There are several ways you can diagnose yourself if you fear you’re suffering from Psychological Toxicity. I have identified 10 symptoms which you can find in the next section. If you’re a brand new trader, you may be surprised at how many pitfalls you can fall in.
And if you’ve been around for a while, you may remember doing some of these things yourself.
- You attempt to use a strategy or methodology, but when it comes time to implement it, you freeze up and do something completely different.
- You actually come to a self-realization that you are doing something you know you should not be doing — while you are doing it. And you don’t stop.
- You feel like you have dug yourself a hole with a shovel, and you’re trying to climb back out with a spoon.
- You exit trades too early, stunting the potential of your winners.
- You exit trades too late, allowing your winners to turn to losers.
- You chase trades all the time, giving yourself bad entries before you get stopped out. You feel like you are buying high and selling low.
- You think of negative life issues while you are actually trading, and you just can’t focus on the market.
- You blame others for your problems and can’t take responsibility for your own results.
- You are “dying of a thousand paper cuts.” You set tight stops to reduce your risk, but you keep getting stopped out. You are taking small losses on each trade, but your account is shrinking because those paper cuts are adding up.
- You don’t think of trading as a job and instead you focus on being your own boss. So you go to bed very late, which makes you tired, unfocused, and unprepared. And you have no urgency to be at your best, though you assume you’ll fix these bad habits at some point in the future.
