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The objective is to get to the point where I can feel the same playfulness when money is on the line as I do when it isn't. While I can do this reasonably well when things are going my way, it is unquestionably more challenging when the stock is heading in the wrong direction. |
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If you've worked long and hard to accumulate your investing capital, you're not going to find it easy to be lighthearted about money that has taken so much effort to earn. From a psychological standpoint, that's what makes the paradox of the trading game interesting. And especially as it relates to trying to balance fear and greed. We have so much of value riding on the line (and online) and yet we need to act is if we don't. |
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Another way I try to stay balanced while scanning the monitor is to sometimes turn on music or watch a bit of a light-hearted TV show. I want just enough distracting input from other sources to maintain my mental equilibrium so that I don't fall into the black hole of constant score-keeping. In addition, as mentioned earlier, I get up from the computer and take periodic breaks to stretch and refocus my vision and attention. |
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I also use these intended distractions to help ensure I'm not unduly influenced by the talking heads on CNBC, whom I listen to during selected segments and mute the rest of the time. I have not found that distracting myself in these ways gets in the way of attending to the numbers when I need to. |
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I should be clear that my style of trading is not that of scalping fractions of a point with dozens of trades per day. That said, I still spend as much time watching quotes and doing market analysis as would a conscientious day traderand much more than those traders who don't do research. |
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I'm at the computer every morning from 5:30 A.M., one hour before the market opens on the west coast, to market close, unless I'm seeing patients, in which case it's only for five hours in the morning. I conduct my psychotherapy practice at a separate office from my home study. I don't have a computer at my office, for the most part keeping the activities of following the market and writing separate from clinical practice. I do, however, carry a lap top to the office when I may need to respond urgently to e-mail IPO confirmation requests. |
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While I follow the market closely enough to be an active trader, I actually don't do anywhere near the same number of trades as most day or position traders do. Many days go by successively when I |
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