The last 2 weeks was pretty good for me +3.69%. Then last Friday, I’m down -0.66%. I’ve been looking at the charts since Monday and until today, I can’t seem to have the balls to execute another trade because of the fear of losing what I’ve gained. I feel really stuck. Should I go see a shrink?
You will never make money if you’re stuck here… Think about this. You gotta do it and open another position based on the strategy you’ve been using. If you don’t continue, you won’t have a chance to become better and improve yourself.
Sometimes I’m afraid too and not 100% confident either. But I trade and follow the strategy and try to improve myself. I have made many annoying little mistakes that I try not to make again, so I keep practicing. I don’t risk too much and I don’t blow my account. Now it’s time to become a better trader so later on I can make some money.
I am not surprised that Friday was a negative day for you. It was the end of a week just before a new week including major events such as G7 meeting, US/Nth Korea summit, FOMC and ECB meetings. This meant a lot of Friday trading would be spent adjusting positions and exposures rather than directional trading.
But there is a very important issue here in your post. I am sure it is quite a common situation, especially for new traders starting out with their live trading. ( I don’t believe you would be saying this if you were trading a demo account or are a veteran).
Obviously the prime objective is to make a profit but in forex trading this is never entirely in our own hands. We only deal with probabilities and that means there will be losses no matter how skilled is our trading “craftsmanship”.
But this type of problem arises when we start to macro-focus on our past profits and the specific trade we are currently contemplating instead of the overall progression of our account over a period of time.
The danger when our focus is distorted in this way is that we tend to stare at the price movements of our open trade and forget the strategy parameters and then take a quick profit instead of giving our trade room to breathe and reach its full potential. Equally, when the trade is in minus pips, we tend to let it run rather that realise the loss - or even “hedge” it with an equal and opposite position. Somehow, locking in the loss feels better than closing our the original position and we falsely believe we can then “trade out of it” in our own time. It rarely ends up with any improvement!
There are maybe several factors here in your situation:
Perhaps you use a mechanically- based method but do not (yet) trust your method sufficiently to be assured that over a number of trades it will produce a net gain regardless of each individual trade outcome.
Or maybe you trade on a discretionary basis, judging your trades on a subjective assessment of what you are seeing - and do not have sufficient confidence in your own ability (yet) to act on what it says.
You have not (yet) developed a clear enough risk/money management approach that you feel comfortable with and confident that it will protect your equity by limiting the impact of each individual trade and also provides a net gain over time provided your strategy actually works in your trading style.
Either way, you have to appreciate that in order to profit from trading you need to be in the market - and if you are in the market you will make losses. What you now need to do is analyse what is actually distorting your focus here and find the solution to that - then trade a position size that is small enough not to cause concerns about its impact on your overall account size and follow your method with discipline, keeping a journal/analysis of your trades, and clarify your risk/moneymanagment parameters.
You need to build your confidence across all these areas…….
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ive joined a really good mentor and has helped me with my confidence in trading… do you use one ?
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Trade smaller lots, this will build up confidence, but if you are sticking to a plan, you should have nothing to worry about, and remember losses are part of that plan.
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How about withdrawing your profits and taking a fresh start with the balance you had before you started gain?
Then perhaps you wouldn’t feel you have more to lose than you had before.
This fear of trading is perfectly normal, whether you are in profit or loss if you have had a nasty shock recently and do not fully trust yourself / system.
You will find that some posters here are better able to help you than others, who may be willing, but sometimes lack knowledge or experience.
Manxx is one of the ones who has a depth of experience and knowledge - you should listen to him and understand what he is saying.
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I wish I understood me sometimes 
……. but thanks for the compliment! 
All the more so coming from you! 
That means, you opened your live account too early; please spend enough time here and make a good trading skill for live trading. Then you’ll be confident enough for sure.
Is this one of those online trading gurus that claim to have the the “perfect” or at least “near perfect” trading methods that will aim to sell you membership and so called mentorship?
who do you use, maybe I can check them out? -noob question
Manxx has commented on one of my other posts. Daaaang, very insightful. Im sure to follow you around now, @anon46773462
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Would you know where I can get one those back testing softwares? a free one perhaps?
actually, I’ve had a demo account with oanda and made like 26% in a year, before opening a live account with them. Then I decided I want to do the real thing. Now, it just much harder to simply go in and execute a trade
What this says to me is that you are concentrating too much on making “worthwhile” profits rather than first gaining confidence with your trading.
If you have had success with your demo account then the only factor causing your reticence to place trades is the size of the loss potential.
If your live account is also with Oanda then, I believe, you are able to take positions so small that you are only risk even cents per trade. In that case you could select a position size that is so small that it does not cause you stress when calculating the loss potential, but does allow you to gain confidence with your overall trading……and then you can start to increase your position size to whatever you feel worth it.
This was one of my stern lectures! 
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Love that photo ! 
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How is your experience with oanda if you don`t mind me asking?
The shrink will tell you to believe in yourself and have courage. 
(After that you will have to pay the shrink, and you will loose even more capital)
No man, really, no worries, sometimes taking it slow with trading also works. Everything is better than overtrading and making incorrect decisions.
Good luck pal!
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I assume you trade on live account, that’s why emotions to control over you. Basically stop loss function helps, but you may find convenient to take some rest to analyse what holds you back from confident trading, etc.
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Yup, you’re absolutely right @anon46773462, I am able to take positions so small its down to the cents. However, although losing a few cents here and there wont get me any poorer, it’s not about the amount of money lost, it’s more of “why can’t I figure this out???” Kinda thing.
(First time to do quotes, not sure if im doing this right)
It is true that we all require preservation of our hard earned money. But how can we expect growth of our income if we start thinking that money will be lost further. Rather thinking in such negative way, try to analyze market behaviors and start trading carefully. Best of luck.
Sometimes the fear is the brains way of telling us that danger is around the corner. And if we dont obey then there will be pain to confirm that we are on the wrong path.
It can also be a way of telling you that the approach you are using - although profitable - is not something that you are truly comfortable with. It does not fit your temperament/personality/goals for trading.
Here are some possibilities
- Maybe if you are a Day Trader, the fast movements are too much and dont give you enough time to recover emotionally/psychologically. So perhaps Swing Trading which gives you more time in between trades to recover is better suited for you.
This is why I switched to Swing Trading. As you can see from my recent results …there is enough time in between trades to calmly choose the next one…especially after losses…
The graph here shows it a little better…
On average (if I dont miss an opportunity) my trades are 1 time a week. 2 Days Holding Period and then 2 days to assess and recover then a day or 2 to identify and prepare for the next trade.
- Maybe you are not that confident about your strategy because maybe your strategy has a few missing elements.
It can be like football. If you are up by 2 goals and then concede one…if you have a better strategy than the opponent which led to those 2 goals - and it wasnt by luck - you should be able to maintwin or build on your lead.
But if it was not built on a good strategy then you are likely to panic and worry and 2nd guess yourself. Maybe this is what you felt when experienced that loss(es)…a feeling that is more present trading Live.
After experienciing a setback…it is expected that you will feel a little unsure. But you should be able to shrug it off and that fear should be replaced by confidence in a strategy that will work most of the time.
Live Trading has a way of bringing out issues that do not arise in Demo.
Duane
DRFXTRADING
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