No matter what, whether a five dollar roll of toilet paper or a new car, we always feel buyer’s regret when making a purchase.
Forex trading can be very similar. We put our money (real or demo) on the line in the pursuits of financial gain and happiness.
Our trades are placed plentiful when the potential for profit is there, and we scurry away with lightning speed when the crowd starts selling off in great numbers. “Hurry, everybody out!”
This fear (and greed for some) becomes a controlling emotion, dictating their currency trading decisions and behavior. Just as powerful an emotion as fear and greed, is regret too.
Regret is similarly controlling, it can keep us from placing a trade because we don’t want make a mistake. We want to feel good about our decisions and strategies.
In our attempt to do feel this way, we find it more painless to steer clear of making a trade all together, avoiding any risk of failure. Taking this mindset of avoidance, however, will definitely not lead us to the potential for profits that we seek.
Regret comes about after we make a decision and we then start picturing the things that could have gone differently.
When trading, regret is an easy feeling to have because it can occur both when making a move or when doing absolutely nothing.
For instance, you open a trade with the best intentions, only to have it stop out for a loss of your entire account balance. You automatically feel regret for ever taking the position and now being poor.
On the other side, you don’t take a position because you’re allergic to risk. Your missed opportunity turns out to be the trade of the century, and it would have made you a gazillionaire! Arrrgghh! You seep into a state of utter regret.
For both examples, it’s easy to imagine the could-have-beens. We envision ourselves in those “winning” realities and how everything is so heavenly. But then we come back to Earth where things are definitely not paradise.
Sometimes regret can give us that extra kick in the ribs to get off the floor and back on our feet. It compels us to get right what we initially did wrong.
When the going gets tough and you lose yet another Forex trade, the right response to your mistake is too re-evaluate your strategy and the market. You do more testing and try your skills on another new trade. You want that losing trade back!
In the last example, we used the regret we felt for our errors to motivate and encourage ourselves to try again.
Taking this new perspective when things don’t go as planned will have a positive impact on your mental attitude and your trading as a whole. Don’t get hung up on the loss. Forget about it and move on!
Some Forex traders have an issue with feeling regret even before a trade is made. No action has been taken, but the worry starts to consume the mind. All they can think about is making a mistake. In this instance, the possibility of a regrettable outcome is stopping them from acting.
To help, we must remind ourselves that it isn’t the end of the world and that there’s still time to fix what’s not working. We can’t change our past trades but we can definitely make new ones to take those profits back.
Again, the key here is action; the point is to make the trade. Don’t let regret hold you back from progressing by means of action.
And remember, not all risk is bad. Taking risks that are minimal and calculated are integral to growing into a successful Forex trader.
Source: Baby Pips
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