Psychologists call the tilt state the most destructive. Tilt is an extreme form of the player’s emotional state, which is caused by his losses and the inability to adequately assess the situation. Tilt combines panic, fear, disappointment, frustration and the passion to win back.

You understand that this is a truly explosive cocktail of emotions that can not only destroy the deposit, but also lead a person to thoughts of suicide.

A man goes to a casino, puts all his money on the line, and loses it. Then he borrows more money and loses it, too. Finally, he mortgages his apartment to win it back, but loses it, too. This is a brutal tilt.

But it didn’t start when I sold the apartment or took out a loan. It started earlier. Everything that happened later was its natural result. You might have heard such stories, and you might have thought that only a few people could lose like that. You might even have thought that all these people were fools.

But be careful: before you is not stupidity, before you is an emotional hurricane, uncontrollable and destructive. A person gets into it and goes downhill.

You made a couple of trades, the market bucked, and you lost them. You were upset, but you continued trading. Another trade – loss. Another and another – more losses.

Without noticing it, you are already so caught up in the game that you want to win just to finish trading for today. As a rule, draining your deposit is already very close, it is a matter of a couple of hours (during which you will forget discipline and increase the volume of transactions).

You’re in tilt. If you had more money in your account and the stakes were higher, you’d lose it all. Right here, right now.

Tilt is like ice on a slope: once you step, you’ll be carried down. First you’ll lose money, then control, then your deposit, then discipline and self-control, then your faith in yourself… It’s a tough and dangerous situation.

The purpose of this lesson is to make you understand that tilt is something that happens whenever things go wrong. The surest sign of tilt is the desire to win back.

Your job is to monitor your well-being. As soon as you suspect tilt, exit the trade immediately! Do not allow yourself to make trades if you are not in your best shape.

Remember patterns, tilt and our thinking are connected. When you lose, the hardest thing is to admit to yourself that all your losses are now regular. Instead, you will convince yourself that they are 100% random, plunging yourself into an even greater abyss.

The concept of tilt is part of game theory. The point is that when a player is tilted, they stop acting predictably and sensibly. This causes the value of every dollar won and lost to shift.

The second aspect will be the fact that the player’s (trader’s) strength drops sharply: he makes bad decisions. Any decision that will bring you losses in the long run is bad. Let’s dwell on this in more detail.

If you think like all losers, then you don’t care what happens. The main thing is that you make a profit, everything seems great… But if you want to improve your game, then you should think not about the amount of profit, but about the distance.

In our example, the distance is the time of all your trading in the future years. Therefore, each of your decisions should be assessed not by how much you immediately cut down, but by how long you will hold out with your deposit.

After all, you must admit, what is the point of such trading when today you won $500, and tomorrow you lost your deposit of $1000 + all the profit? A trader earns only if his deposit does not lose value, and the transactions are positive over time.

Each of your trades has an expected value (EV). You can quickly find it using the formula: $120 x 0.3 – $100 x 0.7 = -$34. That is, each of your trades brings you a loss of $34. And if you are still in the black, then the losses will soon cover you.

For example, your deposit is $500, then with the profit you get you have $400 + $500 = $900. This is enough for 900 / 34 = 26 trades, after which you will be bankrupt. The point is that each of your trades potentially brings you a loss, you are going against the odds.

This explains the cases when, right after you start trading and make a big profit, you suddenly suffer losses and end up draining your deposit. You are potentially on tilt, which means that you will most likely top up your deposit and continue playing to get your money back. But you will lose even more.

You haven’t fixed the situation with your trades. The more you trade, the faster you will lose everything.

Have you tested your trading system? What is its expectation? How long will you play? How often do you deposit?

You won’t be able to ask yourself these simple questions when you’re tilted. That’s what’s dangerous about tilt.

Game theory allows you to put your play into perspective. You should look for ways to make a profit over time, rather than fighting for every trade or playing with a risk that is higher than the reward.

But it is difficult for a trader to remember this simple strategy when he is on tilt. I will describe the main signs that you can use to check yourself at any moment of trading.

