Stock markets, fireworks, rollercoasters, that guy on TV almost frothing at the mouth because of some new-and-all-important-something that just happened (apparently), bungee jumping, and going down a long hill on a skateboard without any knee-pads. These things are all pretty exciting! Often we focus our attention on exciting things and being entertained, or experiencing a sense of ‘being alive’ by participating in things that make us feel like we’re living on the edge.
For different people, of course, that comes in different forms. I, for instance, haven’t jumped from a cliff face or a waterfall for a while now and I think it’s time that I find something high to jump from so that I can get my little rush and feel like I am flying (for about a millisecond).
My point is that different things excite different people, and often individual people find themselves becoming bored with that which once excited them. Which means that after the ‘new’ becomes ‘routine’, they seek excitement elsewhere. This is a deep seated subconscious thing and a trap that I believe all humans fall into. Boredom of the predictable. It’s in our DNA; it’s how we’ve been programmed.
What I think happens sometimes – and I think this because I know I’ve done it and I’ve watched other people do it – is that people start losing that sense of ‘this is new and amazing and I just love trading’ because, well, it’s not new anymore. Also, people who take trading seriously tend to get better at it, which of course leads to less and less of this emotional rollercoaster ride that trading was to them in the beginning. Now that it’s no longer new but now kind of predictable (the trading results, not markets), it starts to get a bit boring. People start to seek excitement and they, subconsciously, start doing things like trading too big, not planning trades and not obeying their stops. In other words, they self-sabotage because they crave the excitement that they had in the beginning and now seem to have lost.
The point of trading is to make money, not get a rush from taking on risk. If it is excitement that you seek, take up a hobby or tell your stepmom you can’t make her birthday dinner. Whatever it is that causes the fireworks and gives that ‘I might die at any moment’ feeling, it doesn’t matter. As long as you are not seeking that feeling from your trading. Trading can become routine and boring, and from what I hear, routine and boring trading is really what our goal should be. Because routine and boring is consistent, and consistency is what makes a good ‘trade spotter’, a great trader.
Happy trading!
Meet the Just One Lap team at these free live events
Click here to meet the Just One Lap team at one of our live, free events.