Weekly Motivation - Aiming for the Right Target in Trading 6 of 11

By Walter T. Downs

OBSERVATION # 6
Losing traders often fail to acknowledge and control their emotive processes during a trade. Winning traders acknowledge their emotions and then examine the market. If the state of the market has not changed, the emotion is ignored. If the state of the market has changed, the emotion has relevance and the trade is exited.

CONCLUSION:
If a trader enters or exits a trade based purely on emotion then his market approach is neither practical nor rational. Strangely, much damage can also be done if the trader ignores his emotions. In extreme cases this can cause physical illness due to psychological stress. In addition, valuable subconscious trading skills that the trader possesses but has no conscious awareness of may be lost. It is best to acknowledge each emotion as it is experienced and to view the market at these points to see if the original reasons we took the trade are still present. Further proof that this conclusion may have validity can be seen in even highly systematic traders exiting a trade for no apparent reason, and pegging a profitable move almost to the tick. Commonly, this is referred to as being "lucky" or being "in the zone".