stop to breakeven. :hmmmm:

 

Financially motivated people mostly starts facing unfortunate event in their lives when they don’t have anything left with them. and this is when they started taking stress. Knowledge and confidence in your market analysis are extremely important and will reduce stress as well, this will take time to achieve so position size and stops should sustain you till you have greater knowledge and confidence with reduced stress.

Also have a trading plan in place before you enter any trade and stick to it. But the point is, who learn from his faults. If one has learnt a lesson from any of past event, he won't repeat that again and would come to know that greed for money is a useless desire. Some people may feel that, it is only about talks and motivational Ramblings and preaching that they get from every corner and are literally impossible to implement. These are those people who get nothing, but starving. They don’t have money to buy one time food and survive.

[sidra 10]

I always try to keep myself away from stress in trading cause i dont take high risk and never rush on anything...also i have learned trading should not be one's only goal in life and he/she should be having some secondary income source which should provide him the guarantee of a healthy living..

 

Have you ever succeeded? I mean how you get rid of stress?