Fear
There is nothing wrong with being afraid to place a trade. I wish that when I first started trading I had your fears. Instead I started out all wrong, I opened a demo account and within a couple of days a broker called me and convinced me to open a real account immediately. Obviously i had no clue what I was doing and needless to say I blew up that account and the next one before I figured out that it was tougher then I originally thought and I started to have my own fears of the market. I'm not the type of person that scares easily I've been through a lot in my life shot,stabbed, jaw broken with a baseball bat, flipped an ATC and landed on my head with no helmet on, and yet I don't fear being physically hurt as much as I do the market especially after a horrible week. At times I have to back off because I find that these are the times when I make my worst mistakes. Generally after I back off I come back and turn in some of my best performances. I recently had a day when I lost 10% of my account only to come back and be up by 17% by the end of the week. Trading is not for everyone some people seriously cannot deal with losing any money at all and these people make horrible traders and quickly get out of trading for whatever reason, there are a ton of different mistakes they can and do make because they are fearful of losing any money. Simple fact noone is right all the time you will take bad trades accept it, don't be afraid to lose money and let your winners run all the way to your takeprofit, this will offset your losses. Calculate your risk before you place the trade. Dont look at a trade and say if this works I'll make mucho bucks, instead look at the trade and say if this doesn't work how much am I willing to lose. If your not willing to lose don't trade. If you are willing to take a loss define how much of a loss your willing to take babypips recommends 1% I define my risk slightly differently but thats me, however I no longer take trades without predefining my risk and I always determine a value of how much I am willing to lose on a trade idea. Adjust your lot size accordingly if you are using a broker that has a minimum lot size of 1 lot I recommend getting another broker that allows you take much smaller lot sizes, at times I use a .01 lot size other times I use 2 or 3 lots depends upon the strategy . But to be honest different people have different reasons of being fearful, some have the fear of being wrong, but you've already figured out that not every trade will be a winner. I deal with my fears of losing money by placing a trade and going to find something else to do whether it be looking for new trades, new strategies, learning how to write EA's anything to get my mind off the trade. My trading partner hides his profit.
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