A lot of trading psychology comes down to comparison. You don’t just look at your own wins and losses. You watch what everyone else is doing. A stock you sold doubles the next week. A friend makes a quick profit on something you passed on. It doesn’t cost you anything, but it still feels like a loss.
This isn’t new. My grandfather was a stockbroker, like his father before him. He used to quote this old proverb when people got sour about someone else making money.
Hindi
का कछु आँथी से गिरो,
का कछु काहू को दीन?
काहे मुख मलिन?ना कछु आँथी से गिरो,
ना कछु काहू को दीन।
देता देखा और को,
तासे मुख मलिन।
English
Did something fall from your bag?
Or did you give something away to someone?
Then why is your face gloomy?Nothing fell from my bag,
I dont have to give something to anyone.
I saw someone else get things,
that is why my face has gloom.
The sadness usually isn’t from losing something yourself. It comes from seeing someone else get something.
In trading this happens all the time. You take a small profit and watch it run. Or you stay out and someone else catches the big move. It wasn’t your money, but the comparison makes it sting.
Kahneman wrote about how losses hurt more than gains feel good. The interesting part is that the “loss” doesn’t even have to be real. It can be the “what if” version in your head. A trade you skipped, a winner you didn’t take, even just watching a friend do well. Your brain treats it as something taken from you.
That’s why it can feel worse to watch other people make money than to lose your own. Social media makes it non-stop. Someone else’s holiday or promotion or lucky trade shows up and suddenly your own situation looks smaller, even if it was fine before.
The market moves money from the impatient to the patient. It also stirs up envy, and envy makes people impatient. They ditch their plan and chase whatever’s working for someone else right now.
I’ve felt it myself. Big single-stock bets almost always left me regretting something. Either I sold too early and watched it go higher, or held on too long when it went the other way. The “someone else did better” feeling is what really throws you off, even when you made some money.
That old proverb is a useful reminder. Nothing actually slipped from your hand. Someone else simply received. Being able to see the difference between that and a real loss is handy, in markets and outside them.
Envy isn’t really about what you lost. It’s about the comparison.