Author: ferb

Compiled by: Yuliya, PANews

Editor's Note: In the end, trading isn't about intelligence, but about the resilience of your nervous system. This article delves into the often-overlooked yet crucial field of trading psychology. Behind the pursuit of profits, protecting your mental health and trading rhythm are key to long-term survival in this brutal market. Below is a translated excerpt:

Your decisions, your trades, your life.

You can listen to the opinions of a hundred people, but ultimately, the boundaries of your understanding determine your ability to execute. Blindly copying the decisions of people you trust might work occasionally, but if you never truly agree with the process, you will either sell prematurely or panic and exit the market as soon as signs of loss appear.

You, your life, your experiences—all of these will be reflected in your trading. A person burdened with debt is destined to be unable to maintain the same unwavering conviction as someone who is financially free. Your upbringing will alter your risk tolerance, your emotions, your patience, and even your ability to weather periods of capital drawdown.

I gradually realized that trading psychology is one of the least discussed topics in the entire industry.

Everyone was cheering for the winner.

But no one talks about what they experienced when they were losing money.

No one recounted those sleepless nights, the utter emotional breakdown, the profound despair, or just how badly things had deteriorated before the rebound.

Because this game is far more than just the numbers jumping on the screen.

It can elevate you to the clouds, or plunge you into the abyss.

I can relate to this deeply because I've been through all of this myself.

I cried for ten consecutive nights, and even after I made $50,000 the next day, the tears still wouldn't stop.

It was then that I realized a dangerous sign:

When your trading performance gets so bad that it's no longer about making money.

It evolved into a psychological battle for survival.

Every trader enters the market with hope.

Frankly, hope is perhaps the reason most of us are here. It's the feeling that maybe one trade, one cycle, one opportunity could completely change our lives.

At first, hope was beautiful.

It propels you forward.

It empowers you to dream bigger dreams.

It provides you with a continuous source of energy.

But eventually, the cycle began.

Small profit.

A small loss.

My first mistake.

This is the first time I've missed out on a major market rally.

You begin to realize how quickly the market is changing, and suddenly your perception of risk is overturned. You become afraid of missing out on opportunities, afraid of being left far behind while others are making fortunes that change their lives.

This fear slowly turned into impulse.

Transactions are becoming more frequent.

Position switching became more hasty.

Patience is dwindling.

My thinking is becoming increasingly superficial.

Ultimately, you entered a period of losses.

The period of consecutive losses is getting longer and longer.

Your account assets shrank by 30%, then 50%, or even more.

You start lowering your trading standards just to make yourself feel like you're still involved.

This is precisely when trading becomes extremely dangerous on a psychological level.

Because after experiencing a series of losses, your nervous system will change.

Most people believe that trading is a contest of intelligence.

Actually, that's not the case.

This contest is largely a battle of physiological and chemical reactions.

Dopamine gives you pleasure.

Cortisol, on the other hand, makes you deeply addicted and unable to extricate yourself.

Humans are inherently ill-suited to living under prolonged high pressure. Cortisol exists to help us survive brief moments of danger. Thousands of years ago, it helped humans evade wild animals, survive disasters, and remain alert in critical moments.

However, the transaction completely destroyed this mechanism.

Modern traders feel stressed when they wake up, when they go to sleep, when they eat, and even when they're scrolling through their phones.

Even when you look away from the candlestick chart, your nervous system never truly relaxes.

Your brain begins to operate in a long-term "survival mode".

Cortisol changes you slowly like that.

Your sleep quality is getting worse and worse.

Your decision-making is highly emotional.

Your patience has completely vanished.

Even a small loss can feel like a devastating disaster.

You stop using logic to deal with things and start reacting impulsively.

The scariest thing is that you can hardly detect these changes happening.

Because dopamine can occasionally give you just the right amount of sweetness, making you unable to break out of this vicious cycle.

After weeks of agonizing waiting, a successful trade can suddenly make you feel reborn.

As a result, your brain begins to associate pain with reward.

This is why many traders, even when they are exhausted, still cannot stop trading.

It's not because they're stupid.

It's not because they are weak.

Rather, it's because they are completely trapped, both physically and emotionally.

The market has become the bear you're chasing in the forest, but unlike our ancestors, after the chase, your body can never return to a safe state.

Finally, something terrible happened:

You've started to get used to losses.

A 30% drawdown will no longer shock you.

Sleep deprivation has become a daily occurrence.

Anxiety has become the underlying characteristic of your personality.

You no longer trade to win; you start trading simply to regain a bit of a feel for it.

The green, rising candlestick pattern became your source of comfort.

A red downtrend candlestick pattern triggers your self-loathing.

Your profit and loss figures begin to determine whether you deserve inner peace today.

At that very moment, trading quietly evolved into an addiction.

Perhaps the cruelest truth about trading is this:

Sometimes, the most powerful move a trader can make is to do nothing.

Do not engage in retaliatory transactions.

Do not add funds in an attempt to recover this month's losses.

Don't force yourself to seek trading opportunities in pursuit of dopamine stimulation.

Instead of staring at charts for 16 hours straight, desperately hoping for a miracle.

It's just a stop.

The pause should be long enough to allow you to ask yourself a soul-searching question:

Do you still love this game?

Or are you simply trapped in a cage woven from stress, dopamine, cortisol, and the will to survive?

Because the market will always exist.

New narratives will always emerge.

New opportunities will always arise.

A new cycle will always begin.

However, if you destroy yourself mentally in the process of blindly chasing every opportunity, then when a real opportunity finally arrives, you will have no capital left to participate.

I sincerely believe that the top traders in the market are not necessarily the smartest people.

They are simply those who have mentally persevered long enough to remain at the poker table.

And perhaps the most chilling realization among these is:

"You've never really chased money."

What you're chasing is merely liberation.