Bitcoin Forum

To the poll; have emotions influenced your trading decisons before?  I'm curious to see how many if us have fallen for our own mind games. Do not look at it from the lens of now. But think back to the time and try and figure out if it was an panicked choice, or a logical one.

Did you sell while the prices were falling from the ATL because of panic? Did you buy LTC at 30 dollars? Try and differentiate between sound choices and pure emotional speculation. This may be a good thread for people to reflect and see if they are making their trades wisely or not. Although someone's best logical choices might be worse than someone's best emotional choices.

I would trade based on my observation and investigations if I can see that it is doing well I'm sure it can attract a lot of investors but if its not then it wont attract any investors, but I cant see the point of this trade based on emotions?

The way I trade is 60% based on observation and 40% based on gut feel
But some times it's the other way around 60% based on gut feel and 40% based on observation

yeah and that's why i'm not particularly good at it, some time you stay hours analyzing and then the trend shift completely, and fuck you anyway so i just follow my feel

i believe that who is earning the real money, are the same who lead the market, casual dude can not really earn anything no matter how good he is

Kind of.

At least, if I have a bad feeling about a possible trade I won't open a position. I'd rather miss an opportunity than lose actual money.

Once I've opened a position I'll already know what the possible outcomes are, and I'll have a plan for those outcomes, and I'll stick to the plan. I've learned the hard way that making up new plans on the fly is an easy way to lose money - I guess this would be trading off emotions, and it's not profitable! (Well, it's not profitable for me).

I guess emotions could cloud my judgement when I'm analysing and planning, though. That's difficult to avoid completely.

I base my trade on trending, I noticed that every weekend BTC-USD slows down, then it's starts to pick up start of the week, but its not always like that. But most of the time I rely on how I feel, if feel like it's not my day to earn BTC through trading then I don't. I don't like maps or graphs, that's not for me.

that's exactly how i look at it aswell

I've traded based on emotions before. Overall, I've lost roughly around $200 because of that and a previous gambling problem I had (I'm a lot better now) which was also heavily influenced by emotions.

Basically I've learned that it's a bad thing to mix money and emotions. 10/10 would not recommend.

I'm now just buying and holding until 2020 no matter what happens. Hopefully I'll somehow get a profit in the future.

at the very beginning i have used to do emotion based trades. they only weren't that successful. that's when you see that way of trading isn't helping me.

I think most of the traders experienced the downside of emotions – panicking and closing out a trade at the worst possible moment and being too greedy and taking on an excessive amount of risk. For these loses we have to blame our emotions, believing that they made or believe us to trade worse than we should.

Emotions always plays a part in every trade. The experienced traders learn to suppress emotions and base decisions on charts, signals and market developments. Some people just can't be traders because they are too emotional, and some are born successful because of his personal traits.

Everybody trade with emotions, no exceptions. It made me lose a lot of money when I used to trade. It just what it us, I am a human not a machine. Nothing I can do here and thats why I have stopped trading probably.

For example, I just sold all of my ethers 2 days ago, but that was not trading on the emotions because price has fallen even though I was very emotional (pissed as hell). I just don't see this project as serious no more.

A few times I dumped Bitcoins based on emotions and saved myself from losing money because Bitcoin continued crashing like ether did yesterday. Apart from that I mostly lost money by trading based on emotions. Greed and fear got the better of me, and I held at the top and sold at the bottom. They say Making money through trading in a bear market must be much harder than money through trading in a bull market. I might wait until the next bull market starts before I try seriously trading again.

I have traded whenever I was needed money I sold without caring the trend of market.If I think well may be at start I took one or two traded which were truly based on emotions.I have my plan to hold on long term for big prices to reach.

When I feel that it might be good i thin i would follow my intuitions and invest.

I don't trade BTC purely because I don't know I could trust an exchange to keep viable if using a large chunk of money.

