How Emotionally Tough Are You?

Behavioral assessments like the Big 5 Tests give you helpful insights into how emotionally stable you are. The lower you score on the neuroticism score, the more mentally tough you are and the better a trader you can be. Because what that means is that even under pressure you are able to stay focused and think rationally (which is the definition of mental toughness) rather than drawing a mental blank and being swept away by all kinds of impulsive trading.

You see, the truth is, everyone gets nervous, frustrated, angry, and all those things. No matter how small or big a trader you are, everyone has the same issues. The key here is: how quickly can you regulate your emotions and get back to being even-keeled? In other words, how emotionally tough are you?

The £10,000 Lesson

This is the question I asked a trader this morning whom I had a discovery chat with. As he shared with me what challenges he faces in trading, he actually shared all kinds of reasons and explanations why he had failed one prop trading challenge after another. It turns out that so far he has already spent about £10,000 on various challenges over the past 2 years. Do not be surprised. This is actually quite common.

We went through his trading stats together and I said to him: "I can see that you have high aspirations, mostly going for $100,000+ challenges, and yet you keep making the same emotionally driven mistake over and over again, failing the challenges over and over again. And rather than looking for a way to grow out of this, you are giving me all kinds of reasons why you are staying stuck."

You can imagine how frustrated he felt.

Extraordinary vs Normal

What is normal is to throw a fit, to make excuses, to be really disappointed in yourself, and to show a lot of frustration and anger. The way in which you learn to hold up under pressure is to take a day like today, look at it as a gift, as an opportunity to grow, and to learn how to deal with any trading mistakes in a powerful way, with the most constructive and resilient energy.

I doubt you want to spend all the time, money, and energy into building your trading career to be just average. You say you want to be extraordinary, and that means you cannot be normal.

Managing Emotions is a Learned Skill

If you have not done so yet, do a Big 5 Assessment. They are freely available on the internet and see where you are at on the neuroticism scale. If you score high in neuroticism, do not despair. Managing your emotions is merely a learned skill, and all it means is that no one has taught you that skill yet.