Hello fellow traders,
While live trading, even if I use stop loss and take profit, I stay in losing trades until they turn around and exit winning trades a lot quicker than I should for fear that they turn sour. I risk of course 1% of my account, but seeing as how I exit much faster, I could lose all of my profits instantly.
So far, over the last week, 7 out of my 7 trades have been correct because I waited for a correction while trading support resistance, but I have made a lot less money than I would like (that my r/r is ultimately a lot worse than I calculate it) and even if I risk 1% of my trades, I could lose 50% of everything I earned this week in one mistake.
I just cannot seem to walk away from my computer and let the automatic orders do their thing.
I am not a fan of them because I trade mainly highly volatile markets that jerk back and forth a lot which puts me at a lot of risk. I was trying to “manually” trail stop my own orders, but emotions mess it all up.
This was (and still is) my problem too. A friend helped me see how I’m hurting my overall performance by not sticking to trade plans. Sometimes though, even knowing that is not enough when you’re in the middle of being anxious about a particular pair’s performance. When those situations happen, I literally just walk away from my computer or find something else to do because otherwise, I’d tinker with it until I’ve lost yet another trade.
I think it’s good you recognize what you’re doing. The crucial thing now is having that awareness when you’re in the middle of doing it.
How about a specific take profit instead. Or perhaps a partial take profit.
If your trading platform allows, you could set a reasonable take profit for a partial and then set one further away… if it hits it great! If not you manage it manually.
You’re trading highly volatile markets but they don’t seem to suit your “style” - you can’t manually run exits and the markets move too much for pre-set stops.
Yes, volatile markets can be great for opportunities, but what about a higher time-frame?
If the volatility - price movement - is there on the lower TF it is still contained within the higher TF.
The above - higher TF - with a TP based on price action should get you out on the positive side - not always of course, but more likely. It will also allow you to walk away from the screen and not be “tempted” to interfere with the trade usually to the detriment of the account balance.
I think it was that famous stock guy from the early 1900s that said “Be blind to temptation and the pennies, like seeds remaining in fertile soil, will grow into a bountiful orchard.”
What you are doing is totally fine for beginner trader, they are also like 24/7 onto your PC and is looking for everything else out there for many many reasons here and it’s totally fine and dandy, so what do we do anyway with this ? Experience.
You basically have to have control on your emotions, that is where you are lacking. Trial SL should help. Do not stress yourself so much, that will only keep piling up losses for you, nothing else. If I were you, I’d take a few steps back for a day and look at logs of trades, find where I could go wrong and what is needed to change in entry/strategy.
