There will come a time in your trading life that you will experience a number of losses that will make you question both yourself and your trading plan. For example, if you had 10 losing trades in a row, you will almost certainly start to think, “is my trading plan working for me?” or “what on earth is wrong with me?” The losses will almost certainly have an effect on you psychologically. If this happens to you, fortunately there are a few things that can help you get back into the mindset of a winning trader.

Getting Back Into The Mindset Of A Winner

1. Stop trading altogether for a week or two. This will give your mind a rest and will help to defuse the negative emotion that has built up. The worst thing you can do is to trade in a bad mindset. For example, if you had 10 losing trades, and then had a further losing trade after that, how would you feel? Likely, you will not feel too good about yourself! Taking a break will help you refocus and regroup your mind and help to remove the negative emotion that can be so destructive.

2. Trading is just as much learning how to control your emotions as it is about learning how to read charts and company financial statements. If you let your emotions take over, you will fail at trading. Thankfully, there are a number of meditation and visualisation techniques that you can employ that will help get rid of negative emotions and focus your mind.

3. In trading, it is important that you record each of your trades. The reason for this is that in times of need, you can look at your past performance and alter your trading plan if necessary. This will help you to objectively assess whether you have been following your trading plan.

a. If you have departed from your trading plan, you need to think about why you did and what you need to do to get back on track
b. If you have not departed from your plan, you then need to think about the alterations you may need to your plan.

Getting Back Into The Game

1. When you start trading again, follow your plan flawlessly. Do not get tempted to alter the approach you have written down in your plan and if you do, your emotions are eventually going to take over again!

2. Unfortunately, the market can play some evil games with you. There are times that the market can reward “bad behaviour” – in other words, there are times when not following your plan can perversely result in winning trades! This is one of the reasons why it is hard to trade as this may tempt you to use your emotions even more when trading. Eventually, in the long run, this will cause you to lose. This is another reason why you need to follow your plan flawlessly.

3. Use the concept of positive reinforcement. Perhaps say to yourself that you will give yourself a reward after every 10 trades providing you have kept to your plan and regardless as to whether or not the net result of those trades was profitable. This will help you to associate positive emotions with trading your plan flawlessly and will help you against using your emotions to trade.

4. Get a coach. A coach is more than simply a teacher or instructor. A good coach is not there to answer your questions but is there to help you find the answer to your questions yourself. They are there to ensure that you do not stray off your chosen path and help you focus on achieving your goals. You can have coaches in all areas of your life – spiritual, emotional, financial, physical etc.

Some of the best sportspeople people in the world have coaches – Gary Kasparov, Tiger Woods, Andre Agasi etc. If they have coaches and see the benefits of those coaches in their life, then perhaps emulating them and getting a coach yourself may help you to achieve your financial and personal goals as well. Trading after a string of losses is undoubtedly difficult. However, using the suggestions in this chapter will not only get you back on your feet again but it will also improve you as a trader. Remember, you should not consider losing trades as “losses” – consider them to be “learning opportunities.” With enough learning opportunities, you will undoubtedly excel in your quest to be a master trader!




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