Emotional trading
Emotional trading is when fear, greed or frustration picks the trade instead of your plan. You chase a move you missed, or buy again straight after a loss.
In depth
Emotions show up as actions, not feelings. You take a trade you never intended because you hate missing the move. You double the size to win a loss back. You slide a stop lower because you cannot accept being wrong yet.
Say you lose 200 dollars at 10am. Your plan says risk 100 a trade. You are back at five past ten with 400 on the line. Nothing about the setup improved, only your need to be even. That is the tell. The size or the timing changed, and the reason was the last result.
Why it matters
These trades are usually your biggest losers, so a few of them cancel weeks of patient work. They also hide your real results. If half your trades were reactions, your win rate says nothing about the setup you meant to trade.
TraderLog spots the behaviour in the fills themselves. Automatic tags mark a fast re-entry after a loss and a size jump after a loss. Another marks a day where you gave back an open profit. The stats page shows how you do after a loss against after a win.
Frequently asked questions
Look at the trades that broke your own size or timing rules. If they cluster right after losses, that is your answer.
Yes. Stopping after two losses is the cheapest fix, because the next trade is the expensive one.
Keep your Emotional trading trades on the record in TraderLog
Trades import from Schwab and IBKR on their own, every day lands on a calendar with its P&L, and the day's entry sits beside it. Replay any trade on a TradingView chart. Free to start, no card.
Every trading morning at 8:40 ET our model draws the SPY, QQQ and IWM zones it expects to matter, on a TradingView chart, before the open. Where price reaches one, it has turned 74 percent of the time. Free, no account. See today's map