[Education] Why Your Feelings Are Eating Your Profits
Have you ever experienced a panic attack while trading? The panic when your trade goes into drawdown. That strong urge to move your stop loss. The hope that the market will turn in your favor?
I've been there. I’ve lost over $10,000 because I couldn't control my emotions. Every time I saw my trade go against me, my heart would race. My palms would get sweaty. I'd convince myself that "this time is different" and break every rule in my trading plan.
The worst part? I knew what I was doing was wrong, but I couldn't stop myself.
The Real Problem Isn't Your Strategy
Here's the truth that you don't want to hear. It’s not your trading strategy. It’s you. You can have the most profitable strategy in the world. You can have the holy grail. But if you can't control your emotions, you will still lose money.
Think about it. How many times have you moved your stop loss because you "felt" the market would reverse? How many times did you double down on a losing trade and tell yourself you’re just “averaging down”? How many times have you FOMO’d into a trade? How many times did you cut your winners short because you were afraid of losing your profits?
You're not alone. By doing these, you are costing yourself more than just money. They're stealing your dream. Your road to financial freedom.
The Hidden Cost of Emotional Trading
Let's talk numbers. I bet you don’t realize this when you trade emotionally. A 1% risk per trade can quickly become a 5% loss when you move your stop loss. A winning strategy with 40% win rate becomes unprofitable because you're not letting your winners run. Your account goes deeper into drawdown because you're revenge trading after losses.
I remember one trade where I was supposed to risk 1%, which was $100, on my $10,000 account. The trade went against me, but I was "sure" it would reverse. I moved my stop loss three times. When I finally closed the trade, I had lost $1,500. I lost 15% of my account on one trade.
Why We Can't Stop Being Emotional
Your brain is wired to protect you from danger. When you see your account going into drawdown, your brain treats it as a threat. It triggers your fight-or-flight response, flooding your body with stress hormones. It’s just part of nature. Don’t blame yourself for that.
In this state, you literally can't think clearly. Your prefrontal cortex, the part of your brain responsible for logical thinking, shuts down. This is why you make irrational decisions even though you think that you"know better." You’re wrong.
The Solution: Building Your Trading Psychology
I have good news. Even though you are emotional, you can train your brain to handle trading pressure. Here's how I transformed from an emotional wreck to a consistent trader.
1. Accept that losses are part of trading
Every trade has a random outcome. Trading is a game of probability. In the game of expected value, you do not know whether your next trade will be a winner or loser. But you know that over a large number of trades, you will have an idea of how your trading system will perform.
Treat your losses as business expenses, not personal failures. Every business incur expenses. If you open a restaurant, you have to pay rent, food supply, salary, utilities and renovation. You have to incur these “losses” before you get your revenue and profits. This is the same as trading. Without your losses, you will not have any winners.
2. Write down your trading plan
Write down what exactly you are looking for when you’re trading. For me, I look for an alignment between different timeframes, then look for my entry model once everything is aligned. How will you take the entry? Where is your stop loss placement? What is your profit target? How will you manage your trade? How much will you risk?
Taking Action: Your Next Steps
I want you to do these right now.
1. Start a trading journal
Instead of just recording your statistics, and saving your screenshots, consider recording your emotions before, during and after taking the trades. Take note of any rules you broke due to emotions. What gets tracked gets measured. You will be more mindful when you’re trading emotionally. If you need a copy of my trading journal, you can get it for FREE in my bio.
2. Set strict rules for trade management
As I mentioned above, write down your trading plan. Ensure that your risk management and trade management are written down, so you will not manage your trade based on feelings, but rather on your trading plan.
3. Give yourself permission to be wrong
Each trade is just one data point. Trading is an expected value (EV) game. You will not know the outcome of the next trade. To play the EV game, you have to look long-term. By long-term, I don’t mean 10-20 trades, but 100-200 trades. You can lose 120 trades, but still come out profitable in the end. That’s the power of probability and good risk-to-reward ratio. Learn to focus on following your plan, and not on being right. You can have the perfect entry model, but if a composite man suddenly opens an enormous order against you, you will still experience a loss.Lastly, celebrate when you follow your rules. It doesn’t matter if you win or lose. If you follow your trading rules, it’s a win in my book. If you follow your trading rules, and you have a profitable strategy, it’s just a matter of time when you hit that homerun trade.
The Transformation You Can Expect
You will feel different when you start managing your emotions. Your drawdowns become smaller and more manageable. Your winning trades run longer, increasing your average risk-to-reward ratio. Your stress levels decrease as you don’t care about the outcome of your trades. You only care about trading your plan.
Remember, a profitable trader doesn’t care about eliminating emotions. They want to manage their emotions effectively. Even I still feel fear and greed. The difference is, I don't let my emotions control my decisions.
The choice is yours. You can continue to let emotions eat away at your profits. Or you can take control of your trading psychology today. Which path will you choose?
