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Ok, I'll try my two cents worth, and then the more experienced traders can
chime in on this pulling the trigger issue.
As a psychotherapist I see many people who have excessive anxiety, fear or
outright panic attacks. Some are serious problems and require the use of
medication. Many are just out of balance between what reality is really
telling them and what they are perceiving about that reality.
I find it is not very helpful to just try to get rid of the fear. That would
be like trying to throw away a piece of yourself. It's much more useful to
attempt to befriend the fear. Afterall, the fear is just trying to protect
you, which is normally a very useful function.
How to befriend your fear? First, realize that fear's gift is protection for
you, it's overreaction is paranoia (too much fear for what is happening.)
Second, attempt to hear your fear's message for you. Perhaps there really is
reason for you to hold back from pulling the trigger: Have you thoroughly
researched your technique? Have you trained your level of stress tolerance by
trading smaller amounts (MidAm?) Can you REALLY afford to lose? (Why are the
emotional stakes so high for you?) Even if you've done all the correct moves,
are you psychologically capable of trading the amount of dollars that your
head says you ought to?
Third, compare your fear's message to the reality perceived by your conscious
awareness. If they don't match up then you've got two different programs
running in your onboard computer. That's not a very affirming approach to
trading. I'd be afraid to trade, too! Your perspective on reality has to
match the level of fear you feel, otherwise stop and get them synchronized.
How? That depends. If your fear is perceiving something that your mind is
missing then you have to "get real" somehow. This probably means alot more
research, study and working with a trading mentor. If your fear is totally
unreal and your perceptions aren't too far off from reality, then you've got a
more serious problem that may go far deeper and require professional
attention.
But for most of us, I imagine that there is an imbalance because we haven't
traded successfully yet, or we have and then we took a dive, or we have and
the fear of failure has come knocking BECAUSE we've had so much success (just
waiting for that other shoe to drop.) While all these can have deeper,
underlying causes most of us will do well to just back off and reduce our
trading size or intensity until we're back in balance again.
While one school of thought suggests a "plunge" into what scares us as a way
to build tolerance, I find this potentially fatal to our financial health.
Much more reasonable is a gradual training of ourselves to tolerate trading
stress. Gradual low level trading will teach our fear that trading is
tolerable, even beneficial.
Of course, there's the advice a career consultant gave me years ago when I
hated what I was doing: "Steve, you could spend the next 10 years in
psychotherapy changing yourself enough to like what you're doing and do it
well. But, why? Why not just go do what you already like, love or have a
tolerance for?"
Maybe some of us do not belong trying to make the big personal changes trading
requires. Are the rewards REALLY worth it? Maybe so, maybe no.
Sorry for the book length response...
Steve
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