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Wayne Moody wrote:
> Since you're
> fine once you enter (even if you lose), it sounds like your hesitation may
> be due to a lack of faith in your method(?)
Maybe not. Once you're in the trade, the deed's been done so to speak. I used
to have the same problem - and, strangely enough, it wasn't out of lack of faith
in my ability to pick good entries. I'd sit back for the longest time watching
most of my foregone entries work, but for one reason or another, I'd manage to
find a reason to stay out. My goal seemed to be to prevent losers rather that to
win on balance, so I ended up being *way* too selective.
> I'd have to say that entering a real trade is still (for me) driven by a
> will to succeed. It's later on that fear of losing enters the picture.
Entering the trade is where trading anxiety can exert its greatest influence,
though. It seems to be a matter of the balance between the desire to win and the
desire not to lose. If the latter is stronger, which can easily be the case,
then problems can develop.
> What works for me is perspective. If my method gives me 55% winners, I
> already know the outcome of my next hundred trades.
This is a very good way to look at it. Even knowing this, though, might not be
enough. I've never had a problem picking good trades, and had a very high level
of confidence in doing so. It's funny when I look back upon this - it doesn't
really make any sense, other than I wasn't at all comfortable with losing, and
would allow the lamest excuses to change my mind.
> We are really trading a series, but we get in trouble because it unfolds
> sequentially, in agonizing slow motion, seducing an emotional response to
> the isolated trade. It's better to get emotional about the whole long-
> range trading plan. Be afraid of how you'll feel if you blow the whole
> thing by failing to execute it properly. Be afraid of yourself.
Absolutely. The "emotional response to the isolated trade" is the real culprit
here.
Here's how I have managed to overcome this problem. I've found that I was
*thinking too much* at these times. If your technique is sound, and you get a
signal to enter, just do it without trying to think about it at all. The same
would hold true with exits - you already know what you need to see, and it either
has occurred or it hasn't. If it has - you just do it.
It requires a great deal of thinking on the part of the trader to formulate and
develop sound trading strategies - however, there is a time for thinking, and a
time for just acting.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
A.J.
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