Anxiety. Stress. Fear of missing out. What if a great opportunity comes along when I'm not paying attention? What if this is my time to strike?
At some point, most traders have felt this way.
Welcome to one of the most common problems in trading, regardless of the market, the place, or the time: overtrading.
Overtrading can be incredibly addictive and exhausting, both physically and emotionally. It can also lead to significant losses.
Why you might overtrade
You're prone to stress: This is the first thing we want you to consider, as it can be incredibly powerful. Your social environment, your personal situation, and your debts can all have a big impact on your decision-making when trading. We know that there are times of high pressure and low returns, and it can seem like the answer is to work harder and longer. But it's not just about doing more, it's about doing better and more effectively. Make sure you have mechanisms in place to calm down, breathe, and rationalize your choices.
You like to improvise... maybe too much: Discipline is crucial. Your trading plan is your ace in the hole. Sometimes being impulsive can be helpful in very specific circumstances, but the market doesn't forgive. So rely on your community and carefully consider every decision, combining your instinct with the best tools.
You don't know how to optimize your processes: At a professional level, there are many ways to save time, money, and effort. For example, we've used AI to generate specific indicators to automatically identify patterns, transforming our charts into clear narratives of the market that our team and our clients use every day.
What you can do to take control
In addition to developing self-control and following your trading plan, here are three simple but important tips that can help you:
Set risk limits for each trade. These can be absolute, such as not losing more than 3% of your capital in a single trade. Or they can be relative, such as not losing more than what you've gained in the last four trades.
Experiment with different financial instruments. Feeling comfortable with your investments is key to maintaining stable profits. Try opening small positions in different assets, rather than a single position in only one instrument.
Stimulate your creativity, get enough rest, and share your experience with other traders. As we like to say, the market is alive. It has its own mood swings, and staying rigid will only lead to frustration and exhaustion. Take time to disconnect, so you can come back refreshed to trading. Compare your journey with traders from other parts of the world, learn about their preferences, their contexts, and analyze the market news together to find new opportunities.
Take care of the key to achieving your goals: yourself
We want you to understand that no matter what happens, if you develop your mental strength alongside your strategic strength, almost nothing will stand in your way.
We want you to know that you're not alone. We encourage you to keep looking for resources and spaces to grow every day and achieve that A+ level that's waiting for you.
We want to recommend this video from The Moving Average, which we found very useful. We'd be happy to hear your thoughts on it.
That's all for now, see you soon, trader!
REFERENCES
For this article, prompts have been used to request information
interpreted and provided by AI (Google Bard). Written and edited
by Kevin David Terán and verified by Pedro Arizaleta and Erwin Sánchez
Comments