When we first learn to drive a car it is a daunting experience, and we are scared to push the accelerator too hard, and if we learn in a manual, we are hesitant in fully engaging the clutch, de-accelerating, changing gears, diengaging the clutch and so on.

However as time passes, we learn what we need to learn and driving becomes second nature. In fact most of us can drive without even thinking of what we are doing. But we also know what our limitations are, what we are capable of doing in a car, i.e. speed around corners, reverse parking and so on. My Dad once told me a car is just an extension of your arms and legs. Wise words!

Trading a system will require the same learning process, and eventually you should know what your system is capable of. For example, I know my system has a better than 50% chance, and so when I incur a loss, it is just that, a loss, as expected, as my system tells me it should be. When you know that the next trade has a certain probability of being a loss, you shouldn’t have an issue with pulling the trigger.

Of course, we as traders are impatient, and as the great Jamie McIntyre says, we over-estimate what we can achieve in one-year and drastically under-estimate what we can achieve in 5 years.

As Brian said, back-testing, paper trading - ‘in real time’, are the only ways to know what your system is capable of.

Thanks for posting, and as Brian also said, it takes guts to be honest with yourself - well done.

Best Wishes
Dean

In essence, yes you’re right. Just sticking to a backtested and paper traded trading plan should be all that’s needed.

But as you’ve found out yourself, when money is on the table then unwanted emotions such as fear can come in to play as well, especially when things start to turn sour as you said.

We’ll start looking at how to control fear in my next post.

Cheers,

Brian

Thanks for leaving a comment. It’s not always easy to comment when it’s to say you’re having problems, so good on you for doing so.

There’s a great quote that I’m going to use in about two posts time, but I’ll post it here for you as it relates to performance anxiety.

“Successful traders accept that they will have losing trades, but these are not a reflection of who they are. Everyone makes mistakes” (from ‘The Art of Trading’ by Christopher Tate).

You’ve made a start on your ‘fears list’, so keep adding to it, and see if you can identify the fears behind each of the issues you’re having.

Eg; “I don’t feel disciplined because..”, “I sometimes freeze because..”, “I feel like I’m betting because..”, etc.

In Tuesday’s post I’m going to start working through how to respond to some of those example fears I listed in this post. Hope you find it useful.

Cheers,

Brian