This is a YouTube video titled "Trading with Confidence: Conquering Fear of Loss" created in March 2025. The content features Brian McAvoy from Inside Out Trading discussing the psychological challenges traders face, particularly fear of losing money. He shares insights on how fear often stems from personal trauma or lack of preparation and emphasizes the importance of skill development to build real confidence and overcome these fears. The video also includes an invitation to book a call for personalized help in improving trading skills and confidence.
Hi, Brian McAvoy here with Inside Out Trading. Today we're going to talk about fear and really dealing with fear as a trader. And there are different types of fears that as traders we have to deal with. One of the most common ones, even though it hasn't talked about that much, it really is pretty common. And that really is just playing the fear of losing money. It's some of us, for me, it's had experienced some really financially catastrophic situations and some significantly hard times that were very traumatic. It wasn't what they were hearing from their parents or their environment or school, their church, all that kind of stuff. It was because they'd gone through a really bad experience personally, even if their parents were strong and worked through and that kind of stuff. And it could be anything from the house and all the family possessions being taken out by a fire or flood. I mean, that's not an uncommon one. Or a hurricane. And yeah, it's basically just everything got wiped out, I think. Of course the insurance check helps out with things, but it's like, man, everything's gone. And so that kind of a situation can leave a lasting impression on a person. And it's funny because even with like this one guy that I was working was hilarious. I mean, the guy's trading, you know, $400,000 account and he was so afraid of losing money that he's trading little teeny tiny trades. It was like point 1% of his account and that forget 1% or 2% or 3%, he was trading like 0.1% and he's trading. These teeny tiny trades are like 25, 50 bucks. And it's because he had this massive fear of losing and he consciously, he understood, Yes, I understand it's a small amount and I can definitely afford to lose it. I'll spend more than that on lunch. But he just had this hang up. And so it was funny because this is, he was one of the few guys, when I talked to him and I said, dude, I really can't help you here because your issues are personal. Your, your issues are not based on skill and training, which is my area of expertise, helping with consistency in the skill part of trading. I, I need to refer you to a friend of mine. She's a good hypnotherapist. And because he had this issue, it was deep rooted, it was from his childhood. And even though he was consciously aware he had some subconscious stuff to deal with. A lot of times fear of losing can be that way. And it was pretty cool. I mean, he had helped it, he had used it to help him be successful in other endeavors. When he was in a job, he had that security where he could channel it, and he made it work. But as far as trading on his own and being an independent trader, not having the fallback of the corporation, that's where he had the issues. But for a lot of times, fear of losing money, it really just, it's one where what we need to do, unless absent a traumatic childhood situation, generally what we need to do is really just go ahead and focus on it and have a conscious conversation with ourselves and work our way through it. Go ahead and start small. And this is one where trading outside your comfort zones also can be causing trouble. And what you need to do, if that's the situation, if you're trading outside your comfort zones. Here's the problem with trading outside your comfort zones. If you're trading outside your comfort zones, there's a couple of things going on. First of all, by definition, you're in an emotional state because you're outside your comfort zones. If you are comfortable, your emotions are calm. If you're outside your comfort zones, you're in an elevated emotional state. So that's just plain going to work against you. The other thing is, if you are, you do have a fear of losing money, and especially you have a fear and another one, the bigger fear, fear of blowing up your account and hitting big losses, then it's really, it's a fear that's kind of your subconscious saying, there's something going on here. And it's not just the trade in front of you. It's not just the what the apparent situation in front of you. What's going on is your subconscious is aware that you're not quite as well prepared for this as you would like to be or you would hope that you are. And so your subconscious is raising that fear to let you know you're not quite ready for this. You're not properly prepared to deal with this and deal with it competently. And I mean, here's a good metaphor. It's like if you go to the theater, suppose you take your wife out, you guys go out to dinner, and you get accosted in the parking lot by a mugger. Well, you've never been trained to defend yourself. That's going to be a traumatic experience. And you're gonna, your fears are gonna go through the roof. But if you did get training along the way, your dad or he went to a martial arts school or boxing school or whatever, and you learn how to defend yourself, you'll be much more emotionally calm because you have the competence and the skills to deal with that situation. But if, when it comes to trading, if you have not been properly prepared for this, it's. And you subconsciously this, or at least on some level you are aware of this, that yes, you haven't been properly prepared for this. And it's why it's, it's kind of been an anxious experience all along. Well, that's a big deal. And the solution for it though, really, and the solution for pretty much all your fears is really to get so skilled up and get so good at this that you just plainly don't have any fears because you've gotten so good at it. That's really the best way to attend to any fear that you have, whether it's fear of success, fear of success, where you know, yeah, you have the first success, that if you hit some success now you're, you have that pressure to maintain it. That actually is a kind of a backhanded fear of failure, that kind of fear of success. And so again, really, no matter what your fears are, even if it's the fear of missing out, when you're, when you have a method or a, a particular area and you will get really good at it, even the fear of missing out kind of goes away because you now have the competence and the skills and the proficiency and the capabilities to take care of your needs and your desires and get what you want out of trading. You're not fearing, missing out on anything because you know that you're taken care of. You have security in your own skills and your own abilities. You have that security. The fear of missing out usually comes from an insecurity. Most fears come from an insecurity. So the best thing you can do is find out what it is, what are you missing that you need to skill up so that you, the fear goes away. It gets replaced with confidence and a knowing confidence. Not false claims, not false confidence, not hopes, not puffing your chest up, pretending to make and all that kind of crap. No, I'm talking real confidence where you have proof with your own hands so you're solid going to the markets. That's when your fears go away. All of them. And that's really cool. Now if you'd like some help sorting that out, swing by Inside out trading dot com. Book a call with me. There's a link at the top of the page. Book a call with me. We'll talk about your situation and what you've been dealing with, where the gaps are and how we can get you skilled up, get that real confidence up so that your fears abate because they've been replaced with a confidence that knowing confidence that you're solid as a trader. You're good and you know you're good. A buddy of mine, it was a, a baseball coach for kids. He referred to it as getting stud and he said he loved coaching Little League because it's like cool watching the kids get stud when it's like they start to get good and they know they're getting good. And I love going through this experience helping traders when it's like I help you to where you, yeah, you're getting good at it and you know you're getting good at it and you just plain know that you're solid going to the markets and I'd love to help you do that. So anyway, somebody inside out trading. Book a call with me. We'll get things sorted out. We'll find the best path for you forward for it, you know, get you the right help so that you can get skilled up, make this a lot of fun. Let the put the fears aside, move forward, start making money, start having fun with trading. Again, this has been helpful. Share it with your friends. Give me a like down below. Subscribe to the channel and again, hope this has been helpful. We'll talk to you soon. Cheers.
