Emotions.

It’s hard to describe all the different emotions I felt during my beginner trading days. The most common were anger, frustration, anxiety and fear. During every single day it was the same over and over again. After each good trade I would feel happy, excited and confident, but as soon as a loser trade showed up it was back to fear and frustration. In my everyday life I am admittedly a sensitive person who very easily gets emotional. You could say I wear my heart on my sleeve and my emotions all over my face, but the only thing I can say to that is:

“It’s just the way I am.”*

However, being the way I am, emotional and sensitive, doesn't make for a profitable and consistent trader. But, after starting to work on myself I noticed that all of the feelings were showing up in my trading less often or for shorter periods of time. I realized that I was doing three things regularly to get to this point.

1. Breaks: It is rule #1 for me to take a break after each losing trade. This break is essential to give me time to take notes, and to quickly realize what I did and what happened. The thing is that not every trade will work and moreover there will be more losing than winning trades. During my break I study the trade I took, looking for the answers to why I did take it, and also looking for all the things that I did both well and badly. Breaks are a must for me after losing periods that prevent me from trading anymore for the week, based on my rules of course.

2. Relaxation: I accomplish this through deep, controlled breathing then by gradually relaxing my arms and legs. The tension that was getting into my body during the trading day, especially during losing periods, was terrifying and heavy. Learning how to let go of it properly took me months, but since then it’s become just a few wonderful minutes to get me to a calm and relaxed state while waiting or being in the middle of a trade.

3. Journal: I had a “journal” from the very beginning, but did I really know how to journal my trades when I started, definitely NOT. This process of learning how to use my journal as a trading tool took me years to perfect. Today my journal shows me everything and it teaches me how to work on myself while trading. The steps I take to make good journal entries are to start with recording what I see, then how I feel and finally by describing the situation as it really happened.

These three things, whether all together or just one at a time depending on the situation, are what calm me down back into the mode of a focused trader so I can be in the zone. I’m able to use my emotions instead of letting them control me.

..."a great place to start is with the perspective that feelings contain information."*

*LESSON 5 The Daily Trading Coach 101 Lessons for Becoming Your Own Trading Psychologist by Steenbarger, Brett N.