Are the highs and lows of trading putting you on an emotional rollercoaster and causing doubt in your trading abilities? Are losing trades keeping you from staying focused and in the game?
It's important to get yourself in the right mindset for trading and handling losses.
“ Losses are inevitable in trading, similar to expenses as being a part of operating a business. But losses can be tracked and managed better to minimize the negative impact on our profitability. The key is to limit the losses.”
EP 008 Transcript
Welcome to the Affirmations for Traders podcast, a special space created, especially for you to listen to affirmations that make a positive impact to support you in your trading journey. I'm Tessa your host, like many of you as a trader, I understand the struggles of this journey very intimately. I believe that by adding the power of affirmations to your toolbox, it can be the game changer that you're looking for to help you improve your trading potential and to develop yourself into a better trader. You're listening to episode 8 of the Affirmations for Traders podcast.
Are the highs and lows of trading putting you on an emotional rollercoaster and causing doubt in your trading abilities? Losses are inevitable in trading, similar to expenses as being a part of operating a business. But losses can be tracked and managed better to minimize the negative impact on our profitability. The key is to limit the losses.
I think it's important to have a healthy perspective on loser trades and losing days. However, it's also important to understand that not all losing is the same.
If the net impact of our losing trades is regularly greater than our winning trades in a portfolio, then it's time to go back to the drawing board and understand the drivers for this. Perhaps something needs to be adjusted in our strategy to improve the reward to risk ratio, or maybe something big is missing like risk management, or a trading plan.
There's also what I consider to be a "healthy" or "normal part of doing business" type of losses, where we still experience losing trades and losing days even after having done all the right things, including having a high probability trading strategy that was back tested on some level, following our trading plan, paying close attention to our trades, incorporating layers of risk management. But even after having done all the right things, expect that we will still experience losing trades.
However, if those losses are part of the bigger picture of a strategy, and are less than the gains overall, then we must find a way to overcome the fear of losses and have confidence in our trades. I know it's more easier said than done, but we must practice overcoming those feelings that get us in the way of trading better.
So, is losing keeping you from staying focused, and taking you out of the market figuratively and literally? What will you this week to have the right mindset and be proactive in examining your trading process and where you can limit losses?
Let's think about that for this week. Let's now turn to our Affirmations for this week:
Before we start, let's prepare ourselves. Take a moment and close your eyes. Give yourself permission to be open to the affirmations you're about to hear. And feel free to repeat along with me.
Let's begin.
I am aware of my emotional reactions to losses as well as to gains.
I am calm on losing days, I am also calm on winning days.
I understand how my trading strategies work inside and out.
When my trades perform poorly, I know the reason for it.
When my trades go well, I also know the reason for it.
I understand the reasons for my losses just as well as the reasons for my gains.
I have a healthy perspective on days when I have losing trades because I understand how it fits into the bigger picture
I am always prepared, take trading seriously, and treat it like a business.
I know that losses are a normal part of trading, just as expenses are a normal part of operating a business
I know the difference between a healthy loss, and an unnecessary loss
I actively and consistently limit my losses so I can stay in the game.
My emotions are under control - I handle losses just as well as I handle gains
I pause and take time to learn from my losses before putting on another trade
Incorporating a trading plan and risk management consistently minimizes my losses
I am more than my trades, losses do not define who I am.
I use losses as opportunities to learn from them so that I can be more disciplined, and become a more skillful trader.
During the week, reflect on these affirmations and repeat them with deep intention. Feel free to add any of your own to this week's affirmations.
You were listening to Affirmations for Traders. Thank you for listening and I look forward to doing this again with you next week! Take care.