Trading on Target: How to Cultivate a Winner's State of Mind

SELF-DESTRUCTION

There are three main ways traders self-destruct.

Walking Away

Sam was a professional trader for eight years. During that time, he successfully amassed a respectable fortune, at least by his standards. He moved his family into a beautiful home along the lakeshore, he bought two expensive cars, he sent his two children to private schools, and he took his family on exotic (if brief ) vacations. If you asked Sam about his trading, he would wax poetic over his love for the profession and how he had learned to weather the vicissitudes of market reversals so that he could make a consistent profit over time. He had an impressive library of books on trading and he attended countless trading conventions and trading schools. His system was long in the development and well tested by him. At this point in his life, Sam was secure and did not have to trade to live his life-style for the rest of his life.

On the surface, Sam had done everything right and he was reaping the rewards. But, when Sam was caught in a major downturn that he was not expecting without having a physical stop, he was unable to move quickly enough and he panicked. The results were catastrophic for him. In the space of one day, Sam lost a significant amount of his trading capital and a significant amount of his pride. At this point he faced the conflict: Does he fold his hand or ante up?

Fighting Back

Mel had never walked away from a defeat in his life. When he entered the trading profession, he had created ...