My Biggest Trading Fear

My trading strategy is not one that will have me so exposed to any particular trade that if something bad happened I would be wiped out. Because of this, my fear isn’t that I will someday have to take a giant loss on a bad trade. Yes, I will be wrong and take my medicine, but that’s not a big concern to me.

The losing streak is the big bad ugly monster I don’t want to fall victim to. I’ve known a number of traders who allowed losing streaks to continue, and it’s scary. A losing streak leaves a trader not knowing which way is up. During a losing streak, you don’t know what to trade, when to trade, or which way to trade. You don’t know which indicators are meaningful and which are useless. Choppiness looks like a tradable pattern and what ultimately gets chopped up is your account. You’ll change your approach daily, never giving any strategy a fair evaluation. You may even start trading opposite of what you think, just to put an end to it. In short, you become clueless, and are never the same.

This is of course my 2nd biggest fear

No thank you!

Every trader needs capital to trade. Cash in an account is one type of capital, but psychological capital is certainly another equal requirement. A trader must have the courage to act on his convictions and put that cash into play. Losing streaks cost money, no doubt, but more importantly they cost a trader confidence. Money can be borrowed, but without confidence, a trader simply becomes a cash holder with no ability to seize opportunity.

Protect your confidence at all times, with as much vigilance as you protect your trading account. When you start losing money, take every measure to stop it. Cut down your trading size, trade less often, and wait for more clarity. Put on the brakes to stop a losing streak, and you’ll avoid the nasty long-term damage it can cause to your trading career.

Jeff White
President, The Stock Bandit, Inc.
www.TheStockBandit.com