ANXIETY: A feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease about something with an uncertain outcome. Source: Oxford Dictionary. In this post, I share 10 practical ways to manage anxiety in your trading.
1. Identify Why You Are Anxious.
In your trading, you need to know why you get so anxious. Is it because you’ve lost money before and you are scared it will happen again? Is it because you’ve read so many stories on the internet about how people lost money in trading? If it is because you’ve lost money before, you need to deal with that and find out why it happened and rectify it. If it is because you are absorbing other people’s sad stories about trading, you need to focus on creating your own story and affirm it. I have published an E-Booklet with affirmations that can help you shift your thinking and align with your trading goals.
2. Prepare Yourself For Your Trading Sessions
Make sure that you set aside your trading time. For me, this is easier because of how I trade. My personal trading method is based on following the 3 W’s which are:
What do I trade?
When do I trade?
Why do I trade?
If I know that I will have visitors or any meeting that will clash with my trading session, I don’t plan for one. As a trader, you need to have uninterrupted time during your trading
3. Understand That You Cannot Control The Markets
You cannot control what happens in the markets, but you can always control yourself. This is the main reason why personal development is crucial in trading.
4. Ditch The Perfectionist Mentality
Wanting to be a perfectionist denies you an opportunity to learn. If you expect yourself to just get it, you’ll be discouraged if you don’t get it right away. Give yourself time and stop being too hard on yourself. Nobody started as amazing, all the experts started as beginners and worked their way up.
5. Believe It Can Be Done
If you don’t believe in what you are doing, your chances of succeeding are slim. I have published an episode on this topic. You can listen HERE.
6. Do Not Focus More On Daily Target
Setting up monthly, weekly and daily targets is good and it gives you a structure. This is like when you are driving around with a map and have a destination of where you are going. Setting targets is not limiting yourself but it is about creating a roadmap for yourself and it teaches you to be content and know when to stop. It teaches you discipline.
Do not dwell much on the daily targets because should it happen that you don’t reach it, you get discouraged. Also, note that not reaching your daily target does not mean you won’t reach your weekly or even monthly target. Some days you’ll hit your target, some days you won’t and some days you’ll exceed.
7. Pressure Of Wanting To Make Money Everyday
It is OK if you don’t make money every day. We do not create our trading opportunities in the markets. Sometimes there are more opportunities, sometimes there are less and sometimes there are none on a particular day. If you don’t want such pressure, do not share your daily trading activities with your friends who will always ask if you’ve made any money. Do not treat your trading as a community project.
8. Do Not Focus On Making Money Fast
Trying to make money fast may lead to gambling. Rather focus on making money consistently. Speed kills in the markets.
9. Do Not Put Deadlines On Your Account.
One of the things that will make a trader put a deadline on their account, is trading with borrowed money. Trading with borrowed money adds unnecessary pressure. You are likely to gamble and mess up if you are already thinking about the loan repayments that need to come out of your account. Do not send a letter of lobola negotiations and put a deadline on your trading account because the money needs to come from there. Don’t do it, it causes anxiety.
10. Stop Following Fx Lifestyle Gurus
Stop following traders on the internet who are focusing more on showing off their cars and lifestyles. This is likely to make you feel like you are missing out and it can also cause you to blow your small account because those people will share their screenshots of profits and nothing else.
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