No, it's not a trick question. What is it about trading that makes it such a difficult activity?
In this article, we are going to address the big question.
To understand this we need to ask another additional question, why do people want to trade?
Doing an exercise in lateral thinking, the simplest answer is because they want to make money.
Buy low and sell high, trade futures and do the same but multiply the profits.
So far we have something clear, people want to make money and trading is the way or method to achieve it.
But the most important question remains, why is it so difficult?
Let's be honest, how many people do you know who actually make a living from trading or who manage to do it for many years?
The reason for this phenomenon is related to the psychological aspect and the mental effects it produces in trading. Contrary to what many may believe, the real difficulty is not learning a strategy or knowing how to read charts, the real challenge is mastering the mind while trading.
I have already mentioned in other posts that you can learn, don't be afraid, with calm and dedication you will be able to do it. The difficult thing is to master the psychological aspect and below I will explain why:
Variable response stimulus:
This is a phenomenon that has been widely studied by behavioral psychologists and consists of how certain actions or activities generate addiction and dependence, due to the unpredictability of the result of our initial action.
In trading, especially when we start, everything hits us. When it goes up, when it goes down, when nothing happens, but there are never 2 days that are the same, nor 2 currencies that do the same thing.
This creates uncertainty, the same action (buying) does not produce the same effect, there are days when we suddenly win, the next our account is in the red and so on. On a mental level, this is devastating for the brain because it does not understand what is happening and becomes obsessed with looking for answers.
Because of that, most newbies open the chart every 15 minutes hoping for a change; they ask everywhere, âWhatâs going to happen?â They look for any YouTube channel or analyst that can reassure them, and itâs normal, it happens to everyone.
But in the meantime, an activity as simple as buying and waiting becomes a harmful obsession.
Different speeds.
Our world moves at the speed of the Internet, everything happens at an accelerated pace and we expect the same to happen with our investment.
Trading timeframes are one of the most difficult things to learn, because every day we see a currency go up +50% in hours and we want the same. We want our purchase to do the same.
When things fall, we expect it to be fast and as fast as it fell, it will recover.
And that, my friend, is very different from reality.
The market, market makers and smart money (as some call it) play with that feeling to manipulate you and push you to trade badly. Let's take Baby Doge as an example, that coin spent months in a range, where the price barely moved, when many got tired and sold BOOM! The price skyrockets and they want to buy again.
It is no coincidence that time in the market produces these effects, only in this way do the big whales get liquidity to buy (when you get tired and sell) and have someone to sell to (when you get FOMO and want to buy).
Many people fall by the wayside because they don't learn how to deal with this, learn how to time the market.
This is a scam, I knew it!
After years here, you have no idea how many times I have heard that phrase from acquaintances and read it from new people, even today.
When our trading is going well, we feel like stock market sharks, we are the ones dominating the market. But when our account goes into the red... That's when the ship sinks, because the captain lost his mind, not because he hit an iceberg.
Understanding that this is not a 100% safe investment seems obvious, but it is crazy for some.
What do you mean SUPERTRUMP INU was a scam?! I knew all these crypto things were the same...
Nothing is certain, but it's not the end of the world either. We're all going to lose some money at some point and buy a token that went wrong. That doesn't mean we have to go crazy, sell at a loss and throw everything away.
Learning how to lose money and recover is a real test. And this is coming from someone who has liquidated the account and had to start from scratch.
When you manage to control anger and frustration, you will understand that everything has a solution, otherwise you will crash into a wall.
Anxiety
Not everyone can sleep peacefully knowing that their money is dancing salsa 24/7.
Anxiety is totally understandable and normal when we start out. After all, you are investing money in the hope that it will grow, in a completely uncertain place.
Just as I explained why in some cases it generates dependency, the fluctuations, time management and the doubt of not knowing if we are wrong generate a lot of anxiety.
For some, this is devastating, because they literally do not sleep. They are always on the alert all day long, ready to sell everything if the price falls, for fear of losing everything.
Every day we see news that there was a "rug pull", that whales are selling, that the war brought down the price, that such and such went bankrupt... So much stimulation generates psychosis in some people.
Mastering anxiety and fear takes time and, above all, learning. But there is little that someone who is terrified can learn.
I dissociated myself from money
This is the sweetest and bitterest effect that trading has at the same time.
When you have been trading for a long time, after your account went under, you recovered it, you paid for vacations and treated yourself to luxuries with your trades... Your perception of money changes.
It is synonymous with the fact that you are ready, that you have gone through a thousand and one things and survived.
But there is the downside: IT'S MONEY! And to you it's just numbers and a percentage of an account.
A trader, in the eyes of an ordinary person, is a lunatic. How do you open a trade with $4,000, have a PNL of -$800, and be at peace?
It's basically a mixed feeling of apathy and certainty. You have the certainty that it's a calculated risk but also the apathy that if you lose that money, nothing will happen.
And when you look at it, you realize that your calculated loss is someone's salary. And for you, it doesn't represent much.
Conclusions:
The difficulty is not in the operational techniques or the strategy, but in the mind.
Few people talk about this and it happens all the time. Many people give up because TRADING destroys them mentally.
What I want to convey is that you should calm down: It is normal to be afraid, it is okay if it is a little difficult, but for the love of God, do not sell your mental health.
There are those who can bear it all and continue, but if TRADING is causing you problems in your daily life, consider changing your strategy or at least stepping away for a while. Give your brain some peace and calmly learn before trying again; I'm not saying you should give up, quite the opposite, I trust that you will be able to do it, but take care of your health.
Crypto Citizen says goodbye!!
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