Some people think that a stress is a constant part of trading. In my opinion these people confuse stress with excitement.
Excitement is a supportive feeling. It motivates you and gives you fun. Without it you may not have motivation to trade.
But stress is an overwhelming feeling. It warns you that your goals are above your skills and you may have a big problem if you fail.
Do you need to be stress free?
Do you have to a be stress free trader to make money on markets? No!
My friend during his studies made a lot of money on stock market. He bought his first luxurious car. But he was so worried that markets may run against him that he was not able to sleep. Because of that he quitted trading and now he is a successful entrepreneur.
So you need to decide. Maybe you want to focus only on money and ignore stress. If you do it be aware that you may have problems with sleeping, you may waste your time on thinking about unpleasant and unproductive things, you may have problems with sex (stress decrease your potency), you may have no temptation to enjoy life, spend time with your friends or on your hobby.
Or maybe you think that money is not everything. Maybe you want to have money AND enjoy happy private life. Maybe you don’t your trading to be a struggle but an exciting challenge.
How to do it?
What should you do to become a stress free trader? It depends on the reason of your stress.
Reason 1. You risk too much.
You must accept that you may lose all your money. If you are a good trader then probability of this is low. But it always exists.
If you risk too much then there is a good reason for you to be stressed. You may lose savings which you need for something else. Or maybe you took a debt and if you blow your account then you may have a real problems.
Solution: Decrease your trading account. Risk only money that you can lose.
Reason 2. You treat trading as the only chance to quit your job or other situation that you hate.
You are worried that if you don’t make money on Forex then your life will never be as you want to be. But you don’t control the markets so you are stressed because you think that you don’t control your life.
Solution: Focus on things which you can control and which may change the level of your life. Accept your job, accept that you may have it for some time. If you really hate your job find something else which may be OK for you.
Reason 3. You don’t accept that you sometimes lose.
You very much don’t want to lose. But everybody sometimes do it. So you also sometimes lose. In effect you are stressed because you think that you don’t control your life.
Solution: Accept that you will sometimes lose. Treat your losses as something that gets you closer to your profits.
Reason 4. You gave yourself a task to make X dollars in a trading profits in this year/month/week.
On Forex and other markets you do not strictly control your profits. Even if you have a profitable strategy then you may have a losing month. You can’t be sure how much you will earn. So if you gave yourself a task to make X dollars then you have a goal which is beyond your control.
Solution: Accept that you can’t plan to make X dollars in a given time. Focus on following your profitable plan and profits will appear anyway.