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Fear of rising rates has some stock investors heading for the exit doors, but Wall Street performance coach Doug Hirschhorn told CNBC on Monday that there are ways to handle the latest jump in yields.
“You’re going to get freaked out because you are human. So the misconception is trying to stop that freaking out experience,” he said on “Power Lunch.”
U.S. stocks got off to a shaky start on Monday but the Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered to close 39.73 points higher. The S&P 500 closed just below breakeven and the Nasdaq composite pulled back 0.7 percent.
Last week, equities were hit after investors became nervous about soaring interest rates. The benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield rose to above 3.2 percent from around 3.06 percent. The 10-year yield also hit its highest level since 2011 last week.
Hirschhorn, who has a Ph.D. in psychology and is author of the “Trading Psychology Playbook,” said the emotional response is no different from that of an athlete gearing up for a big game.
“If you have a plan and you’ve prepared for the opportunity, then it is just executing that plan,” he said.
“For a trader, you’re going to experience the emotions from the market because you’re human. That’s impossible to separate,” he added. “But tune into your process, and tune into your game plans and execute those.”
For those who don’t have a game plan, his best advice is to sit on the sidelines of the market and “do nothing.”
And for traders who have to pull themselves out of a hole because they made bets that didn’t work out, Hirschhorn suggests making small trades so the dollar amount “is not creating more of an anxiety response.”
Once confidence builds, they can slowly build up those trades, he said.
— CNBC’s Fred Imbert contributed to this report.