You must be able to deal with long periods of time without making money and then possibly making a great deal of money in a short period of time. Both circumstances can be difficult to deal with. It might seem that making a lot of money in a short period of time is easy to take, but it can actually be hard to accept. Moral questions sometimes arise as to whether it is right to make so much money and not even "work hard" at it. Many people tend to cut their profits and exit trades because they have made what they "deserve" rather than basing their trading decisions on proper technical or fundamental analysis.

Even if large profits are easy for you to accept, it will probably be quite difficult accepting dry spells of breaking even or losing money. Waiting for the elusive big profit can be agonizing during these extended periods of not making money. Trading can be very frustrating during these intervals, and you will begin to wonder if the "good times" will ever return.

The opposite scenario can be equally frustrating, when money is made slowly over an extended period of time and then a large sum is agonizingly lost in a relatively short time span. Both scenarios seem to happen more often in trading than simply making a constant amount of money and not losing much. Trading is far removed from our normal lifestyle of collecting a paycheck on a consistent basis. This occurs because markets may consolidate for long intervals and then make large rapid moves. Remember that markets reflect peoples' emotions and can be wild or mellow depending on the time. They seldom make consistent or moderate moves; so your profits and losses will reflect these exaggerated moves.