About 20 years ago I was an amateur Commodity trader (not a successful one), and emotion got me everytime.  I could be cold and logical with paper trading and kept logs of the trades, but in live trades I couldn't hack it - kept second guessing myself.

If I knew a place to trust for holding money while waiting for the next inter-day trade then I might have a dabble, as I've watched my cold storage value swing wildly without batting an eyelid.  I don't really want the cash, but would be interested in switching in and out of Gold/BTC to park it when not in use.

Nope. I simply look at the market and whether it is the right time to buy or sell. Before Bitcoin trading I have used to trade stocks and there I have done a few trades where my emotions got the best of me.

That's how I know that I won't make the same mistake with Bitcoin. It's a matter of experience that's helping you not to make rookie mistakes.

I would, most of the time my instincts are right and I just have to follow it whenever I do something.

Yes,quite a few time I did trade under influence of the emotions and later on when I became relaxed realized what I did.I always hold 1 BTC it doesn't matter where price goes as this is purely holding for long long period.

Very, very few people can leave emotions behind when it comes to trading. The ones that can are the ones who profit off all the people who aren't ice men.

To be honest,yes sometimes i do trade based on emotions but i never trade big amounts..Usually i trade for fun and see if ny predictions are correct :P
In most cases,my trading strategy is i look at trade history of others and simply buy bitcoins when i think it's the lowest it can go but i lost most of the times so yes emotions are involved.
My advice to others would be if you are not good at trading but still want to practice then trade low amounts and use mind more then emotions :)

yup. 60% of the time. which what made stop doing alt trading in the first place. now I just do it when I'm sure (kind of) that the price will drop/rise.

I'm not sure if the poll was needed. I feel that when I see other people (on these forums, comments on articles, troll box) are excited I have a hard time refraining from excitement. That isn't a problem for me, unless I start making trades in that state of euphoria.

No cant do that I have to investigate first before investing my money.

I have to admit that in the start I did some FOMO buying that I regret now. (luckily, it was not too much)

Currently I have most difficulties with selling some of my coins due to emotional attachments..

Atleast I recognize it and therefore I'm not going to start any daytrading or investing in new coins anymore.

Always.  I love revenge trading.  It makes me a lot of manies.

I have strong holding hands,

very weak buying hands.. I like my coins... I buy coins lol.

Yes, 1-3 times maybe...but I often hold until prices rise

One of the hardest things about being a trader is keeping your emotions in control. The market maker will do everything he can do sway you but if you made a good decision, then don't let short term freak you out.

Of course I do. I trade based of greed, fear and hunches.

1) Hunch - tells me which direction the market will go.
2) Greed - makes me open a position that is too big. Also makes me hold on to a winning position about to turn bad when I should be selling it and moving on.
3) Fear - the fear that I will "loose everything" makes me close my losing position at the worst possible time.

Oh yes, I forgot anger, the most important emotion.

4) Anger - after my trade starts going south, if anger overcomes fear then I capitalize on this emotion to do Revenge Trades, where I use borrowed funds to double down on losing positions.

Yes i bought when the hype was at high points before but oh well thats what you do when you aren't a pro trader.  Im up overall for being in bitcoin and litecoin so looks like i did ok.

I do my Research I don't let emotions take over my decisions about trading, but I know you can't control emotion
sometimes, but I research more often and taking to account a suggestion of other peoples thought about what is
good or bad!  ;D

If you received you pay from signature campaigns or if you received a notice that payment has been credited to your account and you go straight to your favorite trading platform, you are already trading based on emotions because you are excited to invest your earned Bitcoins right?

Yes,quite a few times I did trade which were based on emotions and panic.Now I have learned from my bad decisions and doing better than past but still sometimes it happens because we are driven by emotions most of the times.

Maybe I might trade based on how I feel, I trust my instincts for somethings and it didn't get me wrong and I think I can also applied it when investing.

So, you'll be one of the poor side of the Soros' family then?
 :D

Emotions are almost impossible to supress - after all we are human beigns and not machines.
The trick is to learn to listen to what your emotions are telling you.

