Myth #4 is another unspoken myth, yet one may arguably be the most damaging and costly one, and sadly one which nearly all traders believe.
This one is about how, without saying it out loud, everyone believes that trading is (and rightly should be) an emotional activity, and that’s why discipline and consistency are such big problems.
I even have one colleague that purports that when you place a trade, it triggers the same chemical reaction in your brain as heroin!
That’s a load of hooey, because trading is a business, with tons of similarities to other businesses, yet you don’t hear this kind of malarkey discussed in those circles.
Oh, I can hear it now, “But when you’re putting money at risk in the markets, of course it will invoke emotions.”
You think that business owners of all kinds don’t put money at risk all the time? And with the same prospect of ‘hopefully’ making a profit, but at the same time dealing with a slew of variables and unknowns, particularly the competition, the government, the weather, the moodiness of their respective marketplaces and of course, their customers?
But business owners go about their daily business in a very calm, routine manner – and trading should be the same way.
Trading should NOT be an emotional activity! Especially not one filled with anxiety, doubt and fear.
Subsequently, discipline really should NOT even be a topic of discussion.
The 4th Myth is: “Trading is an inherently emotional activity and requires discipline to keep those emotions in check.”
You’ve been misled into thinking that it’s normal to trade with anxiety, doubt, fear, insecurity, to trade in a manner that has your emotions running at a high enough level to mess with your better judgement.
The Root of the Matter
The problem is NOT a lack of discipline.
It is a lack of CONFIDENCE.
And 98.4% of the time, it is a lack of confidence in your trading system.
If you KNEW that your system was solid and would deliver, without any reservation or doubt, you wouldn’t feel ANXIETY.
You wouldn’t feel FEAR,
You wouldn’t be HOPING.
You would be relaxed and calm, KNOWING what to realistically expect and KNOWING that you’re okay.
It is when you have DOUBTS that you run into trouble.
How to Have That Confidence
When you have sufficient real, not false, confidence in what you’re doing and the tools with which you are working, you don’t have emotional issues.
It is when you lack that sufficient confidence then you are forced to live on hope, filled with anxiety and fear.
That lack of confidence is most likely regarding your trading system.
Only when you fix your trading system, then properly establish your confidence in it, will you be able to trade in a knowing, secure manner.
Only then will you finally be able to put the doubt, anxiety, fear and hope behind, and stop wrestling with your ‘discipline’.
A Part of Being a Trader That No One Prepared You For
Odds are that when you first started trading, no one taught you HOW to be a successful trader.
There were probably several aspects left out of your training.
Like knowing HOW to evaluate a trading system, HOW to fix it when there are problems and HOW to make it solid, HOW to establish the confidence you need to naturally and effortlessly remain calm while you trade, what to do when things change…
These are SKILLS that you absolutely MUST HAVE to trade from a position of real confidence, so you KNOW THAT YOU’RE OKAY no matter what the markets do.
Stop living with emotional trading.
When you are ready to realize significantly BETTER results from your trading and
… when you are ready to have an entirely new experience in your trading, then click here