I've been there. I’ve lost over $10,000 because I couldn't control my emotions. Every time I saw my trade go against me, my heart would race. My palms would get sweaty. I'd convince myself that "this time is different" and break every rule in my trading plan.
The worst part? I knew what I was doing was wrong, but I couldn't stop myself.
The Real Problem Isn't Your Strategy
Here's the truth that you don't want to hear. It’s not your trading strategy. It’s you. You can have the most profitable strategy in the world. You can have the holy grail. But if you can't control your emotions, you will still lose money.
Think about it. How many times have you moved your stop loss because you "felt" the market would reverse? How many times did you double down on a losing trade and tell yourself you’re just “averaging down”? How many times have you FOMO’d into a trade? How many times did you cut your winners short because you were afraid of losing your profits?
You're not alone. By doing these, you are costing yourself more than just money. They're stealing your dream. Your road to financial freedom.
The Hidden Cost of Emotional Trading
Let's talk numbers. I bet you don’t realize this when you trade emotionally. A 1% risk per trade can quickly become a 5% loss when you move your stop loss. A winning strategy with 40% win rate becomes unprofitable because you're not letting your winners run. Your account goes deeper into drawdown because you're revenge trading after losses.
I remember one trade where I was supposed to risk 1%, which was $100, on my $10,000 account. The trade went against me, but I was "sure" it would reverse. I moved my stop loss three times. When I finally closed the trade, I had lost $1,500. I lost 15% of my account on one trade.
Why We Can't Stop Being Emotional
Your brain is wired to protect you from danger. When you see your account going into drawdown, your brain treats it as a threat. It triggers your fight-or-flight response, flooding your body with stress hormones. It’s just part of nature. Don’t blame yourself for that.
In this state, you literally can't think clearly. Your prefrontal cortex, the part of your brain responsible for logical thinking, shuts down. This is why you make irrational decisions even though you think that you"know better." You’re wrong.
The Solution: Building Your Trading Psychology
I have good news. Even though you are emotional, you can train your brain to handle trading pressure. Here's how I transformed from an emotional wreck to a consistent trader.
1. Accept that losses are part of trading
Every trade has a random outcome. Trading is a game of probability. In the game of expected value, you do not know whether your next trade will be a winner or loser. But you know that over a large number of trades, you will have an idea of how your trading system will perform.
Treat your losses as business expenses, not personal failures. Every business incur expenses. If you open a restaurant, you have to pay rent, food supply, salary, utilities and renovation. You have to incur these “losses” before you get your revenue and profits. This is the same as trading. Without your losses, you will not have any winners.
2. Write down your trading plan
Write down what exactly you are looking for when you’re trading. For me, I look for an alignment between different timeframes, then look for my entry model once everything is aligned. How will you take the entry? Where is your stop loss placement? What is your profit target? How will you manage your trade? How much will you risk?
Taking Action: Your Next Steps
I want you to do these right now.
1. Start a trading journal
Instead of just recording your statistics, and saving your screenshots, consider recording your emotions before, during and after taking the trades. Take note of any rules you broke due to emotions. What gets tracked gets measured. You will be more mindful when you’re trading emotionally. If you need a copy of my trading journal, you can get it for FREE in my bio.
2. Set strict rules for trade management
As I mentioned above, write down your trading plan. Ensure that your risk management and trade management are written down, so you will not manage your trade based on feelings, but rather on your trading plan.
3. Give yourself permission to be wrong
Each trade is just one data point. Trading is an expected value (EV) game. You will not know the outcome of the next trade. To play the EV game, you have to look long-term. By long-term, I don’t mean 10-20 trades, but 100-200 trades. You can lose 120 trades, but still come out profitable in the end. That’s the power of probability and good risk-to-reward ratio. Learn to focus on following your plan, and not on being right. You can have the perfect entry model, but if a composite man suddenly opens an enormous order against you, you will still experience a loss.Lastly, celebrate when you follow your rules. It doesn’t matter if you win or lose. If you follow your trading rules, it’s a win in my book. If you follow your trading rules, and you have a profitable strategy, it’s just a matter of time when you hit that homerun trade.
The Transformation You Can Expect
You will feel different when you start managing your emotions. Your drawdowns become smaller and more manageable. Your winning trades run longer, increasing your average risk-to-reward ratio. Your stress levels decrease as you don’t care about the outcome of your trades. You only care about trading your plan.
Remember, a profitable trader doesn’t care about eliminating emotions. They want to manage their emotions effectively. Even I still feel fear and greed. The difference is, I don't let my emotions control my decisions.
The choice is yours. You can continue to let emotions eat away at your profits. Or you can take control of your trading psychology today. Which path will you choose?
Prop Firm Funded Trader
Find out more about me here: linktr.ee/keeleytan
Find out more about me here: linktr.ee/keeleytan
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