Have you ever faced a situation where, despite having a well-designed trading plan and a carefully crafted trading strategy, your actual trading day turned out to be completely unpredictable? In such instances, your actions deviate from the original plan, and momentary weakness casts doubt on the effectiveness of the entire trading session.
These unexpected emotions can catch you off guard.
One of the reasons for this is a lack of recognition of what is happening. Emotions often arise as immediate reactions or reflexes triggered by certain events, which traders often misinterpret as problems.
Let's consider the example of a loss from a trade. Many traders may become furious and enter positions without following proper trading patterns. However, this doesn't happen to everyone. Instead of expressing anger, some traders easily cope with failures, instinctively understanding the situation and turning it into opportunities. Therefore, a crucial aspect of developing a trading plan is identifying and addressing your own internal struggles, which serve as the underlying cause of the problem.
It's important to note that in many cases, the initial trigger for these emotions is subtle and barely perceptible consciously, yet it already impacts your mental stability and your habitual interaction with the market.
Even if the trading day starts off on the wrong foot, by regaining composure at the right moment and avoiding impulsive reactions, you can prevent basic mistakes and maintain control over your psychological state, ultimately improving your performance. The secondary arousal occurs when a trader becomes aware of or reacts to the impulses, thoughts, and actions that occurred initially. In simple terms, the mind and thoughts amplify the emotions that have already emerged.
In everyday life, people often don't differentiate between these experiences. However, if the source of the reflex is not identified, along with the secondary causes, finding a solution to the situation becomes challenging. Triggers will continue to generate more and more emotions that need to be managed.
Awareness of the initial impulse and the subsequent reaction are the two starting points that enable progress. After all, stressful situations can accumulate and overlap, creating a precedent for a cumulative effect.