Maintaining Emotional Control When the Money is Real

People (including traders) like to believe that they are rational beings who have to deal with emotions.

-  Rande Howell

And they want to deal with them by pushing them away or pretending they are not there. The opposite is actually true. You are an emotional being who rationalizes what the Emotional Brain has already decided. Nowhere is this more evident than in the transition from paper trading (where risk is not real) to live trading (where risk becomes palpable).

Managing the transition from paper trading to live trading is one of the most challenging moments in a trader's evolution. Few do it well. But why? On the surface, it looks so straightforward (you just leave your emotions at the door, right?). The logic goes like this: You learn on paper to get competent in trading - so you don't hurt yourself. While you are on the learning curve and making the mistakes that inexperienced traders make, it doesn't cost you dearly. Seems logical. It's like playing a video game, where, when you get killed - you just hit the reset button, and all is good again. It was just a game, after all. And you're learning how to get good at it. You're learning the knowledge skills you need to play the real game, so that when you do go live - you are ready.

Then, as you gain the competency in whatever system you are learning, you can begin to risk capital AFTER YOU KNOW HOW TO TRADE. You conserve your capital until you have the skill sets that is required when trading live. This logic makes sense until you try to do it. What typically happens is that the trader's mind gets hijacked when the money becomes real, and he takes losses.