{"id":11612,"date":"2011-05-16T19:35:24","date_gmt":"2011-05-16T23:35:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/?p=11612"},"modified":"2013-02-25T10:24:10","modified_gmt":"2013-02-25T15:24:10","slug":"katzs-corner-how-do-i-pull-the-trigger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/katzs-corner-how-do-i-pull-the-trigger","title":{"rendered":"Katz&#8217;s Corner: How Do I Pull the Trigger?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/banner_psychology1.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11613\" title=\"banner_psychology\" src=\"http:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/banner_psychology1.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"498\" height=\"324\" srcset=\"\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/banner_psychology1.gif 711w, \/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/banner_psychology1-300x195.gif 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 498px) 100vw, 498px\" \/><\/a>I sent this question from an SMB reader to Dr. Jonathan F. Katz, performance coach, at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hpa3.com\/jon.htm\">High Performance Associates<\/a>.<br \/>\n&#8212;&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m sending this message as I am in need of help with regard to a specific issue that I&#8217;m currently experiencing. I have studied the market vigorously every day for the past two years. I&#8217;ve read and studied many books on topics such as distressed Graham-style investing, statistical\/merger\/futures\/and volatility arbitrage, level-two-data day trading, technical analysis, macro analysis futures investing, algorithmic and HFT trading, etc. (I&#8217;ve also read <em>One Good Trade<\/em>, which I was very impressed with).<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve read countless books, listened to audio books, watched seminars, read articles, and have been tracking the market every single day. I have had great conviction about where a stock, future, or option would go next on countless occasions. My problem is, for lack of a better phrase, I&#8217;m scared of losing my money and thus I struggle to trade at all. I cannot \u201cpull the trigger\u201d. I&#8217;ve been right far more times than I have been wrong and I am hoping that you may provide any useful insights that may help me develop the required mind-state to \u201cpull the trigger\u201d. I do know how to utilize stop losses, set up hedged trades, and I&#8217;m familiar with a few mathematical equations for optimal trading sizes, including formulas such as the Kelly Criterion. Trading and investing is my passion, since I spend every waking hour studying the market, but I simply cannot \u201cpull the trigger\u201d. If you have any tips I am all ears.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dr. Jonathan F. Katz of High Performance Associates Responds<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There is good news and bad news in responding to this inquiry. The good news is that this is a common issue in the world of high performance athletics and trading, namely, an overemphasis on technique, knowledge and content\/information at the expense of the emotional\/psychological components necessary for successful performance. The bad news is that usually athletes\/traders are much more comfortable studying the &#8220;Xs and Os&#8221; of their performance (the technical\/strategic part of the &#8220;game&#8221;) than they are addressing, analyzing, and discussing their own psychological makeup, tendencies, personality styles, etc.<\/p>\n<p>In order to overcome your fears associated with &#8220;pulling the trigger&#8221;, you must spend as much or more time reading about the psychology of trading and high performance, and perhaps consulting with a performance psychologist to more specifically address your individual issues and fears which are getting in the way of making this career transition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I sent this question from an SMB reader to Dr. Jonathan F. Katz, performance coach, at High Performance Associates. &#8212;&#8211; I&#8217;m sending this message as I am in need of help with regard to a specific issue that I&#8217;m currently experiencing. I have studied the market vigorously every day for the past two years. I&#8217;ve read and studied many books &#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/katzs-corner-how-do-i-pull-the-trigger\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":11613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1789,455],"tags":[1799,81,1354,4685,1499,1770],"class_list":["post-11612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-katzs-korner","category-trading_psychology","tag-pulling-the-trigger","tag-smb-training","tag-trading-coach","tag-trading-lesson","tag-trading-performance","tag-trading-psychologist"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Katz&#039;s Corner: How Do I Pull the Trigger? | SMB Training<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/katzs-corner-how-do-i-pull-the-trigger\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Katz&#039;s Corner: How Do I Pull the Trigger? | SMB Training\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I sent this question from an SMB reader to Dr. Jonathan F. Katz, performance coach, at High Performance Associates. &#8212;&#8211; I&#8217;m sending this message as I am in need of help with regard to a specific issue that I&#8217;m currently experiencing. I have studied the market vigorously every day for the past two years. I&#8217;ve read and studied many books ... 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