Is it more important to turn the corner or to be aware of oneself?

In the sixth part of our writing series, I will discuss why individuals need to be aware of themselves, the reflections of awareness processes on trading and investment life, the importance of the lessons learned from the experiences throughout the process, and their long-term implications.

You must trade with awareness of yourself: One of the biggest mistakes most beginners make is to act randomly without questioning themselves, observing what kind of profile they have, and trying to experience trading in different time frames. For example, I do not consider myself suitable for "scalp trading" because the fluctuations at the moment of trading not only exhaust me but also make it difficult for me to manage my psychology and emotional state at that moment. However, when I engage in "swing trading", I feel quite good and comfortable because the time frame is broader and it feels easier to handle.

Saying "I'm glad I sold it" is enough

Do not derive a meaning like "You should skip the points where you think you are bad" from here. For example, even if I think I am bad in terms of "scalp trade", I am particularly testing in low time frames like 15 and 30 minutes with (LTF). Although it is still challenging for me, I am trying to review my mistakes by recording my test results and avoid repeating them (Discipline, memory, and success: On the Trading Journal). For instance, according to my latest test results, I realized that I have similar ratios in high time frames compared to (HTF) LTF in terms of profit rate, which increased my willingness to take scalp trades.

We should refrain from past interpretations: Once a trade is closed, you cannot retrieve it again. For example, I had bought many coins almost at the bottom before ETH began its journey to ATH, and since I thought the market would turn around at around 2,800 dollars, I sold most of them for a 30% profit. As you know, they all continued to rise afterwards. I was initially upset for selling, but if the price had dropped from where I sold, I would have said, "Thank goodness I sold" and declared myself the best trader in the world. Knowing something and acting on it are different things, and the biggest indicator of whether someone knows something or not is whether they are in a trade or not (I knew Bias).

The Meaninglessness of Blaming the Market for Failure

We must take responsibility for the transactions we make and learn to question instead of externalizing failed transactions: There is a concept in the social psychology literature called "Self-Serving Attribution Bias," and I believe this concept applies to most people in the community. Individuals tend to attribute their successes to internal, stable, and consistent factors, while blaming their failures on external, unstable, and inconsistent reasons. We can say that the mentality of "I take 100, the teacher gives 0," as defined by our university professor, is dominant. In other words, while individuals seek the source of their success within themselves, they tend to externalize their failures. When they make a successful transaction, even if they hear it from someone else, they tend to attribute the success to themselves, while when they make a failed transaction, they either claim that the transaction was a "fake move," that there was a "manipulation," or that "liquidity hunting" was carried out. However, the market has nothing to do with the individual transactions we make. If you are at a stop or liquidate and someone else is winning at that point, the responsibility should be attributed not to the outside, but to the method or strategy you used to make the transaction.

The externalization of responsibility and the "Self-Serving Attribution Bias" is an evolutionary legacy we have developed to protect our inner well-being. In this way, we are actually preserving both our self-esteem and our dignity in the eyes of others. For example, if you look at the shares of phenomena, you can easily see that very few people engage in self-criticism, while most think they have never been wrong and that the market is dealing with them. In summary, the foundation of the matter lies in accepting that all responsibility lies in your hands. You alone are responsible for the decisions you make; blaming the market or the people you follow will not change anything.

The main goal should be to learn from every experience.

You should strive to learn from your experiences and develop a long term perspective: During the process, sometimes you will win, sometimes you will lose, sometimes you will act very rationally, and sometimes you will act foolishly. Sometimes you will rely on your own knowledge, and sometimes you will trade with the ideas of others. Let's not forget that all of these are normal and happen to everyone who is just starting out. Our main goal should be to learn from each experience and make that our purpose. Rather than progressing with a results-oriented mindset, the aim should be to improve your process and make it "good enough." Let me illustrate how some negative experiences I have had in my own process have impacted my trading and investment life.

I initially made 15x on Lithium. Due to my greed and desire to achieve 100x, I waited. This experience taught me the habit of making gradual purchases and sales.

Secondly, I had not placed a stop order in my short position on PEPE thinking I would have manual stops. I had two major mistakes. The first was to fall into the mindset of "It will drop from here" by constantly adding to my position, and I had succumbed to both "Sunk Cost Fallacy" and "Optimism Bias." The second was that I had asked many influencers for their opinions on PEPE to validate my position and prove to myself that I was not mistaken. However, the market has no relevance to either my thoughts or those of the influencers. Worse yet, while I was inclined to consider the opinions of influencers who endorsed my views, I tended to disregard the thoughts of those who were positioning long. (Confirmation Bias). This experience made me realize the importance of sticking to my principles and stop loss, as well as the market's ruthlessness and its indifference to my emotions. Right now, I am not taking any trades where I cannot set a stop loss, and I do not care about others' opinions on the pairs I trade.

Preventing Emotional Behavior with Buy and Sell Orders

Finally, when the problems between Iran and Israel first began, Bitcoin had made a spike to around 49,000 dollars. Normally, I had set up my game plan to gradually buy around 48,000 dollars, 42,000 dollars, and 35,000 dollars. Although I had placed my first buy orders for many altcoins there, I refrained from trading thinking that the market could drop further, and later the market continued to rise. This experience taught me that I needed to set my buy and sell orders in advance, that the market could manipulate me with good/bad news when the conditions I was following occurred, and that emotional behavior could prevent me from taking action.

As you can see, I am trying to improve my process based on three different experiences. Although I may not always succeed in the short term, I believe that I can succeed in the long term. I believe that it is more appropriate to spread my trading and investment journey over the long term rather than establishing it in the short term, and that the seeds I plant now will bear fruit in the future.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading activity carries risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making decisions.