Tilt (emotional trading after losses)
Tilt is a state in which frustration, usually after losses or a perceived injustice such as a bad fill, degrades decisions: rules are broken, size creeps up and trades are taken outside the plan. The term comes from poker. Its cost is usually measured in a few trades that do more damage than the losses that caused it.
Senzoukria · Glossary · Updated September 2026
Triggers and signs
- Triggers: a losing streak, a large loss, a stop hit just before the market went the planned way, slippage, a missed trade that would have worked, a platform or connection problem.
- Signs in behavior: shorter time between trades, larger size, entries without the usual criteria, stops moved or removed, trading outside the planned hours.
- Signs in the record: a cluster of trades after a loss with a lower win rate and larger losses than the day's first trades.
Rules that interrupt it
Tilt is hard to recognize from inside, so the useful defenses are decided in advance and do not rely on judgement in the moment. A daily loss limit that ends the session, a maximum number of consecutive losses before a break, a fixed pause after any loss larger than the planned risk, and a maximum number of trades per day are common. The rule works only if stopping is automatic or at least visible to someone else.
Reviewing tilt episodes afterwards is also measurable: tag the trades taken in that state and compare their results with the rest. The difference is often the most expensive line in a trader's statistics.
In Senzoukria
The journal's trade form has an Emotion field with seven values: calm, confident, fomo, revenge, fearful, tilted and patient. It is stored with the trade, shown in the detail panel and included in the CSV export; the dashboard does not yet break results down by emotion, so the comparison is done from the export. Daily Notes add a mood score from 1 to 10 for the day.
On limits, the desktop can enforce some and not others. The autopilot blocks new automated entries once its maximum daily loss is reached. The simulated demo account can be given a maximum daily loss that refuses new entries for the session. The two-click confirmation mode in Settings adds a recap step before each order, and a maximum order size caps size creep. Manual orders on a broker account are not locked by a daily loss inside the desktop; the broker's and the prop firm's limits are the ones that apply there.
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Frequently asked questions
- How do I know if I am on tilt?
- Look for changes in behavior rather than feelings: trades closer together, larger size, entries you cannot justify against your criteria, stops moved. Deciding those thresholds in advance, and checking them after each loss, is more reliable than introspection.
- Does a daily loss limit prevent tilt?
- It limits the damage rather than the state. Once the limit ends trading, the losses tilt can cause are capped for the day. Combining it with a pause after a large loss addresses the trades taken before the limit is reached.