How do I become emotionless when trading?

How do I become emotionless when trading? When I open a trade I keep on stalking the M5 chart. I just feel so anxious when I’m in a trade so I sometimes close it to regain my peace of mind. After closing a trade I feel so drained. There are a lot of times when I don’t enter a trade because of this. :sweat:

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Hi CoinLady… I think you are spending a lot of time looking at the P/L section. You can look at the trade in this other way. If you have opened the trade with a plan and with an SL and TP, just wait to see if the idea under the trade was correct or not. Maybe lower the position until you feel comfortable with the trade’s size and until you believe in your system.

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If you use no more than 1-2% of your total equity it should help your emotions.
Chart watching is detrimental to our trading health for sure .
Best of luck in your trading

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i don’t think you need to be emotionless. you just need to know how to control your emotions because it might get in the way of trading.

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Personally, I set my take profit and loss targets, then I also have a trailing stoploss once it goes positive, then I dont mind where it goes (prefer positive of course) as OI have risked the right amount for the trade.

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Use an EA would be an option.

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True, that is what I use to do my trailing stops.

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Ensure you are using correct risk management and then the losses do not hurt so much. If you know you’re a long term winner and you use correct risk management you have nothing to get emotional about

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Hi CoinLady,

It sounds like you dont have a plan that you believe in with clear entry and exit criteria…

Here are some suggestions from me;

Pick one set up and only trade that set up. Master it before moving on to the next one or do the opposite if the failure rate is so high. The point is, pick one set up that you can execute consistently. From here, your approach will evolve.

Try and codify your plan. Create a set of simple rules for entry, exit and money management. Try to be as precise as you can when creating your rules. Remove any ambiguity. read your rules often and before you start any trading session.

You are too outcome dependent. Detach yourself from the outcome. Easier said than done but if you start with the above suggestions, then over time, you will start to have faith in your approach. Reducing your lot size might help.

Trade the higher time frames. Execute your trade then walk away. This includes stop loss and profit targets. I recommend the 1H time frame and above. On these time frames, it will take at least one hour for the paint for one candle to dry. You are too close to the noise when trading the 5m chart. Some might say that you are trading randomness on this time frame. Day trading is very, very difficult, if trading was not difficult enough. Dont make it harder than it is. Up the time frame and take a step back.

Trading is a difficult skill to master, it can take a lot of time and requires practice. This is also a journey of self discovery. You might just have to accept that you are learning things about yourself and your trading and it is going to take time to iron out any self defeating habits.

Good luck.

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By the way, have you ever tried mid term strategies? It could be that active daytrading is not suitable for you.
The next thing is the strategy. There would be less emotions if you would open and close positions according to the pre-defined trading rules. In such case, even under emotions inluence you will do what is prescribed by your strategy.
There is an interesting article on emotions. The main idea is that you have to deal with emotions otherwise they would impact your trading and cause underperformance despite all your knowledge and experience.

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Rather you should adapt the quality of controlling your emotions; it’s not possible to become emotionless.

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The key to trading success is emotional discipline. If intelligence were the key, there would be a lot more people making money trading.

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emotion cant be control at all , but by means of real discipline there is a chance to keep balance emotional state when trading , so emphasis on your trading discipline.

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Hi CoinLady,

Your post describes me when it’s around Friday up until Sunday lol. I think we need to reflect and think about why we’re so worried about losing/winning. In my case, I’m worried about losing money but when I think about what I’m risking or that I’ve actually put stops in place, I kind of settle down because I already have a plan for that.

As long as I know I’ve done something in my control, that usually makes it a lot better for me.

Have you thought about what you’re really worried about?

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use good risk management, dont over trade and maybe look at trading D/4H/1H time frame than down at 5M charts so you are not sat there watching.
i’m a big fan of yoga & meditation to help my mindset. good luck home you tame it

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Don’t close it unless it is in the money. Unless you get bored with it. Or realize it’s an incorrect trade.

Input good decisions. That’s what I base my strategy on.

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Maybe there are so many newbies that having similar experience like you, first time I am trading in real account also has felt like that, anxious and scared, but with longtime experience, now profit and loss in trading is general matter, my emotion more stable and the trading result more efficient

Built up a good mindset if forex as a risky business, and to start trading need confidence to open trades, and the end result we can take a lesson from these experience

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Ahh the one thing that troubles most traders out there, the mindset. Im still trying to master it myself, can be very hard with distractions, but like people havce said having your systems in place and sticking to it will bring rain it in quite alot

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I just find it so hard to not keep on looking at the chart as price moves. :sweat: Thanks for the suggestions. :slight_smile:

It really is. Hopefully I stop this bad habit soon. Thanks @Jungletrader! :blush:

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