Sometimes yes, if i am happy maybe i risk up to 1BTC at once.
But sometimes when i am sad, i also trade but in less amount.
Since i am a human and not a trading bot, the emotions affect to trade or not to trade.

I recommend a very good book on how to use emotions in your trading:
Market Mind Games: A Radical Psychology of Investing, Trading and Risk by Denise Shull

A technique I found helpful is to wrote down what would need to happen in order to trade, and only trade when the criteria were met. For example: "(1) if BTC/USD reaches $300 and then falls below $300 then I'll go short. (2) If BTC/USD reaches $200 and then rises above $200 then I'll go long." Anytime I'm tempted to trade I check my criteria, and if they've not been met I know I'm just trading on emotion. It forces me to think through what likely scenarios are, and how I can profit from them (and, equally, avoid losing scenarios).

Well this technique most of the times works,
But i don't use it often or even think about it.
I mostly analyze what is happening what the community is saying etc.

The approaches aren't mutually exclusive! When I write down criteria for a trade, it follows analysis (you could also apply sentiment analysis - what the community is saying - though I tend to focus on technical analysis and fundamentals, the ratio of TA:FA depending on the timescale).

That's a good idea I'll have to steal. Getting caught up in the moment is hardly ever a good thing, and this technique (writing down instructions to yourself) could help your objectivity and detachment when important moments come.

One golden thing that I learned in trading: be heartless when your money is at stake. I've never been urged by my emotions to execute a trade just because of my feelings. I did my first trade when I already know the basucs of it and have studied something about it. Some times, I feel like I should immediately sell because price is going south, but I sticked to my plan and managed to sell at the top and make a good profit out of it.

trading bot / algo strategy is a good way to avoid emotions getting in the way of your trading.

Every trader, whether he is aware of it, or not, has some trading system - buy if this happens, sell if that happens.
algo strategy is a way of codyfing it and leaving the execution of your system to the computer.

I know, we know all of this, but this is easier said than done in my opinion. I always had problems with emotions getting the best of me. Even if I managed not to sell when the things are going south or not to buy when there is a parabolic growth, I would be watching my phone for price updates all of the times.

I don't know, one has to have brain for trading. You can learn many things but to keep your emotions in check is quite hard. That's why I stopped trading. Since then, I am a much happier man!

Trading with emotions is something that we cannot break, there is something called market emotions, if other digital coins are going up the bitcoin market will be happy and easier to grow. If economy goes down, all markets are angry and its difficult to go up. Professional traders study how emotions affects to markets.

This is a very good approach.
I would add one more element to this strategy: write down what you expect to happen AFTER you get into a trade.
For example, you buy btc at $280, because you expect it to go to $300 within the next 2 days. Instead, it trades around @278-282 for the next week.
The loss might be less then your stop-loss, but the reason you've entered the trade for is no longer there, so you should exit the trade and wait for the next opportunity.

i simply dont use any adrenaline into btc i just use some small amounts of gambling and trade for tring to get the most profit out of it but adrenaline and emotions are very common into any human like me and you soo we use it and try not to lose control out of it and yes we are able to trade but with caution

There are 2 types of errors people make because of their emotions:
- some people over-trade; they are scarred of missing an opportunity, are not patient enough to wait for all their signals to get in line and so they trade too often, get into the trades they shouldn't have and lose money as a result
- other people are to hesitant to enter into a trade and as a result, they miss good trading opportunities.

do you recognise any of these mistakes in your own trading ?

Yup! just like trading bitcoin currency to other currencies, what if you trade then BTC increase rates then you lose some amount, you should take carelessness into action when dealing with trading think first before a trade, patient is needed through trading.

the most dangerous mistake you can make because of your emotions is so called "revenge-trading", if you lose some money and get into another trade straight away to make it back.

It is good practice to force yourself to take a break from time to time (for example, once you lose certain amount of money), so that you can start thinking clearly again.

