so you’re asking how to stop making spontaneous trades?
well what worked for me was to catalog all my losing trades and find out exactly why they lost. Some examples would be…
… I didnt pay attention to the resistence at ( )
… I went against the main trend
… should have exited the trade at ( )
… i ignored a doji candle at ( )
… market broke the trend
I find that there is a reason why every losing trade does what it does, and i don’t mean “gee, the market went in the other direction” lol
you need to learn exactly why your trades were mistakes, and then learn from those mistakes and don’t make them again…
I do know what my mistakes. eg, i know everyone rules is different.
Afraid of missing that trades and not waiting candles to close first.
Knowing once i open my laptop and see that i missed a good run.
Only if i come in earlier a few hours. The thought of waiting another few hours
maybe.
I think i should just check for any setup. if it is really not there. just minimize and do other things. Dont stare too long. I sure to go and analysis and find ways to trade
Don’t forget trading opportunities happen all the time there will always be more. This happens to everyone.
There is alot of books on trading psychology out there that can help.
I think it is a big part of why so many people fail at this buisness. They think they can make a million in no time and just dive in. You have to remember if you want to succeed in trading that you need to treat it like a business.
Try setting yourself a penalty if you trade outside your plan. Like going back to demo for a period of time. But don’t forget to reward yourself when you do trade to your plan.
It seems you are having a hard time with your mindset. Get this book, it deals with common mental problems just about all traders start with and have to overcome. This book will help you at least think like a successful trader. “Trading in the Zone, By: Mark douglas.”
Also, do a trading log. It’s important that you just don’t note the trade. But, why you entered the trade and how you felt about it during, setup, entry and win or loss. Enter in the log why you entered a trade and why you exited and why you thought it was a good idea in the first place.
If you are honest a trading log will show you your mistakes very predictably. You will see patterns in your own behaviour that you can then correct.
My trading log has pointed out and helped me correct these mistakes in my first two weeks of trading:
Letting a loser go past my SL and hoping it will come back, with no good reason behind it other than, “I hope it will come back.”
Once a loser has gone past my SL letting it go and go and go out of anger and hearing a little a voice in my head saying, “no way I’m taking a loss, I’ll just wait till it comes back.”
Getting ****y after a big win and entering the next trade wrecklessly.
Giving wins back because, “now I’m playing with their money.” And again being wreckless.
Missing a set up that had a good move, then feeling I missed out and trying to get in after the entry point has past.
Revenge trading.
Generally just breaking my rules or changing them for no good reason.
Moving my SL back for no good reason, other than getting stopped out would piss me off and then watching to go very badly negative.
General mechanical entry and technical analysis mistakes.
It took me years of trading stocks to get the discipline to not get emotional with losses, missed opportunities etc. No substitute for experience. Now if I start to get emotional I think, remember what happened with Apple. I started losing and doubled down twice, It then went far down but then when it came back partially I sold. I promised myself that wouldn’t happen again. I should have had a stop loss. I could have made a lot of money at that time in Gamestop but money was tied up. When I got out I did make money on Gamestop as I thought but not nearly as much as I should have. I know that is stocks but the psychological stuff is the same no matter what you are trading more or less.
It will take time, years to be honest. Try to trade on higher time frames, stay away from charts when you don’t see a setup in between your trading time frames. Waiting in necessary, no one can help you in this its in your own hands.
Personally what worked for me in overcoming this urge is, developing a criteria of what is going to happen before I enter a trade. For me, it is: 1) is there a trend present, 2) is price at a retracement point, 3) is there a strong signal candle or candle/combo, and 4) is it far enough from an S/R zone that it has room to run to get me my 3X risk when i set my take profit?
Also, I should have mentioned that I trade mainly on the daily time frame, the signals are much stronger on this time frame. It’s taken me years, but I am patient now. If you have a problem waiting only an hour or two, remind yourself as others have said…there will always be more trade opportunities! ALWAYS. Must learn to wait for the good ones. Develop your entry criteria, and scan for those conditions…if you don’t find them, move on to a different pair. Or don’t trade that day at all…I know it is hard, but this is how you win Good luck!
I would try to keep yourself busy while the charts are running - perhaps you could focus on making an EA that alerts you when a potential set-up is forming, this will stop you from watching the charts 24/5. Also the more we look at what seems like random patterns the more we try to tell ourselves that something is there! However, as others have also said, its a waiting game - and with a strong enough trading system and risk management plan the waiting should be no problem as you know that profits will be turned.
There are many problems we face during trading. We react differently . With loss i try to overcome it smoothly and slowly, I never try to get instant revenge from market. One should wait when he is fresh again to work best than last trading.
Ok my friend, probably this is not going to like nobody… but it´s the truth
The truly winners on forex are broker houses, mostly those ones which take the opposite action in your trade.
Then, maybe 1 about 100 traders is a profitable trader.
Other 15 - 20 is fighting each f… day not to lose
The rest (majority) is loosing their small or big money with dreams and ambition in a fool way
I started on forex business in 2010, the idiots who put me in here talk to me about making a lot of money getting commissions while trading (i get comm no matter the results to the client account). I have to tell you that I´m not patient neither analytical person so maybe i have not take the correct studies to manage an account and trade, but I use some techniques supposedly useful, but 5 years later I cannot control the market, or whatever you want to name it… for being profitable. I started this stupid business with the great ambition and the idea of becomming millionaire, at least rich, and now I´m worse than 5 years ago, because I owe their money to my investors… And I´m still not profitable. SO MY BEST ADVICE DO SOMETHING ELSE TO EARN MONEY, OR IF YOU WANT TO BE HERE NO MATTER WHAT, PROVE YOURSELF ON DEMO AND WHEN YOU DISCOVER YOUR PROFITABLE STRATEGY THEN GO ON REAL…
The answer on your question in general is to easy. Bad Trading Psychology!!!
The hard part is how to overcome that problem?
Unfortunately there is no easy way: I would say educate yourself more and more, trade, make mistakes and learn from them, which means experience is needed.