You lost the trade, although you did everything right. You are practically a client of tilt. After all, this state is a reaction to your being right. That is, if you play mediocre and violate your system and lose money, you are not in danger of disappointment. Let’s say, a little.

But if you did everything correctly, according to the system, clearly, but unexpectedly lost money, get ready. Annoyance from an undeserved defeat is the main reason for tilt.

Another sign is that you are on a losing streak, but you don’t see it as a pattern. In fact, your inability to recognize this pattern is what indicates tilt. You are not aware of it.

The third sign is that the market is going against you. Usually, a person does not take objective things (for example, bad weather) with hostility. However, if he is in an unbalanced state, then everything around him will irritate him.

In the market, any movement against you, news, forecasts, network problems, etc. can be unpleasant for you. Watch yourself. What is important here is not the fairness of your irritation and discontent, but the fact of its manifestation.

Fourth, if you notice an unusual tendency to take risks, change your trading plan, or sharply increase the volume of transactions, sound the alarm. You are in serious tilt.

As a result, to all four we can add a strong desire to win back, an inability to stop trading, a refusal to sleep and eat due to an addiction to trading or because of frustration.

It was not for nothing that I wrote about the point of involvement: you are so caught up in the trades that you have lost control. The solution is simple – stop trading right now and turn off the computer. You can return to trading when you come to your senses.

This will also manifest itself in an original way: you will not understand how you could make such stupid deals, how you could not notice obvious things, and why you moved away from the system. If you have these questions, congratulations – you have come out of tilt.

The most important thing that an experienced trader and any beginner should understand is that tilt is inevitable, it always leads to defeat and your worst trade.

If you are tilted and still making trades, you are doomed to fail. You will be tense, nervous, tired, and still fighting.

No matter how much effort, patience, money you put in, you will still lose. The thing is, your thinking during these periods will be the worst possible, your system will not work – keep that in mind. Anything done on tilt usually only brings disappointment and even bigger losses.

Too often traders do not pay attention to their state while trading.

They feel like they should just keep trading, that they can’t miss a good moment in the market, that they have to be in trades. But if you’re tilted, then game theory says you’re playing your worst game, which means all your decisions will have negative expectation over time.

Look, you lost $500, and to win back, you increased the volume and made a deal not according to the system. You won money. Now you are happy with yourself and exited the market. But in doing so, you risked your deposit (by playing not according to the system) and your confidence (if you lost now, you would experience a strong disappointment and, possibly, depression).

But that’s not the end of the second option. Next time, you’ll make exactly the same risky move – you’ll play with a huge risk. In fact, the more often you’re lucky and win back at crucial moments, the more likely it is that next time you’ll play and lose everything.

This does not mean that the next time will be a failure, no. You can have luck for as long as you want. But the very time you try to win back and lose, you will lose everything. No matter how long the rope twists, there is always an end. And that end is your bankruptcy.

You have saved your deposit several times by making risky trades. Let’s say you have $2,500 in your DC account. You trade for another month and the total amount is already $3,700. And then another tilt happens, and you go into recoupment. But the stakes are higher, your risk acceptance (stupid risk) is softer, and the amount you will risk is higher. You have been in such a situation before and you were lucky, so now you will also be calm. But there is one thing you have missed: distance and anticipation of your move.

All the time you were playing for your money, you were building up negative expectations, you were kind of avoiding a predictable defeat. At some point, this probability will work against you. And it will be right when you put everything on the line.

In our example, you can play for the umpteenth time and lose everything at once that you earned during the entire previous period. And not because you were suddenly unlucky. But because in those other cases, you were stupidly and accidentally lucky (after all, you accepted that random luck as a pattern).

So, it would be better for you to lose your small deposit the first time than to lose your large deposit at the end. And the probability of losing at the beginning was less than the probability of losing everything in the last situation. Many people do not understand this.

Never trade if you suspect that you are currently on tilt. You will not be able to immediately understand what is happening to you, but you need to stop trading as soon as there is any doubt that you are performing weaker than usual.

