Emotions

​Letting your emotions influence your trading decisions is virtually a guarantee that you will lose as a trader. If you are going to survive as a trader you have to bring your emotions under control. If you find that your emotions are swinging up and down as you trade, you have to confront the resulting feelings and deal with them. No one can do this but you.

One way to keep emotions under control is to make sure you enter every trade with a clearly defined plan so that there are no emotions involved. Enter a trade in accordance with your trading plan, set a protective stop, and if you get stopped out, don't berate yourself, just look for another trade, and while you're looking keep in mind that your search can be in some other market, or time frame—you do not have to marry any market or time frame.

Keep your poise and composure. Do not allow trades to frustrate you. If you take the time to work out clear trading plans, you can keep your emotions out of the picture, and trade objectively and logically.