Expertise in the art of trading is difficult, a trader needs to deal not only with the sensitivity of stock market but also battle his own emotions of anxiety and more importantly despair. The feeling of despair unlike fear is mostly an after effect feeling. It arises due to immaterialized trade efforts. There are numerous sites and other online resources that discuss how to handle stock trading technicalities, not much has been talked about dealing with psychological issues pertaining to trading.

In any profession an individual only trains himself/herself in the technical skills and almost every time forgets to gain an insight on the after effects of the profession on the mental state. These after effects in turn affect the productivity and confidence.

While the hard earned money of an individual is at risk the entire focus is how to make more money out of it. If that doesn’t seem feasible the next action becomes breaking even and as that situation also slips out of hand an inevitable feeling of despair takes over. Many people have resorted to unbelievable acts like suicides to come out the situation. It nothing but sad that they are no more to understand that nothing is precious than life itself.

Handle despair with strength

To handle despair effectively in stock market trading, it is vital to research beforehand the various circumstances that could come up while trading; a new trader must make his way through the various stages and identify his psychological strengths and weaknesses. Trading operates in an uncertain environment and requires an ability to take risk when required. The process is emotionally and financially challenging. Anxiety pangs accompanied by feelings like nervousness, tension, worry; stress and fear come and go as they are a part of the game. Different people react in different ways to tense situations. For some, it is mental stress and others may experience uncomfortable physical manifestations.

It might be beneficial to occasionally take notes of the thoughts, feelings and physical reactions that occur while trading and understand those by linking them to the market behavior.

Decision making seems to become an extreme pressure in times of despair but one cannot run from it hence it is best to understand when your mind reacts with despair and handle the scenario with utmost care and learn to control the mind. When traders see that there is no way left to avoid the loss they get into a state of uncontrollable panic. The despair and helplessness of not being able to come out of the trap acts like a pressure cooker on the brain. Despair is unavoidable in such cases but one can cope up with the feeling by making healthier decisions. When there is an accumulating loss the best thing is to go cash. Fighting the market trends can be a futile effort as no individual ever has the capacity to hold the entire market. Precisely when one foresees a situation of loss the only good thing to do is minimize it as much as possible and do not hope for miraculous profits.

“Carl Jones is an independent trader that loves writing about trading!”