EMBRACE YOUR LOSSES
“No one is going to know or care about your failures. All you have to do is learn from them because all that matters is that you get it right once. Then everyone can tell you how lucky you were.”
Mark Cuban
When a stock’s pattern starts breaking down for whatever reason, take a step back and ask yourself if on that day you would enter the stock for the very first time. If the answer is no, it is probably best to act decisively and cut your losses immediately. As the sayings go: “trade what you see, not what you think.” “Do not hope, Act!” “Sell first and ask questions later.”
It is critical that you learn to deal with these losses unemotionally. When the inevitable happens and you exit a position for a loss, it must be viewed as an entirely necessary part of the cost of doing business. As an extension, you must separate your ego from the day to day fluctuations in the value of your entire portfolio. I have found that the more often I glance at my account value, the worse my trading results become. Unless you need to pay tuition tomorrow, my recommendation is that you look at the value of your account as seldom as possible.
Focusing on a declining account value will inevitably make you more prone to enter the dreaded “Revenge Trade.” Revenge trades happen when you take a larger than normal position in a questionable stock in an attempt to make back the money that you have lost. Ask any professional trader, and he will tell you that revenge trades almost ALWAYS end in failure. After a loss, don’t blame yourself, the “shorts,” or the market. Don’t dwell on the event, simply accept what is, and turn your focus to the constant stream of new opportunities that lie ahead. A positive mindset and emotional self-awareness in these circumstances will help
give you the emotional flexibility necessary to choose how you feel. Without this emotional awareness, you may be blindsided by whatever destructive emotions your subconscious throws your way.
Famed investor Benjamin Graham has said that “Intelligent Investment is more a matter of mental approach than it is of technique.” Fortunately for you, most of your competition has never considered analyzing their mental approach to trading. Without disciplining their mind, they are intuitively focused on negativity and fear. As your competitors will do just about anything to avoid making a mistake, they will shy away from the greatest opportunities in the market.
The world’s greatest athletes, business people, traders, salespeople (you name it) all have a definitive lack of fear of making a mistake. Like staggering babies, they go out of their way to make mistakes. Knowing that there is a distinct possibility of a failure in any trade, you can greatly diminish trading errors based on fear. In this fashion, you must make it a priority to be fearless in your trading and embrace your eventual mistakes wholeheartedly.
Mark Cuban
When a stock’s pattern starts breaking down for whatever reason, take a step back and ask yourself if on that day you would enter the stock for the very first time. If the answer is no, it is probably best to act decisively and cut your losses immediately. As the sayings go: “trade what you see, not what you think.” “Do not hope, Act!” “Sell first and ask questions later.”
It is critical that you learn to deal with these losses unemotionally. When the inevitable happens and you exit a position for a loss, it must be viewed as an entirely necessary part of the cost of doing business. As an extension, you must separate your ego from the day to day fluctuations in the value of your entire portfolio. I have found that the more often I glance at my account value, the worse my trading results become. Unless you need to pay tuition tomorrow, my recommendation is that you look at the value of your account as seldom as possible.
Focusing on a declining account value will inevitably make you more prone to enter the dreaded “Revenge Trade.” Revenge trades happen when you take a larger than normal position in a questionable stock in an attempt to make back the money that you have lost. Ask any professional trader, and he will tell you that revenge trades almost ALWAYS end in failure. After a loss, don’t blame yourself, the “shorts,” or the market. Don’t dwell on the event, simply accept what is, and turn your focus to the constant stream of new opportunities that lie ahead. A positive mindset and emotional self-awareness in these circumstances will help
give you the emotional flexibility necessary to choose how you feel. Without this emotional awareness, you may be blindsided by whatever destructive emotions your subconscious throws your way.
Famed investor Benjamin Graham has said that “Intelligent Investment is more a matter of mental approach than it is of technique.” Fortunately for you, most of your competition has never considered analyzing their mental approach to trading. Without disciplining their mind, they are intuitively focused on negativity and fear. As your competitors will do just about anything to avoid making a mistake, they will shy away from the greatest opportunities in the market.
The world’s greatest athletes, business people, traders, salespeople (you name it) all have a definitive lack of fear of making a mistake. Like staggering babies, they go out of their way to make mistakes. Knowing that there is a distinct possibility of a failure in any trade, you can greatly diminish trading errors based on fear. In this fashion, you must make it a priority to be fearless in your trading and embrace your eventual mistakes wholeheartedly.
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