Trading is a Mirror!!

Before we start anything in life, we need to know all that there is to know about it. This fact is no different in the world of trading. Do you want to be a successful trader ?If your answer is yes, then we do need to know what trading is all about, not just in methodologies or strategies ,but the underlying thoughts and emotions as well. 

When someone asks you what Trading is for you, we have different answers.
Trading is a Dance, says one … Trading is a Sport, says another … Trading is War, cries out the third… Pure Music, says yet another…. Power…. Drama …. Rock Climbing……

Trading is a Mirror. The Mirror that shows us what we are. It reflects the fear, greed, patience, confidence, over-confidence, euphoria, regret hope and a myriad of other emotions battling for supremacy within us. It exposes us, our frailties and our weaknesses, our strengths and our power .It shows us how we accept our successes and our failures. The question before you go down this Path called Trading is: Are you really ready for it? Are you willing to expose yourselves and accept yourself for what you are? Willing to make changes and convert your weaknesses into strengths? Are you really willing to stop pinning the blame on everything and everyone other than yourselves, accept it as your mistake and to change yourselves? Trading is not just about each and every trade taken, it is all about how we tackle these conflicts raging within us. 

When Panic sets in when a trade work against us  , when we are fearful and ready to grab profits the moment a trend has merely begun its move and to focus on money and not the process, the Mirror has just exposed our weaknesses as we crumble to our Mad Mind. Trading is about watching all our emotions running when we are ready to take some trade, and to step aside and observe these flow of thoughts.

The hand shivers, we just are not able to pull the trigger when the time comes to enter the trade .When we do manage to enter a trade but it does not go the way we want,…anxiety,fear and panic make a merry dance. We are not relaxed…. Price starts to move towards our stop loss, we start to sweat ,or instead it starts off on the desired direction,…. happiness, euphoria, greatness, power…..and then suddenly the fear to lose …to lose what we are gaining. The Mind now begins to think about yet another emotion, Fear of Regret…it starts acting on that emotion ….Things become even worse when price hits our stop losses but we are not able to get out from our trade….Losses mount…. Stubbornness sets in, we refuse to exit and instead add to our positions to make our holding cost lower. Price does not correct, the fall continues, it is too far now, too late, too painful…. we start praying to god in Hope …some miracle, some magic …..silently hoping for some miracle to happen….some magic which suddenly turn losses into breakeven…. Nothing happens,too much pain now, we cannot take the agony, this suffering  any longer… we come out of our positions, taking the big loss.The account is badly hit, pride battered ,ego bruised…but we feel relaxed. Price still moves against our original position, but we are happy now that we are already out….It could be the time when markets start reversing again, we can always reenter, we salvage the temporary peace for now, bliss….and then this cycle starts again .This goes on and on till correct observation of one’s mind leads to correct thought and subsequently correct action.

To watch all these emotions….to watch ourselves without any prejudice …to watch what we are inside, like in a clear mirror….this is what it takes to be a professional Trader, and to be a professional Trader one need to be ready to change oneself ….but to change ourselves first we need to realise where we are wrong ….where our fault lies…our strengths and our weaknesses … and start working on that with a clear, unprejudiced mind-set …to be ready to change oneself …

Trading,. ….is watching oneself in a Mirror!!! Yes it is….and with experience and with time and a persistent, adamant and obstinate desire for change, one can indeed change that image in the Mirror.

About  Author

Harish Chheda

Chief Knowledge Officer at Tradonomix

Harish has more than 2 decades of experience under his belt. His expertise lies in a number of fields, including Swing Trading, Intraday Trading, and Positional Trading in Equities, Commodities, and Forex. He is also adept in Business Risk Management with Derivative Products.

At Tradonomix, he brings to practice the knowledge he has accumulated in the last 22 years. He is the Chief Knowledge officer at Tradonomix

We offer trading course for beginner, intermediate & advanced level. Please visit www.tradonomix.com to explore our trading courses.