Thursday Trader's Tip: Motive

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Welcome to Thursday Trader's Tip - the free edition of The High-Performing Trader newsletter. Each issue presents to-the-point trading psychology advice that can be read in under 5 min.

This week's post goes around a self-reflection question for traders.

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Today, let's have a quick talk about something real, something that might make you pause and reflect.

Take a minute to answer the question: Are you trading out of passion or to fulfill the void in your self-worth?

Many traders dive into the market to prove themselves, using every trade as a scorecard for their worth. This manifests as:

• Taking a trader outside of your plan because you *need* results

• Oversizing to *prove* you can make the losses back

• Late profit-taking because you *need* to get a bigger winner

• …

In essence, you’re trading your inner problems. It’s an attempt to fulfill your unmet emotional needs - those that tell you you only gonna be worthy when you make a certain amount of money.

Trading to prove worth is like being in a relationship to avoid being lonely – it's a quick temporary fix based on an external change.

If you notice, the mind always tries to arrange the outside world to make things more comfortable for you inside. However, external changes will never fix an internal problem.

Being in a relationship just because one feels lonely doesn’t create a positive feeling, it just removes the presence of a bad one.

The same with trading, removing the sense of unworthiness should never be your motivation to trade. If so, you won’t last during tough market periods, they’ll just feed a negative loop of blame and high self-criticism.

What takes you out of a tough trading period comes from a deep sense of purpose - one that fuels your confidence - not deplete it.

It's a harsh truth, but one to reflect upon.

Yes, you might want to prove others wrong and there’s nothing to blame yourself for that; but if there’s no genuine purpose in your trading besides that, it might be time for a reassessment.

Bringing your inner problems into trading only adds layers of complexity by masking the true root, which distances you from addressing the core issue.

Take a step back to look at the big picture and think whether you’ve been using trading as a means to the end of feeling better about yourself.

If so, it’s time to start introspective work parallel to your work in trading. This will allow you to avoid mixing up both and raise the needed awareness to solve your inner problems.

Your trading journey should be more than a quest for proving worth; it should be a journey of continuous growth, self-improvement, and a true passion for the markets.

You’ll thank yourself later for having taken a minute of your time to think about the initial question.

Happy trading,

Sara

P.S. Delve into this week's long-format post (releasing on Sunday), about finding out and leveraging your strengths in trading. If you want to maximize your full trader potential, consider upgrading to a paid subscription.

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