Trading Thursday: You are not a trader if you have never experienced this!

You sit at your laptop and stare at the screen: Marked closed is still glaring at you in red. Minutes later, your watchlist lights up like a Christmas tree - red, green, flashing everywhere. Panic sets in as you chase the charts, trying to make sense of the chaos. Quickly, you click through stocks, hoping to catch one at a good price before it’s too late.

One stock catches your eye: the lower edge of the trend channel at USD 126.2. 

Falling.

Thoughts pop into your head.

It's bound to bounce and rise again soon. You can't miss this opportunity. You have to get in before the upward trend starts.

You draw your support line on the chart

USD 126. Exactly. You buy at USD 126.

That sounds good. No, it doesn't just sound good, it actually looks really good on the chart. Nothing can go wrong. The stock will not fall any lower. Judging by the chart. There can only be one way after that: upwards.

You sip your coffee. You look restlessly at the monitor. The red bar on the minute chart is slowly getting smaller.

Another minute passes.

While a new bar forms, you quickly open your trading program on your second monitor. When you look at the chart again, you see the green bar:

127 USD.

Shit, the upward trend is starting!

You quickly enter the order.

Market order.

100 shares.

You hear the loud PING! Order executed. 12,750 USD invested. 

You take a deep breath and exhale slowly, feeling your body relax. You finally manage to stop looking at the chart for a few minutes.

But then your heart rate starts to rise again. At some point you can't stand it any longer, you simply have to check where your stock is now.

Stunned, you look at the last 5 deep red long bars in the minute chart.

Only at USD 125.

USD 124.8

Minute after minute you sit in front of the chart and watch helplessly as the share falls lower and lower. With each new bar you hope for green, that the trend will finally turn. But red follows red.

Your hope fades and, cursing and panicking for fear of even greater losses, you enter the sell order.

Frustrated. You close your laptop.

You remove the stock from your watchlist. Out of shame. You don't even realize that the stock will actually turn in the next few days and that you were actually right. If you hadn't let your emotions get the better of you.

Sound familiar? Let’s break the cycle and start trading with a clear plan.

Mastering the basics of trading is one thing. An equally important, if not the most important thing in trading is to have your emotions under control and act rationally. Since this can be challenging, we created the Emotion Tracker to help you.

How did you feel before, during, and after the trade? Were you confident, anxious, or hesitant? Documenting your emotions can help you identify patterns and understand how your emotional state affects your trading performance. 

We wish you a successful trading week

Your MindTrajour Team