This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

In my earlier post about my RIMM trade today, I gave my analysis of the situation as it was unfolding at the time. My thoughts ranged from a conspiracy against me (mostly tongue-in-cheek and said out of spite) to flaws in the trading information system. It turns out that the entire problem was mine alone.

When this happened, and the loss wasn’t my fault, I mentally lost it. I was fuming–so angry at the circumstances that took me out of a trade at a loss that would have been a win for me. Plus, it burned up my one daytrade for the day!

Notice anything about the italicized phrases above? They are all excuses–attempts to put the blame for my loss on something else. After I’ve been able to cool down, I can see much more rationally. Price was already at -0.98R when the scandal erupted, which means my trade was already wrong and I should have exited. If RIMM turned around 1 tick below my stop instead of above, I wouldn’t have called it luck; it would have been my incredible stop-picking skill, undoubtedly.

Bottom line: Price really traded where TD said it did; My TD T&S feed just didn’t reflect all of the data at the time. I should have been stopped out.

I find this very interesting for three reasons. First, I was talking about this exact phenomenon on Wallstreak this morning–ranting your feelings in type. And then it happened!

The second reason is that there is now captured, in gory detail, an actual live attack of a trader’s bad psychology–the exact type of thoughts and feelings that can lead you to blow up your account through revenge trading, stop-pulling, or other financially lethal actions. Luckily, I type as fast as I think! (I don’t know which is the slow one…)

The final reason this is interesting to me is that writing my earlier post, responding to the comments, and then re-reading my post under a different emotional state, I was given quite a revelation about myself that I would not have if I didn’t blog about trading. Imagine flying off the handle about something stupid while being videotaped, and then watching it a while later when the feelings were dimmed, and you could plainly see you were being an ass. Welcome to the world of Prospectus! Had I not blogged this, the whole episode could have faded from my memory without my ever realizing what I was doing. This 1R loss will probably save me tons of money in the future.

What I need to learn from this episode today is that I am responsible for all of my trading results. Period. That is what will keep my psychology right, and also what will serve me best in my trading. I’ll continue to blog as long as it helps my trading, and I hope that along the way I can help yours, too, even if it is by showing you what not to do. Thank you all for reading, and thanks to all those who offered condolences and suggestions. What a great trading community we have! Thanks especially to Richard, who can always be counted on to whack someone who is delusional upside the head. :)

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com