Right, it's obvious but has to be said. Whenever you have some sort of a distraction, it's better to NOT touch your finances or to get rid of the distraction. I live alone so this never was a problem for me before but now I'm visiting some relatives. Silly me I was trying to get a few transactions in straight when the market opened (mainly selling EUR.USD, buying a couple of shares etc) and I had a total of 3 relatives running around the room, asking this and that, saying this and that, doing this and that. Long story short: fucked up a few times. Nothing major... probably about $10 lost on the EUR.USD due to being late and on top of it all trading a smaller amount than I should have... so I had to make another transaction (and pay another commission), a trade being limit instead of market, a couple trades having something wrong so I had to cancel them. (good thing I managed to cancel both before they went through) Anyway. I might have lost a few dollars and I'm royally pissed off but I did learn a very valuable lesson: It might be your wife, child, your mother or your priest but for gods sake thrown them out of the room before accessing your broker's website.
Get a room with a good lock on the door. Most people do not realize that distractions can cost money. Countless times, people break my train of though, and then I waste time getting it back. Time is money and a five second distraction might cost you ten minutes or more.
Amen to that!...preach unto the choir still, got the warning, noted it down and will act on it, but what've come to realize is that even when am alone, emotions can get the best of me hence cause distractions...to add on, i think whilst trading, one ought to be highly sober and quite attentive to what he/she is doing and success is assured
This is the kind of thing that sounds obvious, and it is obvious... the kind of situation where if someone would have asked me about it I would have said "get rid of the distractions before you start" but in reality I disregarded it and paid the price. Guess I'm just one of those people who has to make the mistake themselves before they learn the lesson. Now, a couple of days later, I'm actually quite happy this happened now and not later on when I'm playing around with more money. I learned a valuable lesson (and now it's for sure deeply encarved into my brain!) without losing too much money. I call that money well spent.
I couldn't agree more! The thing is, other people in the room just think you're surfing the net and don't understand the seriousness of what you are doing. I frequently have to isolate myself at home to keep away from distractions. I always tell my partner what I'm doing and ask that he refrains from wanting anything for the next hour or so.
The distractions go for anything in life that we have to deal with. If you are distracted then you would lose focus and lose. Even for things like gambling you can lose your cash and end up broke. Driving being the worst of them all to get distracted you can lose your life.
I almost universally take decisions at night when it's quiet and there isn't anything else that requires my attention. You need to really pay attention to what you're doing. The biggest mistake is rushing things just to get them done. You always regret doing that.
I think this advice generally applies to every situation not only in business. We shouldn't make rash decisions when we are distracted. We tend to make the wrong decision when we don't fully think about it.
I always went with the advice "Don't make promises when you're happy and don't decide if you're upset". It's served me well.
