The Market is Against Me

Is the Stock Markets Ever Against you? No, the market is never against you. Trade the markets, you trade against yourself. As a trader, do you ever get the feeling that the market is ever against you? When I trade the stock markets often, sometimes I start to personify the markets. This happens when I’ve had either a string of losses or a string or profitable trades. When almost all of my trades have been profitable - one after another you begin to feel confident. The market is your best buddy. The market is on your side. You are very confident... and are prone to mistakes. Then your string of trading losses are piling up. The market has become your worst enemy. The market is against you.

Is the market ever against you? No, of course not. The market has no mentality other than the herd mentality of all the investors, traders and institutions in the stock market. Personifying objects that have no soul is just another human quirk. Just like kids having an imaginary friend or that imaginary friend Tom Hanks created an imaginary friend on "Cast Away" (Wilson!) traders can also create a personality out of the markets. But to succeed in trading, you must have a professional relationship with the markets. There must be that distance that doctors have with their patients. They have a type of impartiality, in order for the professionals to keep level-headed when making tough decisions. And like them, the professional trader must not personify and become intimate with the markets. The market is never against me. It is me that is against myself.