“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”

Great quote right?

I was thinking about this quote the other day, I was having a down day (we all have them).

Trading the forex markets can ensue ups and down, when we are riding these waves we have to remain neutral.

Other than their risk, there is one thing that professional traders manage better than anyone else, can you guess what that is?

Their emotions.

You see, emotions will lead us to act out of character, make us miss the details, and lead us astray from our missions and goals.

Professional traders rule their emotions, this doesn’t mean they do not feel these emotions, yet they have full awareness of the situation and embrace it.

The brain is hardwired to assess and be cautious of potential threats,

we may perceive that threat as harmless,

however, the brain reacts accordingly, firing off chemical reactions to stimulate our ‘fight or flight’.

This chain of events can cause us to do erratic things and when trading based on emotions there is only one result. Losses.

So how can we manage these emotions?

To manage our emotions when trading, we must first dissect what our personality is.

• Are you the sort of person to impulsively get into trading setups?
• Do you find yourself going against your plan?
• Have you ever traded out of revenge?
• Do you find yourself continuously being on the wrong side of the market?

Now I know you can see where I’m going, these personality traits mixed with emotions influence our trading in more ways than we can consciously pick up on.

Emotions fuel our personality traits to seep into our trading plans. The professionals have mastered their emotions and know their personalities inside out.

And guess what…….so can you!

By no stretch of our imagination is this task easy, nor is it for the faint of heart.

To master our emotions, first, we must look and observe ourselves, the markets are like a mirror, they are neutral and will always do whatever it wants to, no matter how much we wish or think otherwise.

When we digest we do not affect the markets we can truly find our impactful traits by observing how we react to market scenarios, this can be done by journaling, recording voice memos, or even a vlog of our bad decisions in the markets, so we can use them as data points.

This is the first step to understanding your personality.

Impactful traits like:

• Impatience
• Irrationality
• Anxiousness
• Fearfulness
• Anger when losing
• Greed when it comes to profits
  
  

These are only a few of the impactful traits that can hinder your results, if you observe and find you have one or more of these traits, do not fear, through self-assessment and 1% tweaks you will be able to minimise how you react when we feel these emotions.

You see the professionals still feel these emotions, they still get those flutters when entering a trading setup, they still get that greed before taking profit, they even fear losses!

The professionals have put the time into themselves, they have observed themselves over a series of sample sizes, giving them data, not about the markets BUT themselves.

They have gained the bi-products of discipline, knowing oneself, and accepting change.

Patience. Confidence. Resilience. Tranquility.

Join the PRO Team Today

All the best
The Social Traders Team