I recently spoke to a guy from London called David, who is a visitor to my site and who wanted to have a chat. We both had been students of Peter Bain and so it seemed like a good idea to have a chat about where our trading is today.
David made an interesting comment, which is not unique, I've experienced it and so have most other traders. He said, "I see a set up I like such as a hammer and everything else lines up, but I just don't have the balls to pull the trigger". I proceeded to tell him why this occurs, and I hope it will make a difference to his trading.
Pulling the trigger comes with a variety of emotions, and I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. One of the more powerful emotions is fear, and this emotion alone will prevent traders from entering a trade, despite having everything line up, exactly how they'd like it.
The fear is of course, the fear of loss. Once we lose money on a trade, we fear having the same thing happen again. If this is happening to you, it means you haven't researched your system enough, or don't know it's probabilities of success.
If someone told you that a certain system had 70% probability of success, and you had complete and utter faith in their word, or you knew deep down with 100% belief that a trading system will bring a 70% success rate, you would never have a problem with pulling the trigger (unless of course you expect a system to work 100% of the time, which means you're in the wrong business).
I'll use a bought system as an example. Let's say you've paid $500 for a trading system. It came with all the books, DVD's and so on and it promised to deliver a 70% success rate. The issue then comes with how much faith you have in the system's designer. You see, if you have any sort of doubt, or even approach the system with the 'I'll give it a go and see' mentality, you may find it hard to pull the trigger straight after a loss.
I use a bought system as an example because I've seen time and time again where a perfectly good system only seems to produce around 5% of successful traders. It's not the system that's at fault, it's the user faith. With no faith, there is no discipline to stay with the rules, and this creates more doubt when coming to pull the trigger.
If you're struggling with this phenomenon, you may need to do some homework. If you're trading your own system, you need to research the set ups you are looking for to see how often the system produces successful trades. If you can do this and see that over time your own set of rules will indeed produce a satisfactory outcome, your fear of pulling the trigger should disappear.
If you've bought a system or looking to buy one, then maybe you need to show some faith and just expect the system to work, without having the 'I'll give it a go and see' mentality. This only causes your mind to focus on something you don't want, and believe me, when you focus on something you don't want, you get more of what you don't want.
What all of this boils down to is this. If you have a system that produces a better than 50% success rate, and you stick to the rules without exception, you cannot fail. If you find that your system produces less than a 50% success rate, then guess what? Do the opposite (this is a bit of light humour, but a truth none the less). Either way, know that your system works and you shouldn't have an issue with pulling the trigger..
The Black Hole of Trading Part 4 of 6
In this short series of articles I will look to explain what you need to do before you buy any trading system and avoid the black hole of trading. This series will cover a step by step approach to using the markets to achieve your goals by highlighting 13 key areas that traders must address.
The Black Hole of Trading Part 3 of 6
In this short series of articles I will look to explain what you need to do before you buy any trading system and avoid the black hole of trading. This series will cover a step by step approach to using the markets to achieve your goals by highlighting 13 key areas that traders must address.
The Black Hole of Trading Part 2 of 6
In this short series of articles I will look to explain what you need to do before you buy any trading system and avoid the black hole of trading. This series will cover a step by step approach to using the markets to achieve your goals by highlighting 13 key areas that traders must address. To read part 1 visit: The Black Hole of Trading Part 1
