Follow-Up on Trader A

I would like to thank all the traders who submitted input to Trader A’s problem. M Hirai suggests armoring him with a greater degree of knowledge of risk management. Trader A is practicing good money management, but may not be taking good trades and so places himself at risk by not reading the markets correctly. Markus also wonders about his preparation for trading and asks a number of questions to further define Trader A’s background, motivation, intentions and preparation. Indeed, Kiwi and Dr Shopshire also would like to have a better understanding of Trader A’s background, as would any clinician. Finally, Padmakara took some ideas right from the blog and suggested the prompt use of reward to reinforce appropriate use of trading behaviors.

I admit that we have only the details that Trader A gave us, and so are a few of my final thoughts. Like many of the respondents, we feel that we don’t have enough information; Trader A does and it is up to him to read the responses and decide what applies to him. One of the things that struck me, as a physician, was the intensity of his adrenergic response. And so my first advice would be to get a good check up by an Internist. There are certain hormone-secreting tumors, like a Pheochromocytoma, an adrenal gland tumor, that secretes copious amounts of adrenaline. Symptoms of a Pheo include excessive sweating, elevated heart rate and blood pressure, intense anxiety, pain or constrictive feelings in the chest and upper abdomen, nausea and other GI upsets, headaches, heat intolerance and weight-loss. The work-up is relatively simple and consists of a 24-hour urine collection looking for the breakdown products of epinephrine (adrenaline), nor-epinephrine and dopamine – the catecholamine hormones and neurotransmitters. Your Internist can also screen for other health issues that may be playing a role in the intensity of your stress reaction and may decide to prescribe a Beta-blocker to control some of the more extreme of your symptoms.

Concurrently, I would also get an emotional check-up, as Dr Shopshire and Kiwi both suggest, to see if there are underlying issues that need to be resolved before Trader A can progress. Dr Shopshire, in particular, wonders if this has been a problem in other facets of his life and in his past, and strongly advises a thorough evaluation. Brief Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy by a competent, State-licensed Clinical Psychologist may take a few weeks, but it would be better than suffering for two years, as Trader A has.

And finally, we go back to “The Effects of Chronic Stress” and my recommendation that, if trading becomes stressful, take a break and wait for the stress levels to subside. Remember, LTP and learning new behaviors will be much more difficult under stress and in the presence of high circulating cortisol levels.

So there you have it. Thanks to all the respondents who wrote to offer help to a fellow trader. Thank you all.