Just as there is a financial drawdown there is also an emotional drawdown that contributes to the demise of many trading careers. A trader will experience an emotional, as well as a financial drain after a series of losses or one big loss. This drain can extinguish any remaining desire to trade and make you wonder why you entered the madness and torment of the trading environment.

Severe or unexpected market moves may cause substantial losses which can devastate a person's financial and mental well being. Some never recover. A series of small losses can be equally damaging by emotionally battering a trader. It seems as though you have lost your touch and will never make a winning trade again. These and other real or imagined ideas rip at your insides draining you physically and emotionally.

What is the best course of action when going through a series of sustained losses? Should you continue trading with the expectation things will improve or stop trading and perhaps take a vacation? These are tough questions that only you can answer because there is no "right" answer. If markets go through periods of trending and random behavior then there is no reason to assume a good trade is overdue because the last 10 were bad. Markets may stay in random patterns or strongly trend for extended periods of time, so an inappropriate trading method may yield disastrous results no matter how conservative or skilled the trader is. On the other hand, the market may be ready to trend and a rainbow of profits may be just around the corner.

It is hard to make money trading and just as hard to keep it. Profits which may have taken years to gain can suddenly vanish. Much of what you have worked for can suddenly disappear. We are clearly in a tenuous situation. Prudence and patience is required at all times in trading.

You must be prepared to suffer and accept pain. Between 5-15% of all commodity traders are successful. Most successful traders have probably experienced serious emotional drawdown at some time. In essence, even the ones who "make it" suffer and go through emotional turmoil.

Losing money is no fun. Most normal people do not want to lose money. We may work very hard and try to learn about the markets. We may think we deserve to make money. The market does not know, nor care about our concerns. We may not get what we think we deserve. Trading implies making and losing money. It also implies suffering financial and emotional losses that can be quite devastating.