Stop Blaming, Start Trading

As traders—and humans in general—we have a tendency to blame the markets when trades don’t go our way. This post explores the ‘blame game’ and how to overcome it. If this sounds interesting to you, please read on to learn more.

What is Blaming and Why do We do It?

In simple terms, blaming is when we point the finger at something else to avoid feeling like we’ve failed or made a mistake. It’s something that comes naturally to us, as humans, to protect our feelings.

We don’t like losing. When we lose, it hurts our feelings, our wallet, our confidence and our ego. In order to stop that hurt, we normally look for a way to deflect it. So instead of looking at what really happened, it is much easier to blame and say things, like:

• “The market is rigged.”

• “Someone or something distracted me”

• “My stop was hunted.”

• “That news event came out of nowhere.”

Basically, blaming is just a “shield” to protect our ego. We blame so that we don’t have to admit that we made a mistake or that our plan didn’t work.

The Consequences of Blaming:

Blaming results in the following:

• It puts you in a negative state, this is not a good position to trade off of.
• It makes you out to be the victim which makes you feel like the world (market) is out to get you. How can you trade when you feel something is out to get you?
• Chances that you’ll journal all your trades will be slim because you will feel like “its not worth it”.
• As long as you play the blame game, you’ll will struggle to grow as a trader because of your negative mindset. Blaming makes you look outside for your problems while your problems are on the inside.

In my opinion, blaming has no benefit to you or your trading. It puts you in a negative loop that repeats again and again, and the longer you stay in it, the harder it is to get out of.

An Alternative to Blaming:

First and foremost, you have to catch yourself when you start blaming something or someone. To do this, you have to find a way to become more self-aware; practicing mindfulness is a great place to start. With that said, you can consider the following:

1. Learn to take responsibility. After all, in the end, whether a trade works out or not, you are the one who makes the final decision to take it. Admit, at the very least, that you might be part of whatever problem you are experiencing.
2. If you take responsibility, there is often a lesson to be learned. There won’t always be a lesson, because sometimes you can do everything right and the trade might still end up a loser. But if you do find one, take the necessary steps to get better.
3. Track all your trades (Journal). Doing this faithfully ensures continuous improvement, as long as you adopt a long-term mindset.
4. Learn to Focus on your process and not on individual outcomes.
5. Always ask: “How is blaming going to benefit me and my trading here?”

Finally:

If you want to get better at trading, you will have to learn to start rolling with the punches. Things are going to go wrong, and you will have losses—the sooner you accept this and stop blaming, the sooner you’ll start improving.

Thanks so much for reading. I trust you enjoyed this post. Goodluck with your trading.

Thanks and Regards,

Trading SOS SOS