Trading psychology

Biases, emotions, stress, discipline and journaling: what studies actually found.

Overtrading
Trading more than your plan says, often to chase losses or excitement.
Disposition effect
Selling winners too early and holding losers too long.
Confirmation bias on charts
Seeing what you already believe in a chart.
Loss aversion
Losing hurts more than winning feels good, so people treat gains and losses differently.
Revenge trading (after a loss)
Taking extra risk to win back a loss quickly.
House-money and break-even effects
After wins people take more risk; after losses they chase a break-even.
FOMO and attention-grabbing stocks
Buying what everyone is talking about.
Recency bias and extrapolation
Expecting the recent past to keep going.
Gambler's fallacy
Thinking a win is 'due' after a string of losses.
Anchoring
Getting stuck on the first number you saw.
Hindsight bias
'I knew it all along' after the fact.
Illusion of control
Feeling more in control of chance than you are.
Stress, emotions and the body
Trading moves your body chemistry, even for professionals.
Discipline and if-then plans
Deciding in advance what you will do when X happens.
Trading journal
Writing down each trade, why you took it and how you felt.

Further viewing

Videos on trading psychology. External videos are for viewing only: we don't use them as a factual source. All psychology videos.

External video, for viewing onlyThe Japanese Method to Eliminate All Bad Trading Habits
Stick Trader · open on YouTube

External video, for viewing onlyThe 1% Trader Mindset
Stick Trader · open on YouTube

External video, for viewing only7 Trading Habits That Will CHANGE Your Life Forever
Stick Trader · open on YouTube

External video, for viewing onlyStop Chasing the Holy Grail: The Trading Mindset That Brings Peace
Stick Trader · open on YouTube

Education only, not financial advice. No signals. Backtests are hypothetical: real trading can be worse. Past results don't predict future results.