When we are novice traders, we enter into this venue with a healthy amount of trepidation. We would be truly naive and somewhat foolhardy not to have at least some level of anxiety and fear. After all, we are banking quite a bit on being able to learn and grow competent at the trading game. Yet, there is a difference between a healthy amount of learner’s worry and fear based trading. Fear based trading means that you are trading without the benefit of your intelligent thought processes.

Understanding your fear is part of conquering it and decidedly not permitting it to make decisions for you. The other part is learning when your fears are rational and when they are less than rational. All fear has a target, meaning that all your fears have a specific and stated beginning, end, and base. If you grew up so impoverished that you family couldn’t afford Band Aids then you may have the fear that without enough money you will not be safe, not even safe enough to fall down while “playing.”

The most well rounded perceptive traders know that the attitude with which you start your day can mean the difference between success and failure.

“The best traders in the world know that being mentally prepared is absolutely essential to compete in today’s markets. Without a firm understanding of the psychology of trading, even the best stock picker will fail.”

So how do you train your mind to persist, even in the face of increasingly steep challenges? Mark Douglas, renowned trading expert and author, notes, “There is a huge gap between what is possible from the market’s perspective, which is virtually anything, and what is possible from the trader’s personal perspective.” He calls it the “reality gap,” and to be a successful trader, without limited expectations, you must close that gap to take advantage of these abundant opportunities.

Traders face tremendous pressure, stress, and expectations that could crush the ordinary, unprepared individual. By finding approaches to setting trading goals, overcoming slumps, recovering from bad trades and just enjoying the challenge of trading you will have the basic skills you need to become successful at this game. And a game it is. Read all the stock reports, and hands-on trading books you want. Until you master the mental part of the world of online trading, you won’t get anywhere.

How do some of the world’s most successful traders amass millions of dollars? While method undoubtedly accounts largely for trading success, no one approach is used by all. What they do all hold in common, however, is the combination of a well-laid trading plan and the proper mental attitude. The secret has more to do with optimism than with approach. Optimism is a powerful determinant of success. While it may be easy to get discouraged and often natural to feel defeated by a string of bad trades, an optimistic attitude can close your own “reality gap.”

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