I’ve been working with my wife’s psychological problems when it comes to trading losses and her temper when I finally figured out what the problem was. When your friends find out that you’re a day trader, many will think that you’re just a gambler and you will do everything that you can think of to persuade them that Day Trading is not gambling. As your new career in trading goes along, you will continue this false belief, unknowingly, and harming your trading psychi. If trading is not gambling, then you should be able to eventually perfect your trading and never have a loss. We know that even the best traders have losses but if you deny the fact that you’re gambling, then you will be unable to accept a loss as just a losing trade. As my wife has done on many occasions, she has felt that she did something wrong and that there was something wrong with her method. At times a feeling of pure frustration would overcome her as she would beat on her trading desk and eventually leading to tears.
Watching my wifes frustrations along with my own feelings, at times, had me working on a solution for some time now. Since I live here in Las Vegas and have met a few professional poker plays, this got me thinking that I’ve never seen a gambler start pounding on the table over a losing hand nor have I ever seen someone at the race track betting on the pony’s have a complete meltdown because their horse lost the last race. I realized the reason why gamblers don’t pitch a fit over losing is because they expect to lose. Everyone knows that the odds are in favor of the Casino and gamblers know that and the good ones are able to even out the odds or at times swing the odds in their favor.
I had to ask my wife when she plays Black Jack, does she bang on the table and yell and scream if she has a losing hand? The answer was no, then I asked why do you pitch a fit on a losing trade? She could not answer, you see, we both believed that trading was not gambling which then meant that you must have done something wrong on that last losing trade, you’re no good, you’re not focused, you’re never going to get this down, etc, etc, etc. As soon as I pointed out to my wife that we really are gamblers and that it is our job to swing the odds in our favor, like the Casino; now her trading has improved immensely. Her temper is no longer a problem, no more tears, she’s just became a true professional trader. So the next time someone accuses you of gambling just say, “I happen to be the casino owner”….