Basically you should not feel guilty for a missed trade,just a little will help you learn the pattern so you don’t miss it next time you see it again. You should feel guilty if you didn’t followed your rules, because you jumped out the displine train and let your emotions take over.
It really works and works for me as well , taking time off the screens to do something productive and time consuming ,you get calm and sort of happy with the results of the work you’ve done .
I agree, it’s important to have an activity you can use to relax when you’re not trading, something to help your mind rest so you can look at the charts with fresh eyes when you return to trading.
It’s not really a case of whether you ‘should’ or ‘should not’ feel guilty, emotions arise as they arise, and are not under direct conscious control. What we do with them as they arise is a different story, and we can decide that they’re helpful or not in a certain context and then have a strategy for responding to them. Although that’s not something you can just start doing, it takes time and effort to learn to self regulate and work positively with emotions.
You don’t need to figure out this stuff on your own either, 1000s of years of wisdom is available! You can get that ‘directly’ from approaches in stoicism or buddhism, for example, or, if you prefer, more modern, evidence based approaches, such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction. Many excellent books available.
I would strongly caution repressing or blocking emotions, the general consensus is that leads to more not less problems the longer term.
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Guilt, as an emotion, is provoked by the sense that you’ve done something wrong. As such it can actually be controlled by convincing yourself you’ve done nothing wrong.
Work on your emotions. Opportunities happen everyday in Forex market. Good luck!
Yeah, or this time can be spent in analyzing mistakes. When I turn on my brain and logic, and start to think about causes and consequences, I notice that unnecessary emotions pass away…
I wouldn’t feel quilty If I missed a trade. I view each trade merely as a series of probabilities. So I don’t have to worry about it since there is always another. But the most important thing is this, Know why you take a trade and what must happen for you to remain in it.
That is my approach as well. I feel a lot guiltier if I do open a trade and then I lose money because of it.
Maybe its a blessing in disguise so we i think there is no need to regret, instead we should plan for our future trading rather than chasing a lost opportunity.
You shouldn’t feel guilty for missing a trade. Usually everything happens for a reason. What you can do in these cases is to calm down and change your point of view. Take a look at your mistakes and learn from them. These missed trades might turn out to be even better opportunities. I am not sure if some books on the matter will help you to get over that aggression but they could point out some common mistakes. Only you can help yourself to become more focused and disciplined. Just follow your strategy and try to not get too emotional.
That is my opinion as well. Even if you miss out on a trade that supposed mistake could lead to an even better trading opportunity. There is no point in stressing out about it beyond analyzing why you missed that trade.
There will be many occasions when a trader will miss a trade. But there are opportunities everyday. It can be frustrating, but you don’t have to kill yourself. Just learn from why you missed entry, and watch for opputunity again.
I agree. The market will always provide you with a new opportunity to trade, there’s no use crying over spilt milk.
Hello all, and thank you for the help!
It’s been too long since I replied to my own thread, so apologies there. However, I have not abandoned it.
First off, you are all very kind to share your thoughts and opinions, they help a great deal. I think I’ve overcome that side of me, however, there are still times I want to go in a trade just for the sake of being in one. Controlling it though.
I think I owe it to you to explain a bit more, and maybe some other newbie trader like me will jump over and avoid my mistakes.
First off, a neglected side of me, I’m stuck in a 9-5 job I don’t really like too much, and as 90% of the people who get involved in trading, I want that to be my full-time career. The pink-tinted glasses don’t fall off as easy as one might think. The reason I always felt the need to be in a trade, is because I really really really wanted to quit my day job / get great fast. And that’s impossible - and I understand it now. “This game is a marathon, not a sprint” I see written everywhere. And it’s true.
Second, when you’re new, you learn a bunch of ways to analyze the markets. In retrospect, backtesting, they all work and you should be getting 50-100% growth per month (or more). That’s in retrospect. When you’re a newb, you develop a mindset (after you learn those ways) that it’s actually so easy to trade. You lost here because of chance, there because of bad luck, but look at this - my analysis is always so perfect! The other guys must be dumb, it’s so easy; I can make money any time I click “buy” or “sell”.
Of course, we all know this is not the case; however, with the above mindset, I was expecing to “nail it” all the time, so I wanted to be in 10. 50. 500 trades per day.
Well that didn’t work out for me well… Not in my first, 2nd, 3rd… 9th account. [B]That was the fastest way to blow those up.[/B]
And finally, I had the wrong strategy. I was a swing trader with active trade management. But as a person, I’m not a patient one. It was a setup for failure, managing an open trade going in profit for days, watching the swings; coming from a guy that wants to enter the market 10 times per day and lacks the patience to wait for the perfect setup to unfold.
[B]Now I’m trading two opposite strategies, that treat MY personality well.[/B] I’m scalping on the 1min chart, soothing my aggressiveness (~1RRR, 60ish% strike rate, 10-20 trades per day) , and swing trading a set&forget strategy (~6RRR, ~30-40% strike rate, 4 entries per month). I would not recommend working with 2 strategies for other newbies, but at least pick one that actually rolls well with you.
One final note I wish to make, and I really do hope this post (turning into an essay) is helpful for someone in the future.
Whatever you choose to do, this is a business like any other. When you study entrepreneurship, you will be taught how to first state your company’s mission and statement. And this seems to be neglected a lot in this business. What IS the reason why you trade? How much time will you wish to spend trading? What are your personal goals?
If you wish to have a side-income, would not suggest you try scalping. If you lack patience, like me, swing and position trading is not really for you, for most cases.
And so on, and so on, and so on…
You can certainly make a living from that - and at comparatively low risk - if you’re really proficient at it.
I’m sure you can, from that, as well. Many people will find that one the more appealing method of the two (I don’t think I do, but I have no experience of it).
Contrary to what most people seem to think, and say, my own impression is that in the long run, the “[I]risk management parameters[/I]” with this second method are actually [I]considerably[/I] more difficult for most aspiring traders to handle than is true of the scalping (though of course I’d never advise beginners to try scalping, I hasten to mention!).
No; I suppose not - can’t argue with that, really. Still, I wish you well with both. 
My point was actually not on what exactly I trade, I’m yet to master either:) But how I fit them to match my personality and traits. Although it seems exhausting, it fits what I want to do, and my idea of trading, thus actually feels easier than what I did before.
No - I know … I was kind of digressing, sorry. :8:
I have very, very limited understanding of “trading psychology”, myself, and have been finding it an interesting thread and was pleased to see it continuing; thank you. I do take your point about about trading-style fitting personality, of course.
Heh, psychology is an enigma for me too… Only thing I do is keep a very detailed personal diary, and not trades wise, but ideas wise. It’s fun to see how I can contradict myself 4 times over 4 consecutive days 
makes you think and re-evaluate stuff
Writing down one’s ideas as soon as you come up with them is actually a pretty great solution. I should start doing that too.