Here’s a quick post that has a useful link to another traders post regarding going “tilt” when trading. For those who’ve not heard the term a wikipedia definition: “Tilt is a poker term for a state of mental confusion or frustration in which a player adopts a less than optimal strategy, usually resulting in the player becoming over-aggressive.”
Any traders ever experienced that situation with trading? I know I have. And boy I’ve seen and coached plenty of folks who in a state of mental confusion become over aggressive.
When was the last time you went ’tilt’ when trading? Looking back what were the signs that you were going tilt? Can you use those signs as an early-warning system to help keep you out of trouble?
As an aside (and I get to indulge my ‘asides’ because it’s my blog) I know that back in my old military days we would use the word “tilt” to describe some-one who’d lost complete situational awareness of the battle going on around them usually due to being completely over-whelmed. It was always amazing to sit next to and watch guys and girls who were in the process of ‘going tilt’ due to task-saturation. Their whole body would slow down including their speech, it was like watching a slow-motion movie until they would quite literally grind to a halt. I’ve also seen this happen with traders as well, usually to the detriment of their accounts!
As always raising awareness in one’s self is the first step towards making better choices in the future. Enjoy the post.
FXTraderPauls Trading Adventures 
August 2, 2010
forex, FX Trading, Trading Education, Trading Performance, Trading Psychology