People believe that trading is a strategy. Some believe that it is not just any strategy but a secret strategy.
A few among us think that it is the execution of the strategy that matters most, while the vast majority
believe that a strategy is overrated and all you have to do is buy low and sell high.
While some of these beliefs could hold true but these do not ensure trading success for a long time. And
why do I say so? Because it is the emotions that control everything in life and in trading. What you need
to excel in trading is not only a strategy but the right mindset.
In this article, we will go through the 3 key emotions that everyone should try to master to achieve
success in trading.
1) Patience
Investing needs patience for years. Positional trading needs patience for a few months. Swing trading
needs it for a few days. In fact, intraday trading also needs patience for a few minutes or hours. So, the
bottom line is that a trader needs to have patience to get the right results.
Traders go through the drawdown phase quite frequently, where nothing seems to go their way. What
helps them during this time? It is again patience. We need to accept that trading will frustrate us
continuously for a few weeks or even months, so we better develop the patience to survive.
2) Greed
How many times does it happen that a stock achieves the target price and then you look at the technical
charts and somehow start believing that the stock price will increase further? But in reality, it starts
going down from that exact target area. And then you sit with that stock thinking that let it reach again
to my original target and I will book my profit.
All of us know what happens then. Usually, the stock never comes back to your target price. In fact, it
further slides forcing you to take a bigger loss.
If we look closely, we will realize that Greed plays havoc with the strategy.
3) Fear
Now let us talk about our favorite emotion – Fear.
How does it affect us? Let us say you bought a stock at INR 100 with a target of INR 130. Now, the
stock moved to INR 110 and you started getting afraid that it might not go further up. You again open
the charts and somehow fear makes you see the chart defensively. And suddenly you start seeing price
reversals when actually there are none. The result? You close the trade and book profits when you could
have earned a lot more but your emotions came in the way.
Final Words
As traders, we should try to control these emotions as much as possible. No one can become perfect,
but if you play the game long enough, there are chances of you gaining good control over these
emotions. Remember that you cannot completely take away these emotions, but gradually you can
control the negative aspects of these emotions and make trading less stressful and more methodical.
