{"id":62446,"date":"2016-12-18T01:00:13","date_gmt":"2016-12-18T09:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brookstradingcourse.com\/?p=62446"},"modified":"2021-05-27T04:48:55","modified_gmt":"2021-05-27T11:48:55","slug":"psychologically-incapable-trading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/es\/ask-al\/psychologically-incapable-trading\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask Al: Psychologically incapable of trading?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Psychologically unfit to trade?<br>BPA trading room Q&amp;A: April 5, 2016<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"content-box-green\">Question: Do you think some people are psychologically incapable of trading successfully? Later on this year, I\u2019ve been trading for a decade, and no matter how small I trade, the account just gets smaller every month.<br><em>Audio duration: 5min 16sec<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Ask-Al-90-Psychologically-Incapable-Trading-160405.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Trading psychology help in abundance<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"266\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/anxious-trader.jpg\" alt=\"Anxious Trader\" class=\"wp-image-48377\" title=\"\"><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>There are a lot of people, if you look on the internet, type in, do a search \u201cI need <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brettsteenbarger.com\/articles.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">psychological help<\/a> as a day trader\u201d or something. There are tons of people out there who claim that they can help you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I once 20 years ago paid somebody for some trading psychologist. I listened to all the audiotapes, and at the end I thought it was a bunch of nonsense. I say that with a sister who\u2019s a PhD psychologist and a brother who does sociology, so he\u2019s really into psychology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Takes time to figure it out<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Do I think some people are psychologically incapable of trading successfully? Totally. I think there are some people who are psychologically incapable driving a car, or doing anything, working a cash register at Walmart. I\u2019m not trying to make fun of your question. I understand what you\u2019re asking, but the way you asked it, the reality is of course there are going to be some people, no matter how hard they try, that they\u2019re just never going to do it. It took me 10 years to figure it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Scalping with tight stops<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Ask-Al-90-ES-Chart-Psychologivally-Uncapable.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"229\" src=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Ask-Al-90-ES-Chart-Psychologivally-Uncapable-300x229.png\" alt=\"Ask Al Brooks - ES Chart Trading range day\" class=\"wp-image-62450\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Ask-Al-90-ES-Chart-Psychologivally-Uncapable-300x229.png 300w, https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Ask-Al-90-ES-Chart-Psychologivally-Uncapable-768x586.png 768w, https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Ask-Al-90-ES-Chart-Psychologivally-Uncapable-600x458.png 600w, https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Ask-Al-90-ES-Chart-Psychologivally-Uncapable.png 779w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>So when you say that you\u2019ve been doing it for a decade, even trading small, my guess is you\u2019re probably scalping too much and you\u2019re not using proper stops. On a day like this, you\u2019re probably buying the top of everything and selling the bottom of everything, even though I\u2019ve been saying all day \u201ctrading range day, trading range day, trading range day.\u201d To me, it\u2019s not a question of psychologically incapable as if there\u2019s some emotional block. It\u2019s probably that you know what the right things to do are, and you\u2019re just not doing them. You\u2019re waiting for higher probability, so you buy the close of 8 or you buy the close of 65, thinking \u201cOkay, bull bar breaking out, we\u2019re finally starting to trend.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Trading range day<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>But it\u2019s a trading range day, and you know Al\u2019s 80% rule: 80% of the time if you\u2019re in a trading range day and the market\u2019s trying to break out, the breakout is going to fail and reverse. You have to assume disappointment will be taking place all the time on a trading range day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Trading successfully, or not?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I would rephrase the question, do I think some people are psychologically incapable of trading successfully \u2013 I think some people are just really stubborn. I\u2019m really stubborn, and it took me a long time to get over a whole bunch of bad habits that I was just repeating year after year after year. I knew what the right things to do were, and I would always have a reason why this was an exception, this is why I should not do the right thing, I have to do something else. It was just all nonsense and lying to myself all the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Trade small, trade Forex<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Trading small I think is very important. You might also, as an alternative, trade Forex markets and trade higher timeframes like 1, 2, 3 hour charts in Forex markets and trade really small, like 10,000 units. You know where the stops are; just put the stop there. One of the nice things about Forex is you\u2019re not going to watch it 24 hours a day because you have to sleep. So you just put your orders in and sleep, and trust that if you win, you make $20, $30, $50; if you lose, you lose $20, $30, $50. But that would be an alternative for you, to trade really wide timeframes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Trading options<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Another alternative is to do the equivalent with the E-mini. You put up a 60-minute chart and say \u201cWait a minute, Al. Some of those 60-minute bars are 8 points, 10 points tall. I don\u2019t want to risk $500 on a trade.\u201d That\u2019s right. So you don\u2019t trade the E-mini; you trade options. You trade a call, an at-the-money call or something. If you buy it 1 month out, for example, it might cost you $250, or you can buy it at slightly out-of-the-money and maybe it\u2019ll cost you $200. The worst you can lose is $200. But in general, most option traders don\u2019t want to give back half their premium, so theoretically if you paid $200, $300 for a call, the most you\u2019re going to lose is $150 because you\u2019re going to get out once half the premium is gone. That would be another way to do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Anyone really can trade<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>But as far as the idea that some people are wired in a way so that they cannot trade successfully, I don\u2019t really think so. I think anyone can do that, and I think trading small is a good, important component of that. But I\u2019m sure if you look at your trades, on a day like this you\u2019re buying at the top, you\u2019re selling at the bottom. Early on I keep saying \u201ctrading range day, trading range day.\u201d I said that so many times today. In general, if it\u2019s a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/how-to-trade-manual\/trading-ranges\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">trading range day<\/a>, if it\u2019s in the bottom half of the day, only look to buy. If it\u2019s in the top half of the day, only look to sell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Rely on logical stop<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s also better if you can use limit orders and risk 3, 4, 5 points. If you pick any of the trades that you took today, if you sold in the top half and risked 3, 4, or 5 points, or if you bought in the bottom half of the day\u2019s range and risked 3, 4, or 5 points, I bet you\u2019ll be shocked at how many good trades you actually took today. So I suspect that trade selection is a problem \u2013 you\u2019re buying high on a trading range day, you\u2019re selling low \u2013 and management is a problem. You\u2019re probably getting out too early and not relying on what is a logical stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All right, hope everybody has a good night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Al Brooks<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"caption\">PS. This is the last Ask Al post for the year. Back after the holidays in 2017. Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and New Year holiday. BTC Admin<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a title=\"Al Brooks&#039; trading room\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/online-day-trading-room\/\">Information on Al&#8217;s Online day trading room<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Psychologically unfit to trade?BPA trading room Q&amp;A: April 5, 2016 Question: Do you think some people are psychologically incapable of trading successfully? Later on this year, I\u2019ve been trading for a decade, and no matter how small I trade, the account just gets smaller every month.Audio duration: 5min 16sec Trading psychology help in abundance There [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"shadow","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-62446","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ask-al","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail","9":"override"},"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"BTC Admin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/es\/author\/richardhk\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62446\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}