# Walking a Tightrope

By [brianyooner](https://paragraph.com/@brianyoon) · 2022-02-01

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**the importance of the mind in trading.**

Imagine yourself walking a tightrope placed a couple feet off the ground.

Now, imagine yourself walking the same tightrope, but 3 stories high.

These two acts are one and the same. You can argue getting across requires the same balance, skillset, and focus.

The only difference being, how far you are off the ground.

Yet, this seems to make all the difference. Let’s take a look at why.

To your mind, it’s much scarier to fall from 3 stories than it is to fall a couple feet.

No matter the safety net.

A tightrope walker doesn’t just go from walking two feet off the ground straight to three stories.

Mentally, they would not be prepared.

They need to slowly work their way up and get comfortable falling from each incremental increase.

No matter how much training they did two feet off the ground, it would not train them for the same act, three stories up.

The same can be said for trading.

The act of trading a $10,000 portfolio is the same as trading a $200,000 portfolio.

It require the same actions, skillset, and focus.

The difference being, risking 1% of $10,000 is $100. While risking 1% of $200,000 is $2,000.

It’s the same difference as being a couple feet off the ground, to being multiple stories up.

It’s easy to lose $100 in a single trade. It can be tough to lose $2,000 in a single trade.

But the amount of risk taken is the same.

1%.

If a trader hasn’t repeatedly lost $1,000-$2,000, they will not be mentally prepared to trade a portfolio of that size. Leading them to make emotional and irrational decisions they normally would not make in a smaller account.

This often happens when traders jump in position sizes too quickly or start risking more money than they are comfortable losing.

You need to work your way up slowly.

Get comfortable losing incrementally larger amounts of money. And soon, losing thousands of dollars will feel the same as losing a hundred.

This progression never gets easier and can go on indefinitely. But is required if you want to be successful with bigger portfolios.

Every time you play a bigger hand, you will get those butterflies in your stomach.

It will be uncomfortable, and it’ll hurt.

But keep at it, this is exactly what keeps the game interesting.

Trading is a never ending journey of mental and self mastery. You only stop progressing when you stop pushing yourself.

For this reason I believe trading occurs on a purely psychological level.

Everything else is just differences in technicalities of the market you’re trading. Whether it’s equities, currencies, derivatives, crypto, or NFTs.

**Master your mind and you will master the game.**

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*Originally published on [brianyooner](https://paragraph.com/@brianyoon/walking-a-tightrope)*