I am new to forex and new to BabyPips! I gave myself 20 working days to see how I fared. After factoring in losses, I am overall 5% up. Not much in dollar terms, earned couple of hundreds. I day-trade on a part-time basis.
10 minutes ago, I withdrawn my capital and my gains from my broker. I need to take a break. It is mentally draining. Moreover, after today’s market [21 Sep 2020]( including commodities), went deep into the reds, I made some losses. (If I were to exclude today’s losses, I would have been 10+% up).
Today’s losses were shocking. I lost my cool and overtrade.
How do you handle mental fatigue? I hold a full time job. Obviously I am not ready to quit my job. haha.
Please advise. Thank you gurus.
Edit: To add on, before I used real cash, I traded on a demo account for 2 months.
Develop a strict set-up model and make sure you are disciplined enough to only trade when you see it.
Restrict your screen-watching to the pairs most suitable to your strategy and skills - maybe 5 at most. Many pairs overlap and duplicate in TA terms.
Move to the longest practicable time-frame - never trade on less than 15-minutes.
Use entry/exit orders wherever possible - its never necessary to watch a position from when it opens.
You might find you have a few minutes work every hour and only need to make decisions at the end of each bar of your chosen time-frame, and even then only if your set-up has changed.
Man’s mental behavior is sometimes like that of a monkey. This can be noticed more in trading. So if you want to calm this monkey, start meditating daily. Meditation helps to clear our minds. And for a long time, you have to take a break and go somewhere far away.
I’ve only been trading a week and have found it tiring but really enjoying it.
I’m swing trading but scalping inbetween.
Get a good nights sleep and as others have said, you might need to be selective in your trades so you don’t need to look at them each day.
5% is good (I think) it depends what your starting balance is and what you want to be earning
I know how you feel. You feel this way because you can’t find a way to trade forex, no matter how much effort you place. It has happened to all forex traders. My personal experience can tell you that you should trade 1 minute chart, check economic calendar first and then choose which pair you want to trade. Then, you have to wait for two candles that look alike in the same support or resistance level, then wait for the bottom or top of that support or resistance level to have two sides that look alike, and then buy or sell . Since candlesticks are statistics , sometimes price will go a little farther from where you entered, then it will get back to you in the form of profits, like this ! If you need any more help , I will be happy to give you a hand for free.Getting out of my bearish position|690x404
Thanks everyone for the positive replies! The common message I am getting is - trade on a longer time frame.
Personally I am toggling between H1 and H4 but I still have the habit of consuming massive amount of news update (which I am cutting down because most analyst only anaylse after the move has happened. It is always easier to speak on hindsight)
I also have the weird habit of assessing the movement by zooming into 15Min timeframes
Firstly take regular breaks, if you trade 4 hours charts take your trades and turn off your computer, if your stops are working for you then your trade only becomes a loser when the stop is triggered, however that should be the exception not the rule,
Learn to live with your trades, switch off on the weekend and only do a short session on the calendars to prepare for the next weeks trades.
Get a goods night sleep and if you are trading to your system/ plan then you should sleep well.
Make longer-term trades with smaller amounts over the long term. Make appropriate stops and check them occasionally. Constant vigilance with short-term trading is not the best strategy unless you have a mathematical algorithm or maybe you are an expert in technical indicators.
A lot of people have already mentioned it here but I think truly, part of the problem is day trading is pretty stressful. I emotionally and mentally can’t handle such intense time frames. Perhaps if you tried 1D and 1W time frames, it’ll be a lot calmer.
Despite the incessant warnings from some on here, plus many other websites and advice from some of the world’s best traders - and the occasional big news story how a day trader lost his or her shirt - there is a constant supply of new traders who literally think they are more savvy, clearer than those before them.
And they can make a great go of day trading, even though it is an area of trading for the elite if the elite .
It beggars believe that so many are unwilling to take what is really very simple advice
Do not day trade or scalp - at least until you are profitable on higher timeframes.
It is the most emotional part of trading.
I’ve read so many posts here on how to cut emotions, how to go from loser to winner and yet few if any look at the timeframe traded and think it’s a problem.
There seems to be some human need to be making money on a daily basis, like trading is some normal job.
It is not a normal job!!
The only traders (barring a very select few) who make money each day are the market makers on the open outcry floor and the arbitragers.
Swing trading wont solve all your problems as a beginner but it sure as hell will solve a lot of them!!!
Yes. I am taking a 2-3 days break from trading. Will resume with D1 time frame. I will need to re-think stop-loss levels and risk management (D1 time frame need higher SL and TP)
Although these are monies I could lose, and I am handling a small amount account, I wonder what kind of pressure would I put myself into if I were to put in a bigger sum.
Another question I need to ask myself - Was I lucky the past 20 days? Or probably 70% luck?
I think as newbies though they have to experience it themselves. It can be euphoric getting that win streak especially if you get it early on so I think for a lot of beginners (including me) it can seem like an easy way to make an extra buck. If you have the slightest bit of appreciation for gambling (which I also do lol), it can be reaaaaal easy to lure you into that wishful thinking.
It’s not long though before the mental and emotional stress get to you like what @commodguy is experiencing. At this point, the test is now whether you have the patience and determination to see it through or if you were just in it for the “easy money” allure.
Only one way to find out my dude. Onwards and upwards!
So sorry, trading is very simple by looking at it but hard on practical basis. It might take you some ages to appreciate how easy it is.
At all you’ve to learn to take responsibility of your outcomes, market offer a trader endless opportunity, it’s your job to take what market is trying to offer you by limiting your risk.
Good advice have been written such as using higher timeframe and working on your strategy.
IMO the best advice I can give you is try to read books about tradingPSYCHOLOGY (Mark Douglas has written those books)
I gave myself 20 working days to see how I fared. After factoring in losses, I am overall 5% up. Not much in dollar terms, earned couple of hundreds. I day-trade on a part-time basis.
