Learn how to unravel the psychological barriers to success in our latest slideshare "Trading Psychology- 4 most common biases to avoid"

1. Trading Psychology
4 Most Common Biases to Avoid

2. Me against myself
• When you start trading you expect to pitch yourself against the markets. But few
peopleare aware that they are also competing against themselves. We’re human
which has a lot of benefits when trading. However, it also means that we have to
contend with emotions and our ego.
• You can never remove emotion from trading but you can learn to identify your
strengths and weaknesses and pick a trading style that suits you.
• However, don’t think that using robots or automated trading is a better replacement
than your own knowledgeand instincts. Education and self-control are the lynch pins
to becoming successful in themarkets.

3. 4 Psychological Biases
4 psychological biases that may be affecting your trading results and what you can do to
overcomethem
• Overconfidence bias
• Anchoring bias
• Confirmation bias
• Loss aversion bias

4. Overconfidence bias
Think you’ve got the markets figured out?
You’ve read every book and think there is nothing more to learn – you just need to trade and you’ll
make money. If this soundslike you then you may be suffering from an overconfidence bias.
What could go wrong?
Overconfidence in trading may lead to
over-trading. This is when you trade
frequently or place very large trades
trying to make it big. You end up
risking too much on one trade that
may go against you.
Does this sound like you?
“I’ve just been stopped out of this deal,
but I can’t believe it’s gone bad so I’ll
open another one”. Or: “I’m going to
top up this trade with more money as I
FEEL this is the one!”
Overcome Your Bias.
Setting strict riskmanagement rules
that lay out your entry, exit and how
much you invest (or are willing to lose)
is key to overcoming this bias. Ensure
to review your trading strategies and
take breaks from trading.

5. What to watch for:
You know you’ve fallen victim to anchoring bias when you
convince yourself that a particular currency or market’s
strength will continue even when other fundamentalfactors
are pointing to the contrary. You become emotionally
attached to a particular market or position and trade
against the new trend.
Overcome Your Bias:
Get a new perspective on your trading. For example if you
normally look at hourly charts, take a look at daily or
weekly ones to get a macro view on support and
resistance levels – also look at shorter term charts to look
for reversals.
Anchoring bias
Have you ever lost money by holding onto a trend that has clearly ended?
Then you could be suffering from an anchoring bias – the belief that the future is going to be
similar to the present.

6. Confirmation Bias
You know you’ve fallen victim to confirmation bias if you only look for information that confirms
your existing beliefs. For example, if you believe Gold is going to go up, you will look for the news
and indicators supportyour belief.
Over coming confirmation bias:
There are a number of strategies you could employ to ensure you don’t fall prey to this bias:
After doing these you might re-asses your
original belief or you might strengthen it –
at least you’ll know you’ve done your due
diligence.
1. Try to find information that disproves your theory – then
compare it to the information you find that supports it and make
a more informed decision.
2. Share your theory with others on forums and look for diverse
perspectives that give you a broader look at what’s going on.
Just talking about your theory out loud can give you a better
perspective.

7. Loss aversion Bias
No one likes to lose. And the fear of loss may be a greater motivator than greed.
Have you ever held onto a losing trade hoping it will turn-around even though the indicators don’t
support your view? Then you might be afraid of taking on a loss.
All traders lose:
It’s unrealistic to think that all your trades will come out
well. All traders lose – they key is to lose less than you
win.
Acceptance:
If you find it difficult to accept losing trades then make
sure you set a strict riskmanagement plan than you
adhere to. The plan should include how many open
positions you will allow yourself at any one time and
how much of your balance you will risk on any one
trade. These strategies willhelp you spread your risk
across your portfolio.

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