Biggest Emotional Challenges In Day Trading

Day trading is fraught with emotional challenges.

And it is these emotional challenges which stand in the way of us being successful day traders, because day trading requires discipline, patience and consistency…and emotions are the antithesis of all these elements.

And this is one reason why it is often said that robots make the best traders, because they have no emotions whatsoever.

There is no place for emotions in day trading.

Based on my personal experience, here are the biggest emotional challenges in day trading:

Scenario	Inner Dialogue
Having a few losses in a row despite following your strategy perfectly.	“What is wrong here? Do I need to tweak my strategy?”
Seeing that you are overall red for the day.	“I hate knowing I’m down for the day. I want to at least break even!”
Getting marginally stopped out, only to see the trade go massively green once again.	“I shouldn’t have placed the stop-loss there! I should have let the trade run a bit longer, then I would have won the trade!”
Choosing not to enter into a trade because it did not fit your setup, then seeing the price skyrocket.	“Why are these trades always so profitable when I’m not in them?? Is there something wrong with my setup?”
Not taking profits when you could have done so, only to eventually lose those profits completely.	“I should have at least cashed out some profits while I could!”
Not being able to find enough good setups in a day.	“I should be trading more often so I can increase my overall profits! Why are the good setups so hard to come by?”

Trust me, these things happen to me all the time and I am still learning to deal with my emotions when day trading.

Not easy.