Why I had to fire a client. (Part 2)

You can read the first part here. Just to recap, a client was struggling, I told her to take a break.

Break and being smaller.

My advice was to come back and trade smaller. I have found that after struggling for awhile it becomes a money issue. It transitions from a vision/market issue to a money issue. I asked her to trade smaller for a few reasons. If it is not about the money she would be willing to trade smaller. It is a test, different problem needs to be handled a different way. The second reason is because if the problem cannot be worked out immediately it is less costly.

The second day is always worse.

Part of the process I use/used to get over my fear of public speaking is to fail in the first sentence. Say something ridiculous or make a joke about myself or both. I do this because failing is always worse in my head then it is in reality. I am capable of speaking, for the most part, but that initial fear and anxiety effects my sleep and life. With public speaking the most I can lose is someone thinks I am idiot and honestly I don’t care. When a trader has their worst day ever, they think wow “this is not as bad as I thought it would be”.

A different type of failure.

I will never be able to prevent a loss. I can control the amplitude of the loss but that is all. How I handle fear of failure in the market is different than for speaking. Having the attitude of “this is not as bad as I thought it would be” after taking a big or prolonged loss will take you out of the business. Your worst day will be followed by THE worst day. The difference between speaking and trading is that if I do everything right I am only guaranteed to be successful at speaking.

Not listening.

I give her some space and check back in a few days. She continues to lose. She went back to her old habits. Trading larger than she should be when she is having trouble. Finding the right trades to take but because she is expecting everything to be a loser she is not able to capitalize on the risk she is taking. On her losing days she is not losing more than a $1-$2 a mini but with commission and other costs the losses add up. Her rare winning days are being eaten up by her small loses. I tell her to take some more time off.

Lulling you to sleep.

What happens in a long string of losses is that you are puttering along and then the big loss comes. The market always makes you pay for your mistakes. We rarely listen before it is too late. It eventually causes an emergency. The amount of money you think you’ve lost is significantly more than the amount you have lost. Check your statement every night no matter how painful it is.

Taking another break.

She takes another break. And gets back into the same habit and pattern. She is doing the same thing getting the same results. The market and her mindset have not changed. My frustration is starting to reach a boiling point. You can’t help someone who has a different goal.

To Be Continued…

We would really appreciate your feedback, if you like, hate, or think we are full of crap. Please leave a comment, a voice mail (312) 725-9121, email info @ traderhabits (dot) com or twitter
Subscribe to MyTradingNetwork.com/blog by Email