… you are emotional.
I read a couple of posts that resonated.
Over at The Next Big Move, Joe Fahmy narrates a story of his friend who got into a big fight with his girlfriend. And wanting the world to collapse around him, shorted the market. He’s now about 15% underwater.
You can’t do anything in life (especially trading) if your head is not clear. You can have the greatest strategy in the world, but if your mind is rattled and you’re not mentally tough, you have NO SHOT of succeeding.
And over at Off Road Finance, there’s a post on trading when distracted. Did you know that people who consider themselves skilled multi-taskers perform worse on nearly everything, even when they’re not currently multi-tasking?
Multitasking at any time hurts your performance all the time. Whatever you’re doing right now, do that until done (if at all possible) and do only that one thing. Really try to do it well. Do this even when the task isn’t trading-related. Don’t think about trades while driving. Don’t check your Twitter feed while blogging… Just do what you’re doing and do it the best you can all the time. Spend hours of time on problems that deserve it.
So unless you can focus and leave emotions out, don’t trade.
Sources:
Don’t Trade If Your Head Is Not Clear
Oh Look, A Shiny Object!
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