Accept The Risk

The best traders not only take the risk, they have also learned to accept and embrace that risk.

There is a huge psychological gap between assuming you are a risk-taker because you put on trades and fully accepting the risks inherent in each trade.When you fully accept the risks, it will have profound implications on your bottom-line performance.The best traders can put on a trade without the slightest bit of hesitation or conflict, and just as freely and without hesitation or conflict, admit it isn't working. They can get out of the trade—even with a loss—and doing so doesn't resonate the slightest bit of emotional discomfort. In other words, the risks inherent in trading do not cause the best traders to lose their discipline, focus, or sense of confidence.


Confidence and fear are contradictory states of mind that both stem from our beliefs and attitudes. To be confident, functioning in an environment where you can easily lose more than you intend to risk, requires absolute trust in yourself. However, you won't be able to achieve that trust until you have trained your mind to override your natural inclination to think in ways that are counterproductive to being a consistently successful trader. Learning how to analyze the market's behavior is simply not the appropriate training. You have two choices: You can try to eliminate risk by learning about as many market variables as possible. Or you can learn how to redefine your trading activities in such a way that you truly accept the risk, and you're no longer afraid.