I often get emotional while trading whether in bitcoins or forex. I trade on ecoin.eu, instaforex and roboforex and when sometimes I gain a lot of profit in just a week, it takes a month at times to get profit. Initially when I lost $40, I got a bit emotional and decided to stop trading but then I got addicted and kept losing even more. Now aftera lmsot a year I again started trading and am more practical while trading. I don't trade for profit but more for experience and my profit margin is very less. This makes me less worried about my loses and concentrate more on the trend and rates. Currently the trend is between $200 and $300 and hence I know how much I need to invest and when do I need to withdraw my profit.

That's actually quite common - people trade because they want to experience the thrill of winning.

The rule number one is that trading should never be done for fun.
If it's some fun you're looking for, you are better off going to the casino.

Nope, I tend to have reasonable arguments. I for example think that, Bitcoin has a very small marketcap, and other companies have marketcaps 10 times bigger while doing less disruptive things. Bitcoin should be able to reach a trilion marketcap based on how much it can disrupt a lot of alrady existing services. Therefore, I must HOLD long term.

OK, then you are the investor, not a trader.

If you take a closer look at bitcoin economy you can see that trading of BTC is mainly based on whims of people.
Mentality of a crowd and overreacting after hearing bad news are 2 major examples of emotional bitcoin trading.

It's easy to say that trade an amount which you can afford to lose but when people lose, they either get depressed or they tend to invest a higher amount with the mind plan to gain not only more profit but also the amount they have lost. Since I have an experience with Stock market as well, I've seen many who don't try to be greedy initially but the streak of winning makes them lose not only what they have earned but also they are also affected mentally. It's better to trade to gain an experience rather than be emotionally attached to it which can be worse. It's not fun but when you don't get an amount you expected, accept it and move on rather than be stuck with your loss.

Well, I traded with emotion in the past. I managed to blow 90% of my investment in 48 hours, a quite impressive score to say the least ... ! Luckily my investment was only $20.

I do not consider myself a good trader so I refrain from it almost completely.

Being a noob trader, i used to buy few altcoins that i feel it will be a success but at the end i just sell it under the half of its price.
In the other hand I saw few altcoins that made a short success and could make *3 -  *4 and didn't bought it thinking it will fails like the other failcoins.
So yeah emotion couldn't fit with trading.... at all.

I also don't consider myself as a good trader,
Because we can't predict the price of a coin.
I just check the alt coin market and the rate change immediately when the bitcoin price increases.

Very often the good risk management skills are more important than the ability to predict the price of bitcoin.

You are never going to be right 100% of the time - the trick is being able to admit to yourself that you were wrong and get out of the position.
For many people being proven right is more important than making money, so they stick in the losing position for too long, until it becomes too painful to continue anymore.

Accepting that you were wrong is actually very hard thing to do.
If you want to be a good trader, you have to swallow your pride.

some advice for the bitcoin traders here:

Dealing with losses
A trader needs the self-discipline to stick to his plan and not be overtaken by the emotions of greed and fear.
When the trader expects the market to behave certain way, enters the trade and the market doesn’t perform as expected, the only correct course of action is the exit the trade.
Having to take losses is an integral part of trading – what matters is taking them early and not letting them to run away.
The trader cannot be stubborn or too proud – being right can never be more important to him than being profitable. Being a trader means being honest with oneself and being able to admit to being wrong.
Unlike in most of “ordinary” professions, in trading, there usually is not much grey area between being wrong and being right and little opportunity to blame the bad decisions on external factors – even though it’s tempting to look for excuses, the trader should always take full responsibility for all his decisions.
The trader has to remember that the market is always right, even if it’s behaving irrationally from his point of view – “markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent”.
Staying in a losing position, apart from everything else, carries an opportunity cost – instead of hanging on to a bad trade, the trader could possibly use his skills and capital to generate profits from another trade.
The trader needs to learn to recognize the emotions he feels when he incurs the losses: they may range from self-pity to anger. When the trader is experiencing these emotions, his critical thinking is usually impaired and he might be not best placed to enter into another trade, even though this is often what his emotions are telling him to do (“revenge trading”). That is when taking a break usually is helpful and beneficial to the further performance of the trader.
No person is ever going to be able to completely eliminate emotions – one should be aware of them and learn to use them to his advantage.

