How to Handle Trading Wins and Losses Calmly

You handle wins and losses calmly when you enter a trade knowing what could happen in it. If you know the stop, the target and why you went in, the win is expected and so is the loss, and neither one shocks you. Someone who jumps for joy on a win will fall apart on a loss — the same reaction, in reverse. Composure is the mark of a professional.

Why do people say trading "raises you"?

Mohamad opens the episode Your Reaction with a joke people pass around: if your parents didn't raise you, trading will. He says there's real meaning in it. Trading is knowledge built on steps and practice; practice gives you experience, and experience takes you to professional level. Along the way you pass through a stage called composure.

What is composure?

Being realistic when you enter the market: there are wins and there are losses. When you take a trade you have a stop and a target, and you know why you set each one. If the target is hit, that's what you expected — you're pleased in an ordinary way and move on. If the stop is hit, that was a known possibility too: we lost, and everything is fine.

What you expect can't shock you. A trader who knows why he entered isn't surprised by the result.

Markets have a well-known rule: it's the unexpected that moves them hard, while the expected barely registers because it's already known. You're the same. What you expected shouldn't shake you.

Shouting on a win means collapsing on a loss

If you jump and shout when the target is hit, the move shocked you. And someone shocked by a win will be shocked by a loss too, in reverse: frustration, regret, anger, a mood that turns. You can't be level on losses and wild on wins.

Why is social media full of loud reactions?

Because they're marketing. Someone who wants to bring people to their channel celebrates on camera and shouts: look how I win. Mohamad adds a question: show us how you react when you lose. It should be just as strong, the other way. If they say "never mind, we lost" calmly, something doesn't add up.

The problem is that the people watching are mostly people who need money. They see the celebrating, the cars, the travel, think it's easy, go in, and lose. That's why he sees an ethical side to it: be pleased on your own if you like, away from the camera, because someone will follow you and lose.

Why the footballer comparison doesn't hold

Some reply: footballers celebrate and cry, so why shouldn't we? He says the comparison means nothing. When a player loses a match he loses a contest, not his money, and he plays again the next day. When a trader loses, they lose their own money. The psychology is entirely different, and a trader's reaction can't be modelled on an example that isn't like it.

So what do you judge a teacher by?

Not by the size of their account or their excitement. Someone whose reactions are loud, as if they were shocked, is a beginner in mindset whatever their balance. What matters is the trader's mindset: level, aware, mature, knowing what they're doing. A teacher who shows you their analysis, levels and reasoning — not their profits — is the one who teaches you.

See also Are Traders' Account Statements on Social Media Real? and Why You Should Stop Expecting Instant Results. Start with the free awareness series.