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Psychology

Tilt

The state in which emotional arousal degrades decision quality below the trader's actual skill floor (Tendler and Carter, The Mental Game of Poker). After a loss, the amygdala spikes, cortisol releases, and prefrontal cortex activity is suppressed. The trader is not running their best setup — they are running a distressed nervous system.

See also
Psychology Revenge Trading Entering a trade primarily to recover a prior loss rather than on independent merits. The first link in the tilt cascade. Powered by loss aversion (the pain of the loss demands recovery) and sunk cost (I'm already down, I have to get it back). Prevention: the walk-away trigger fires on this pattern. → Psychology Walk-Away Trigger A pre-defined condition that forces physical removal from the trading environment. Examples: hitting the max-daily-loss cap, three losing trades in a row, tilt symptoms (rushed clicking, 'just one more'), trading at 3am, or trading in an emotionally dysregulated state. Must be pre-committed and non-negotiable. → Psychology Max-Daily-Loss Cap A pre-committed maximum percentage of account capital that can be lost in a single trading session. When hit, the platform closes and the session ends. The cap is the Ulysses mast for tilt cascades — it removes the option of recovery trading, which is the only fuel the cascade needs. →
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