Trading can be overwhelming for some.
As an active trader, you are constantly bombarded with information from the economic calendar, such as economic data releases, scheduled speeches from government officials, and media reports.
And let’s not forget the unexpected geopolitical events that arise.
It’s difficult sometimes to make sense of it all – to see which specific information actually has an impact on your trades.
Trading plans you created just a couple hours ago can become irrelevant and useless with a single breaking news alert.
When things don’t go as planned, it can be frustrating, but it’s crucial that you remain calm.
When your trading plans aren’t working out, there’s psychological pressure to make difficult decisions quickly (like whether to cut losses or widen your stop).
Should you stick to your current plan or reassess and create a new one?
This feeling of being rushed to act now can be very stressful and you end up panicking.
To help cope with this pressure, change your time perception.
Time perception is the degree to which you perceive your use of time as structured and contributing to a specific goal.
When you’re panicking and don’t know what to do next, you feel like you are debating back and forth with yourself between different decisions and ending up nowhere.
You almost feel like you’re out of control.
This is when you should return structure into your trading.
When you can perceive that your time is structured and that you are working toward a certain goal, you will feel calmer.
When your trades haven’t been working out, you start to become afraid to make mistakes and lack confidence in whether you should stick to your trading plan or abandon it and go with a new one.
What should you do?
Pick the one that best matches the current market environment.
The key is to simply focus on implementing whatever plan you choose.
Once you implement this plan, you’ll feel back in control.
When time is perceived as structured, it leads to less stress as a trader.
You will feel calmer.
Just don’t forget about “The 5 Deadly O’s of Trading” so you don’t guarantee your own failure as a trader.
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