How do you cope with a bad trading day?

[jsd]

this forum is excellent for people who are Exposed to trading it enables real individuals to communicate with others about real emotions, personally none of my friends,family previous work colleagues are interested/ or drawn to trading (lucky sods) because for me the beginning was painful emotionally some 7 years back now, looking at it it would of been helpful if i could of talked to someone to share perhaps the common feeling of pain that a person will likely experience, Isolation its called and it can be an issue , should be less so now the internet medium is probably becomming the best? medium to access deep level conversation, providing people are honest. over time I stopped looking outside and focused on the inside, whats driving me to do the things i do etc.
I dont have a trading mentor but would of loved to have one when starting out. (non paid, master to student type mentor)
trading is an illusion , the greatest on the planet, an amazing magical trick , but to perform that simple trick I personally beleive we have to become great magicians, that takes time, years, to then be able to execute the perfect trick of trading.
I could discuss trading forever probably.... its a funny old game....ramble ramble....

 

[jsd]

adrianallen.. what did you go through ?

 

[bottomdollar]

I go red in the face and erupt like a volcano and put my foot through the screen!!! HAHAHA! Just kidding!
When I started trading for the first time I used to feel angry when I lost the market.. I'd blame the market and then think of what I could have bought with the money I'd lost! This would just antagonise me more and in the end I found that I then started closing in on small gains (for fear of losing.. so you just grab small amounts). However, it's about cutting short your losses and letting your winners run as I'd found out after still consistently losing.. (which would just annoy me more).
Anyway, to cut a long story short.. to be able to put on large positions and wider stops you need confidence (else you just crap yourself when you lose)... I've got a little confidence so I just take my losses and think nothing of it.. however, I still find that I can get a bit down if I have a string of losers and/or a big loss.. but these days.. if I'm cautious I can usually prevent that from happening!