If you have ever played poker, you will know the high of going “all in”. Your heart is racing like there’s no tomorrow, and you are hoping and praying that the cards will go your way. It’s the thrill of knowing you can double your money in a few moments and also knowing it can all disappear if things don’t go your way.

This type of excitement should not exist in any form in your trading. If you are a thrill seeker, go skydiving. If you are a gambler, go to a casino. If you are afraid to lose money, open a savings account.

Successful Day traders do not let their emotions interfere with their trading. Too often, we let fear, greed, or pride get in the way.

Fear

Fear will prevent you from making the right trades and make you lose out on immense opportunities. Fear stems from lack of knowledge and proper education. You are afraid because you can’t see that a trade is the right trade since you don’t know what the right trade looks like. Once you acquire the knowledge and training, you can begin to trust your decisions because they are based on facts and not emotion.

Greed

Greed is another emotion we must overcome to be successful. Many beginners experience “beginners luck”, and come out on top on their first few trades. Then they start believing that they should have traded with more money so their profits will be larger. So on the next trade, they trade with a large sum of money and they lose it all. Logic will dictate that they should trade with a smaller amount the next time around since they have less capital now. Unfortunately, humans are not logical creatures. Our greed takes over, and we start believing that if we put in more money, we will make up for the lost amount, and come out on top. Sadly, this cycle can only continue until you are completely out of money. The worst thing that can happen to a beginner trader is to have a successful first trade.

Pride

Pride will take you nowhere fast in day trading. Pride will prevent you from learning. When you feel like you have nothing left to learn, that is when you will start losing money. Pride is the toughest stumbling block to overcome for some because it is an ingrained part of their personality. However, we can all learn from the hugely successful forex traders who still need to research and read to maintain their success.

You can still be happy when trades go your way, and sad when they don’t. However these emotions should not play any part when making your decision for the next trade. Your decisions must be based on logic and facts, not emotions.