|
|
|
|
|
|
|
make no trades at all. So, I give myself the freedom to turn away from the quotes and other data any time I wish. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I spend time in the evening reading online market analysis and company-related news, managing my portfolio, writing and answering e-mail, researching stocks, and reading and sometimes posting to online stock-related bulletin boards. Off-line, I read a number of market-related magazines that I subscribe to, in addition to psychological journals. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
When unsuspecting people find out that I watch the market so closely, spending ungodly amounts of time looking at streaming quotes, they look at me incredulously. Some ask why I spend so much time watching quotes flickering by and doing research when I don't really do all that much trading. I answer, "So I can manage my portfolio skillfully." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
But the truth is that I began doing it because I was interested in knowing more about this whole new game of online investing. And when I become really interested in something, I tend to thoroughly explore it. My interest led to the discovery that there were many important psychological and emotional issues related to this new technology of investing that no one had as yet discussed. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Those who seem best able to reframe trading into more of a game to be won or lost, without getting so caught up in the fear or greed attached to money, come in a few different forms. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
One group that appears to be successful at going beyond overconcern with actual dollar amounts are institutional money managers, trading large blocks of stock for mutual funds and other accounts. This group would include all those professionals who trade for their own account as well as institutional accounts; floor traders; market makers; and specialists. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Professionals who daily trade tremendous amounts of money know how to pull the trigger without a lot of apprehension. If they don't, they simply won't last doing this kind of work. They get comfortable with the rhythms of the market and learn to trust their instincts so that they may "play the market rather than the market playing them." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
These money managers trading for large funds are usually not risking their own capital. If they lose a few hundred thousand dollars in a bad trade, it is not coming from their own personal accounts. |
|
|
|
|
|