Fearless Trading

But in a Weird Way

Fear of Failure

When we talk about trading and fear a few of the usual suspects crop up.

  • Fear of missing out
  • Fear of failure
  • Fear of giving back profits

But here’s one that lurks quietly and no one talks about.

It’s the fear of failure. You might think it doesn’t apply to you but hear me out because this one’s sneaky…

When you first start trading, you’re all confident, bright eyed, and bushy tailed ready to attack the markets. You try something and it doesn’t work. Try something else and that doesn’t work.

Often we have a little voice that says something like “Well I can always do X”

X is usually another strategy or method you perceive to be ‘easier’ than what you are doing now.

Or it could be something like journaling or writing a trading plan. (Shameless plug alert for Trading Plan Pro 😁)

You’re holding off doing X and thinking, well I can always do what successful traders tell me I should do if I need to.

Almost like a safety net.

The Consequences

Here’s the thing… Often we DON’T do those things because we fear the consequences of failure when we do.

Huh? What?

If we believe these to be silver bullets, it can serve us to keep them in reserve.

“I can always do that if what I’m doing right now doesn’t work out”

And so we don’t do X, because we worry what will we do when all the silver bullets haven’t worked. What then? Does that mean you’ve failed?

I believe the best way to approach it is to throw everything you’ve got at trading. Don’t hold back.

Do it all and expect to fail.

But learn from the failures. (Cliched I know)

Then go again. Fail and learn. And again. Again. Again.

Suddenly something will work, and you can nurture and harvest that seed of success into something substantial.

Don’t fear failure. Expect it at first, that takes its power away.