If you want to seriously increase your overall profits over time, do not trade during tilt. Just leave the market until you feel that your confidence and calmness are returning to you. This advice will not only save you several deposits, but also give you serious protection in trading.

Tilt in trading describes the emotional state of a trader when he loses control over his emotions and makes rash decisions. Tilt can occur when a trader experiences a strong feeling of frustration, anger, fear or another negative emotion.

When a trader tilts, they may begin to trade outside of their strategy and react to the market in an emotional state. This can lead to poor decisions such as increasing risk, increasing positions, or taking trades that are not in line with their trading strategy.

Tilt can be caused by short-term stressful situations, such as losing a large position, or by a long period of losing trades. Some traders, especially beginners, may be more prone to tilt because they have not yet developed the skills to manage their emotions while trading.

To prevent tilt, traders must develop a risk management strategy and stick to it. They must also learn to manage their emotions and recognize when they are experiencing stress or other negative emotions. It is important to understand that trading is a business and decisions should be made based on data analysis and trading strategies, not emotions.

As mentioned, tilt in trading can lead to poor decisions and, as a result, losing trades. To avoid tilt, traders can use several strategies and approaches.

1. Determine your risk-reward: Before starting to trade, a trader must determine his goals and the level of risk he is willing to accept. This will allow the trader to understand what risks he can afford and which trades are best suited to achieve his goals.

2. Develop a risk management strategy: A trader must develop a risk management strategy that will help him avoid losing trades and limit losses.

3. Manage your emotions: Traders must learn to manage their emotions, especially when they are stressed or experiencing negative emotions. This can be achieved by using relaxation techniques such as deep breathing and meditation, as well as talking to other traders or professionals.

4. Assess your mistakes: When a trader experiences a failure in a trade, he should analyze his mistakes and figure out what he could have done better. This will help him avoid repeating the same mistakes in the future and make better decisions in difficult situations.

In general, tilt is a normal emotional state that can occur in any trader. However, to avoid losses and achieve success in trading, traders must learn to manage their emotions and make decisions based on data analysis and trading strategies.

There are several approaches you can take to combat tilt in trading:

1. Set a limit on the number of losing trades: This will help you avoid overtrading in an attempt to recover the losses you have already incurred. Some traders recommend stopping after three losing trades in a row to avoid losing too much capital.

2. Perform a risk-reward analysis: Evaluate the potential risks and possible rewards of each trade. If the risk is too great compared to the possible reward, it is better not to enter the trade.

3. Avoid overestimation: Evaluate your decisions and avoid overestimating your abilities. Try to follow a strategy rather than making decisions based on emotions.

4. Assess your emotions: Identify what emotions are causing you to tilt and find ways to manage them. This could be through talking to other traders or using relaxation techniques such as meditation or deep breathing.

5. Learn and Grow: No one can be an expert in all areas, so try to constantly learn and improve your skills. Join trading communities and communicate with experienced professionals to learn more about trading in financial markets.

1. Create a trading plan: Plan your trading operations in advance and stick to the strategy even if the market does not go as expected. Following a plan will help you avoid random decisions and increase discipline in trading.

2. Set your expectations: Be realistic in your expectations of trading. Don’t expect quick and significant profits – trading in financial markets takes time, patience and work.

3. Don’t Ignore Your Emotions: Suppressing your emotions won’t help you beat tilt. Instead, acknowledge them and try to understand how they affect your decisions. If you feel like you’re starting to lose control, take a break and rest.

4. Don’t overload yourself with trading: Avoid overworking yourself and overloading yourself with information, which can lead to tilt. Set aside a specific time for trading and dedicate the rest of the time to other activities to keep your mind fresh.

5. Stay in the present: Don’t think about past losses or future potential profits. Focus on the current trade and what’s happening in the market right now. This will help you make rational decisions based on current data.

6. Use meditation and relaxation techniques: Meditation, deep breathing, yoga and other techniques can help you stay calm and manage your emotions while trading. Try different techniques and find what works best for you.

Overcoming tilt requires patience and self-control, but if you use these approaches, regularly train your mental toughness, and stick to your trading plan, you have a good chance of overcoming tilt and achieving trading success.