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Trading Psychology

What Is Tilt and How to Recognise It

Tilt is a state, borrowed from the card table, in which decisions are driven by frustration rather than by the plan, and because the trader on tilt is the last to know, it is recognised by numbers: the minutes between orders shrinking, the size creeping up, the comments going blank, the stops going missing. This paper shows you the four signs in example figures for one afternoon; the idea as a pinball machine whose flippers lock when it is shoved; the six orders of the afternoon bunching up on one line; a spirit level with its bubble off centre; and the four columns on your platform that change together from the third row.

Difficulty
Beginner
Reading time
5 min
Pages
8
Reviewed by
Saman Rahbar

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Four signs, each with a number

Tilt is a state, borrowed from the card table, in which decisions are being driven by frustration rather than by the plan. It is recognised by numbers, because a trader on tilt is the last person to know. In example figures for one afternoon: the minutes between orders shrinking, 50, then 35, 15, 8, 5; the Volume column creeping from 0.40 to 1.60; the Comment field left blank on three of six trades; the S/L column empty on two rows. None of the four is a feeling. Each is a column on the platform, and each can be read while the afternoon is still going on, which is the only time reading it helps.

A pinball machine on tilt

Picture a pinball machine on tilt, which is where the word comes from. A player who has lost a ball shoves the machine to change the next one; shove it too hard and the tilt lamp lights, the flippers lock, and the ball drains on its own. The machine's answer to a player who cannot stop shoving is to stop playing. A trader on tilt is that player, shoving the next trade harder than the last, and the platform has no tilt lamp. The rules of the bad-day paper are the lamp and the lock, wired to numbers so that they trip without anyone having to admit to shoving.

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