Amen to that, this comment is correct in many ways, nice advice dude I will keep this in mind like you said traders should not be stubborn or too proud and being wrong is one point for a man to grow, loses in trading then stay up and don't quit their is a next time that you could try and trade again ;D

I have traded based off emotions quite a few times, just because I really do not have that much info or the ability to interpret it correctly. So you just think "it will go down from here" or "it will go up from here" and trade.

Of course, having in mind I can be mistaken and establishing a "B" plan (buying more or not if it goes lower, holding or selling if it goes higher etc.)

Yes, all the time. I trust myself more than anyone else.

Not yet in bitcoins, but I've definitely traded stocks with emotion and it always ended badly.  Not sure how one is supposed to completely trade rationally with btc, as it doesn't lend itself to traditional analysis and doesn't pay dividends or interest.  For now I'm just going to try to avoid panicking and to avoid euphoria.

So, you sell when the price is high and looking strong and buy when it's dumping hard based off emotions? what sort of emotions are you feeling in these moments? because normal human reaction is to do the opposite.

I'm a strict hodler,  I a actually called the top correctly on the last pump but didn't want to sell just incase.  For me holding is the safest option.

I must say yes to this :D I am not (yet, maybe one day) an experienced & skilled trader and I only know the basic rule : "buy low, sell high" so right now I based on emotions and insticts when I will sell :D I know its a noob move, but its only temporarily. I will try learning to read charts in my free time.

I'm not trading anymore I tend to get emotionally involved too much and that is not good because in the end we're always talking money, aren't we?
So I hold tight and wait to see what happens. That's pretty much it.

For some reason, almost everyone that owns bitcoin thinks they have an instinct helping them sell at the right time. That's how markets work, some get burned, others stay away fromt rading all together. Funnily enough, with bitcoin, selling some coins when a significant rise is ongoing is perceived as a sin by hodlers. It feels like bitcoin's community works like a cult sometimes.

I don't think I have, whenever I'm hesitating I just hold. I think that's  the best thing to do. Don't panic and if you do don't sell/trade.
Holding at that point would be the best, at least for bitcoins it is.

For now I am just going to hold my bitcoins, but when I trade I just listen to my gut.
The most of time is fine. But trading with emotions is some time not good you will lose money.
In other side some times is good to trade with you emotions.

I too believe that holding is the safest option, but you gotta admit that trading, and selling at +50 to 70 % in weak terms usually brings nice profits,
which yields you far more bitcoins than just holding and waiting for something that won't happen for years to come. (but it eventually will, i agree)
imho smart emotionless trades are way better than holding forever or trading on the emotions.

cheers

Yes I do, 1-3 times maybe, but this happened few months before.
After that i realized how much have i lost in trading after few days of that trade but it was too late.

Having said that, we are not machines and we are not able to just turn the emotions off and trade purely based on some cold analysis.
The trick is to listen to your emotions and always be aware of them, but do not allow yourself to be overtaken by them.

For example, after suffering a loss, whether it is in the markets or in the casino, the first emotion people experience is to get into another trade / bet in order to make back what they have just lost.
This is most likely the worst reason to get into a trade and will probably result in another loss.
It would have been better to recognise what is driving you, force yourself to take a break and come back to trading once you are thinking calmly again.

Agree to your best points in your reply. Experienced traders know when to take controlled losses and find alternative uses of capital to profit. There are so many trading pairs in cryptos there is always a better trade if you look hard enough.


The art is to treat each trade a separate decision. Make decisions based on market conditions and not on losses you suffered (or profits) and how much you hold.