Resilience in Trading
Itâs fair to say the word âresilienceâ is being chucked about a lot at the moment and for good reason. For many years progress and technology has led us away from outside toilets, terrible diseases and world wars and so naturally our ability to need to be resilient has somewhat diminished.
The last few years have been far from great and we are not seeing any daylight through those woods just yet. We have had COVID, Ukraine, Palestine and a potential new world order that isnât so keen on democracy. Next up we have the very real threat of AI unleashing a whole different dosage of craziness on our humanoid asses!
So resilience is back in the spotlight and we need to start finding it again, especially if you are a European Energy trader. 2022 was a great year for most traders, but was also probably the most stressful and now European Energy markets are suddenly a global business! Throw in an ever increasing competition for trading seats, lots of robots and management who are expecting 2022 returns to be the normal and its looking like the current crop of traders need to start digging deep.
Thankfully there are people like me around to help and for a very reasonable fee I will do just that :>).
Here are my tips for building trading resilience, based on my own pretty successful career as a trader and my new one as a coach.
Have a Purpose
I went to work for the local energy company @ 16 when all my friends went off to college because I like money! Prior to that I had done milk rounds, paper rounds, washed cars and had a disastrous attempt at being a mechanics assistant, all because I liked money.
As soon as I saw trading and added success, winning and excitement to the money tree, I was 100% sold and nothing was going to hold me back.
A casual interest in getting rich quick will not be enough to make you a succesful trader.
Having a Network
This is potentially a problem for younger traders with WFH becoming more common. Your partner probably doesnât give a rats bottom about Chinaâs LNG take and itâs not an enthralling topic down the pub on a Saturday night with your mates either, but you have to talk to someone.
Make sure you balance getting into the office (if you can) with the home working and get out for a coffee or beer (after work only please) with your team mates or traders from another shop. Failing the above, I do know a good coach!
Never Listen to Your Ego
Your ego is essentially that bully from school, shoutey arrogant bloke down the pub or trader that constantly talks about his new Ferrari that he paid for by taking the entire bonus pot for himself.
It does not have your best interests at heart and is intent on inflicting bad decisions on your trading, your career choices and sometimes even your dress sense. (I bought a pair of gold jeans once!)
It will tell you that you are invincible on the good days (you are not) and pathetic and worthless on the bad (you are not).
Just ignore it and listen to your heart/gut feel and those around you that you trust.
Planning and Discipline
By doing your research and having a plan you take away all the mind boggling uncertainty that trading can bring. Work out your risk reward, your size, your entry point, your stop loss and your profit level and then sit back and let the market do the rest.
Take Responsibility and Action
If something isnât working, it is very unlikely to fix itself. Whether itâs your trading strategy, the team you are in or the company you are working for, YOU need to do something about it.
The market isn't out to get you, the pipe didn't blow up to spite you and there are plenty of other traders who were the same way as you who are not adding tears to their cornflakes.
Victims are boring and tend not to be the most successful or happy of people, so take control and don't become one.
Accept that Losses are Part of Trading
No trader, genius, sportsperson, politician or parent is ever right 100% of the time, so why should you be? Being involved in loss-making trades, enduring periods of drawdowns, making and learning from mistakes and missing out on opportunities are all part of the game.
Itâs a bit like the first time you have a cold shower, absolutely horrific to start with, but you get used to it and it keeps you humble.
Ignoring stopâs, chasing losses and FOMO are all trading traits of the ego. Good traders will accept the loss, learn their lessons and move onto the next opportunity.
Nurturing Yourself
My escape was football, gym, walking and also the pub! There are about 50,000 podcasts, books and wellness apps, so I donât really need to go into any detail on this one, but a healthy body really is a healthy mind.
Improve Yourself
I think I have only had one client come to me when they are enjoying a period of trading success and it just doesnât make sense. It is far easier to improve yourself when your confidence is high and you are on a roll, than waiting for a bad situation and trying to turn it around.
The other thing about improving yourself is that it keeps our minds active, engaged and happy. Even making large amounts of money can get boring sometimes and we need other stimulation!
Write Stuff Down
Have a trading journal where you write down your plan and trade post mortems, but also how you are feeling, how your day went, what you did well and what you messed up. It will not only help you to learn, but will also help you to leave trading at the door on your way home.
Stoicism
Next time you are feeling sorry for yourself because of a weekend weather flip or an armada of LNG suddenly appearing on the horizon, just think how lucky you are compared to 99.99999% of the world!!
Did I do all of the above?
Trust is all important in this coaching game and the honest answer is no I didnât and certainly not throughout my whole career, but I did do most of it. I think I had a great level of resilience coming into trading from a mix of hard working parents, being bullied at school, beginning my own career early, playing football from the age of 10 and having a massive desire to win and succeed.
Even with that base layer I had two bad spells and it would have been great to have had a bit more guidance at the time.
As it is, I look back with pride and happiness on a wonderful career and I whole heartedly believe everything in this article can help every trader out there, wherever they are in their career (notice I didnât use the word âjourneyâ).
#trading #resilience #lustforlifecoaching
Call me on +44 7818 012109
rob@lustforlifecoaching.co.uk