When it comes to trading everybody talks about psychology, risk management, and money management. These three things are important. But psychology plays a massive role. Let’s talk about it.

Psychology is a powerful weapon. Traders get many emotions while trading like greed, fear, guilt, and desire. Let me explain it to you in detail.

It happened in 2021. I was doing intraday trading, and as always I opened my laptop, waited for the market to open, looked at the chart while drawing the levels, and was waiting to take a trade. I took the trade and was making profits, then I thought about holding the trade for a while. Here enter’s the greed I was talking about. I was being optimistic that maybe I can make more profit.

After that something happened, profits started fluctuating up and down. And then entered the fear I was talking about. I started freaking out about what’s gonna happen and started thinking what if the market will go up after coming slightly down. Here enters the desire/hope. I started hoping that the market will go up and I can make a profit less than before but at least not a loss.

After that terrible feeling of hoping that to happen, I closed the trade at a loss. And then that feeling of guilt/regret took the place and I was thinking of the right choices I could’ve made at that moment.

And that day I realized psychology plays a huge role while trading.

Controlling emotions is a big and important task for a trader and if these emotions can’t get controlled it’s hard to get success in trading.

What’s the solution?

Talking of solutions, the only solution is to have control of your mind.

1- Meditation can be the first step towards it. Meditating for 30 mins properly in the morning is a good start. A little focus with a clear mind is a good combination.

2. Strict rules and a proper strategy can work great. Staying disciplined and sticking to these rules can change a lot only in a few days.

3. Writing down all the trades you’ve taken in a day/week and studying it later to see how much progress you made and also focusing on the loss you made, will tell you if you’re sticking to the rules or not.

4. Following proper risk management and money management can help you progress your trading as well as your brain.

5. Accepting losses and profits is a great step towards a proper mindset. If you’ve taken 2 or a maximum of 3 trades in a day, close your system after it whether you closed the trades in profit or loss.

“If you can learn to create a state of mind that is not affected by the market’s behavior, the struggle will cease to exit”. — Mark Douglas

Also, there are so many books that especially focus on psychology that can help you. I will personally recommend Trading in the zone by Mark Douglas. This book especially focuses on trading psychology.

Let me know if this was helpful for you all. I dealt with this situation of mixed emotions when I was new in intraday trading. These few steps work only if you stick by them.