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All e-mini traders struggle with the same emotions and psychological barriers yet a small minority seem to handle the pressure with much more ease. Successful trading comes down to having a plan and sticking to it. It is about knowing where and when to get into the market and how to exploit other people’s poor decisions.
For traders just starting out or those experiencing a series of set backs in their trading there are a few easy adjustments that can be made to improve your mental state in order to produce better trading results.
1. Focus On The Next Trade
Too many traders focus too much of their time on trades already taken. You need to develop the ability to forget about the past and move on as quickly as possible. It doesn’t matter whether the trade was the biggest winner you have ever had or the biggest loser, that set up is gone and you can’t have it back. IT doesn’t do any good dwelling on it. Focus on the next set p and leave all your emotional baggage from the past trades behind.
2. Take A Break
Every trader needs to take time away from the markets. Trading is a very demanding job and if you over expose yourself to the markets you are going to see a negative effect on your profit and loss. Make sure you schedule regular intervals each day away from your trading platform. Ultimately you will be a better trader for doing so.
3. Disassociate Your Trading From Your Account Size
Account size is irrelevant when trading and thinking about your aggregate profit and loss can be extremely dangerous for an e-mini trader. Focusing on the dollar amount behind a trade can distract you from what is truly important, the trade itself and the set up. Those are the only things that matter. If you feel nervous or unsteady after entering a trade that is normal and can be used to fuel your concentration on the task at hand, however, if you are extremely nervous then you may be over leveraging yourself and in order to get better results you may want to scale back your trading size. Either way, it is a good idea to think in terms of good trades vs. bad trades rather than profit and loss.
Trader psychology is the number one area where most new traders in the e-mini markets struggle. The gap between SIM trading and real live trading is incredibly large. The reason so many people do well when SIM trading is there is no pressure to succeed because no real money is at stake. When they start trading live they completely change their system and negative results follow. Do yourself a favour and concentrate on controlling your emotions and not letting the dictate your trading decisions.
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