Some of the most common emotions traders experience include fear, nervousness, conviction, excitement, greed, and overconfidence.
Fear/Nervousness
A common cause of fear is trading too big. Trading with improper size magnifies volatility unnecessarily and causes you to make mistakes you normally wouldn’t make if you weren’t under the stress of risking larger losses than normal.
Another culprit for fear (or nervousness) is you are in the ‘wrong’ trade, meaning one that doesn’t fit your trading plan.
Conviction/Excitement
Conviction and excitement are key emotions you’ll want to feed off, and you should feel these in every trade you enter. Conviction is the final piece of any good trade, and if you don’t have a level of excitement or conviction then there is a good chance you are not in the ‘right’ trade for you.
By ‘right’ we mean the correct trade according to your trading plan. Good trades can be losers just as bad trades can be winners. The idea is to keep yourself winning and losing on only good trades. Making sure you have a conviction on trade will help ensure this.
Greed/Overconfidence
If you find yourself only wanting to take trades that you deem as possible big winners, you could be getting greedy. Your greed may have been the result of doing well, but if you aren’t careful you may slip and end up in a drawdown.
Always check that you are using proper trade mechanics (i.e. sticking to stops, targets, good risk/management, good trade set-ups). Sloppy trading as a result of overconfidence can end a strong run.
Learn more about managing greed and fear while trading.
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