You’ve heard it said before that “Trading is not a sprint, it’s a marathon”. Since it seems to be the done thing to compare trading to a running race, I’m going to jump on the bandwagon. And mess it up a little. While trading certainly isn’t a sprint, it’s not really a marathon either. Marathons …
Category Archive: Trading Psychology
Oct 24
Hanging Tough. Just Like in the 80′s.
I’m going through a ‘patch’. A great bit soggy quagmire might be a little more accurate, actually. I don’t really like writing that. I’m normally a very capable, unemotional, get-the-job-done kind of girl, (and fun – don’t forget fun, because all that sounds horribly boring and secretary-like) and I’m really not really one to sook …
Sep 27
How Brain-Lag Can Wreck Your Trading
I find brains fascinating. Gross, when you think about them in a human biology way, and grosser still when you consider them in a culinary context, but infinitely interesting when it comes to the way they work and what they actually do when they aren’t being eaten. Traders have to be interested in their brains. …
Sep 07
How do You Know When Enough is Enough?
I could never be a nurse. It’s not that I can’t deal with blood or anything like that, it’s just that mangled limbs aren’t really my thing. Watching someone having their spleen removed doesn’t really ring my bells either. I’m also not very keen on cleaning up ‘accidents’, or jabbing people with needles – although …
Sep 03
The Impact Of Fear
Fear is probably one of the most crippling emotions a trader can have. It has the ability to over-ride our in-built fight or flight reflex, and paralyse us like a deer in the headlights. This frozen, paralysed state is probably the most harmful state a trader can find themselves in, because rather than panicking out …
Aug 23
My Top 10 Favourite Self-Destructive Trading Thoughts
Finally – after weeks of hand cramps, crossed eyes and other nerd-induced unattractiveness, my testing is complete. I’ve finally finished manually testing the FX 1H method I developed, and on Monday I started trading it live. I really enjoyed testing it – the method made sense to me, gave me clear entries and exits with …
Aug 15
If You Had To Choose A Trading Skill….
What would it be? Great technical analysis skills? The ability to take small losses? Better insight into your trading psyche? While all these skills would be great, personally I believe there is one ‘skill’ that successful traders possess that underpins all the others. Without this one attribute, longevity in the markets is pretty much a …
Jul 20
Quit Being a Drama Queen
I struggle to cope with drama queens. You know the types – they always have something that’s going wrong, someone that’s making their life a misery or some kind of outrageous situation that’s causing them untold anxiety, the like of which I’ve clearly never experienced. They have the uncanny ability to grab any given minor …
Jul 16
Struggling As A Trader? Part 3 – Blame Your Teachers
In response to some readers requests, I’ve been looking at some of the ways we’ve been hardwired – by our caveman ancestors, our mothers and now our teachers – to fail at trading. Trading is entirely counter-intuitive, and to be successful we need to be able to recognise our natural inclinations and actively work to …
Jul 09
Struggling As A Trader? Part II – Blame Mum.
As we go about our daily lives there are approximately 1.5 million* behaviours that are totally ingrained in us from childhood. These behaviours are perfectly acceptable and useful for functioning as a successful human, but on the flip side have the ability to destroy any hope we have of ever becoming a successful trader. Not …
My name is Jess. I’m an Aussie girl (or maybe I’m a woman – I’m not sure where the cut-off is). I’m a Mum to my daughter and two sons, a wife to my one husband, and a friend to anyone who knocks on the door – particularly if they come bearing red wine. Or any kind of wine, really. More >>
