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Trading Tip #12 – Had A Bad Trade? Handle It Like A Bad Golf Shot.

Trading Tip #12 – Had a Bad Trade? Handle it Like a Bad Golf Shot.

One issue that holds back most new traders, and separates the good traders from the great traders, is the ability to move forward after a bad trade. How many times have you heard someone say, “I lost money the market when it went the wrong way. I should not have listened to my broker. This guy said the stock would go up I am so pissed I listened to him, I actually meant to be long”?

As a trader, you need to own your trades. No one has a gun to your head to put on a trade. It is nobody else’s fault if you lose money. When you are out talking to your friends about a good trade, do you then give credit to someone else? No, of course not. At those times, you are the superstar.

The bottom line is this – You made the trade, and it was wrong. It is not a big deal, and you need to just get over it and focus on your next trade. Sitting there being upset and thinking about it over and over will not get you the money back and cost your more in the future . Lets use golf as the example for this blog post . You ‘re at the first tee getting set to tee off and bam you hook it out of bounds . So you put another ball down are you going to let that screw up the rest of your day?

Trust me I know all about bad shots in golf as a “C” player I am not good, but I am fun to play with since I am fast and really feel any day out on the course is a good day. I remember when I was in the “C flight” championship round and I was down 9 holes going into the last round on the second day. My caddy looked at me and said, ‘Looks like it is over.’ I looked at him and said, ‘It is not over until the fu##ing bell rings. Let’s take it one shot at a time.’

The guy I was playing against was getting pissed off at every shot. I could see he was not handling the pressure well. I know he had set up a victory party for that night even before he had won. The pressure was getting to him. Going into the 18th hole, we were tied, and I had a 15-foot put with a huge up left to right break, but he was just 2 feet from the hole. My caddy walked up the hill and said, ‘Just hit it to my feet.’ His feet were about 10 feet to the left of the hole. I hit the ball; it rolled up the hill, then starts turning right, then rolls and drops right into the cup! Everyone on the 18th went nuts. My opponent, who was the guy I played with most weekends, stood over his ball. I could see he was thinking of all his screwed up shots and was standing over the ball way too long. He pulls the putter back, and I could see his arms stiffen up and he hits the ball 3 inches to the left and a foot past it. The pro said while giving out the awards that it was the best come back in the clubs history or it the biggest melt down he had ever seen . I like to think of it as the best come back ever (a trader’s ego).

The moral to the story? When you trade, treat each trade as a new trade. The one before – winner or loser – doesn’t matter anymore. No matter what, always move forward and reset, reload and trade.

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