V.12:9 (385-387): Trading Hesitation by Ruth Roosevelt

Trading Hesitation by Ruth Roosevelt

At one time or another, traders may second-guess their own methods and fail to follow their strategies to disastrous results. The founder of the Wall Street Hypnosis Center explains how to return to consistent performance.

Let me tell you about two traders. The first trader would hesitate whenever he would get a signal from his methodology. He would wait for confirmation. He'd go over all the reasons the trade wouldn't work. He'd get confused and start to feel clammy. When confirmation finally did come, he would throw himself headlong into the trade, which by then was already well on its way or, worse still, already over. The second trader would begin to feel queasy when she'd get a trading signal. She'd remember how frightened she'd been in her last few trades, and how she'd actually gotten sick to her stomach. She'd remember all her past losses — and she'd freeze. When the trade would prove itself to be a winner, her whole being would be filled with deep disappointment.

Both these traders would consciously vow that the next trade they made would be different, that they'd take every signal from then on. But somehow, when the next signal would come, either they wouldn't take it, or if they did, it would produce a loss. In both cases, an unconscious pattern was being reinforced, and so they would continue to balk at the trades that followed, thus increasing their discomfort and frustration.