Negative emotions can cause havoc to any trading account.
Any action we take is because we believe it’s the right one. When Jack decided to get into the INTC trade, he was confident that the trade would move in the right direction. He didn’t get in because he wanted to experience stress or pain, yet that is what he got.
Why? Well, his plan didn’t go the way he wanted. Jack soon realized that he was in a losing trade. As soon as he got in, he realized that he had made a mistake. What looked like a promising trade when he soon revealed itself as a bad shot.
This happens to over 90% of all traders. What comes next depends upon how emotionally prepared you are to take the right actions. Some traders stay calm and focused on their trading plan; others will experience a host of emotions that can go from worry, anxiety, panic, despair, denial, discouragement, greed, or fear. Some will either feel paralyzed in their fear, or the panic they feel will make them take the wrong action.
Now, since Jack had been in this situation several times already, the emotions that were creeping in felt all too familiar. He started to feel anxiety and fear about
There is a reason why you put on a trade. You have a belief, a sense, a hunch that it will move in a specific direction.
Jack was feeling pain and stress in his body, and the stress hormones put him in survival mode. Jack was not able to access his logical thinking brain. All he could think about was how to get out of this situation. He was in fight-or-flight mode.
This had happened to him before, and the overwhelming feeling of fear was all too familiar to his body.
In trading, you can not control the outcome, so it’s easy to feel threatened. In this situation, your primitive nervous system turns on, and your body goes into survival mode. In this situation, you lose control over your rational thoughts, and you have less capacity to think creatively. Your instincts are to either run, escape, fight or hide. That is why you either want to flee away from the situation, or you freeze.
Jack froze in his chair. He was not able to think constructively any longer. This was a well-known feeling. His stress hormones had taken over, and he was out of control.
Many traders live their daily lives in fear, panic, worry, or despair. We are built to live with short-term bursts of stress but not to live in such a situation over a more extended period. You can tolerate such a condition for a short period. Still, when it gets part of your daily life, it can cause havoc to your health, your finances, your relationships, and your surroundingsโliving in emergency mode.
Any action we take is because we believe it’s the right one. It’s hard to see
The emotions become so ingrained in your being that you don’t even realize the damage they can do to you.
How you think and how you feel becomes stuck in the event.
Every time a similar situation presents itself, you are back in the past. Your body goes back into emergency mode; you feel unable to control an unpredictable future.
Pain and stress in your body. The hormones of stress will put you in survival mode.
It can take hours for your body to turn back into balance. You relive the event over and over in your mind; you remember what happened, you feel the pain in your body.
We think of our problems. We relive our past events. We forecast future worse-case situations and thus turning on the cascade of stress emotions by thought alone. We can nock our brain and body out just by thinking about an old, too familiar past or trying to control an unpredictable future. You relive the event over and over in your mind.
You feel the emotion, and you associate it with
You keep experiencing the same emotions from the past, over 100 times a day. By repeatedly recalling the experience, you unintentionally anchor your brain and body to the past.
Emotions are the feedback of past experiences. We remember events better when we remember how they feel. The stronger the emotion from an event, the stronger the memory of that event is stuck in your body. A snapshot of the event is a memory.
sadness, pain, victimization, grief, guilt, shame, despair, anger, hatred, frustration, resentment, shock, fear, anxiety, worry, overwhelm, anguish, hopelessness, powerlessness, isolation, loneliness, disbelief, betrail,
If you don’t remove these emotions, you will keep suffering
You can’t think greater than you constantly feel
Emotions are a record of the past.
It becomes your new identity, and everything you do is there to remind you of who you believe you are.
Any trade, you will relieve the pain and the anguish again. You keep thinking, acting, and feeling as if the past is still alive.
Since what we think, act and feel is our personality, your personality is created by the past, repeatedly telling the narrative of who you are as a trader. You literally can’t get beyond what happened.
