I keep sabotaging myself

Beginner Questions Trading Psychology
1

Hello there,

I am writing this topic after I took a big loss on my trading account and I need your help.

This is my 3rd trading account. My first 2 started kinda “ok”, not winning much, but also not losing much too. But then it happened:… I took a larger position on CFDs Indexes (SP, DAX ou ND) and didn’t have a stop loss, because I “only” intended to win a few quick bucks.

As you’re probably guessing it didn’t go well and I lost around 25% of my account (both of the times) on a single trade.

This made me take a step back and read some more books on Trading Psychology and after I read “Trade Your Way To Financial Freedom” (by Dr. Van Tharp), I felt I was ready to go back to the markets.

So, I opened my 3rd account on Dec 2018 and resumed my trading with improved confidence and mindset. Truth be told, everything was going as smoothly as it possibly can. I trade mostly Forex and have a good grasp on Technical and Fundamental Analysis, so I focused 100% on trading the currency pairs I felt more comfortable.

I didn’t trade much on December, so my real results came in January and the fact is that the first month of the year was a great one, having achieved a 2,5% return, which is on my monthly target (2% to 4%).

I felt great because I was following strict risk management rules, trading smaller then usual and less often. I reduced the number of trades I took every week, by a significant measure, focusing on higher risk-to-reward swing trades (mostly base on Pivot Points Theory).

Everything was great until yesterday…

… I don’t know what compelled me to do it, but the fact is that I took a larger position again (this time on DAX) and didn’t set a stop loss. I had a short position and if you look at the chart, you’ll have no trouble finding out how poorly I did.

The result? I erased the 3% that my account was up since late December and an “extra” 20%(!!).

I believe I’m in a big need of professional help. I keep sabotaging my trading performance by making absolutely shocking mistakes. I really don’t understand what drives me to do this terrible decisions, but I’m desperate to fix this.

I covered my losses by depositing the amount I lost, with little effort, to try to forget about the trade, but I won’t do this ever again.

I feel like I’m at a point, in which if I ever do this kind of mistake again, I’ll just give up on trading.

I’ve been complimented for my technical analysis and trade planning (I share well thought and conservative trade ideas every week), but my mindset and psychology are not allowing me to fulfill the potential, I strongly believe I have.

Have you been through this kind of experience? How did you fix it?

Regards.

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it seems like you do well until you don’t follow your plan. Just try and force yourself to stick with your plan moving forward, and please don’t give up. You got this! We all have those moments where we’re like 'wtf did I just do?? But all you can do is learn from your mistakes, keep pushing and just try not to repeat the same mistake again

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3

At least you recognise the problems and are trying to deal with them before you repeat them just one time too many.

Discipline is essential but you have to be also develop the attitude which leaves you “at ease” with following a strategy, accumulating money slowly and letting some opportunities go by because of the risk attached. As they say, making money isn’t hard, its keeping it that’s difficult. Journal your thoughts fear s and emotions before and during a trade, alongside the price and chart data. Could be quite illuminating.

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4

Being a successful trader takes extreme discipline. Everyone goes through what you are going through.

You will be more likely to incur heavy losses if/when you deviate from your trading strategy and money management rules. You will get bored, over-confident, emotional etc. and trade too often and/or make bad decisions, but you have to force yourself to be disciplined.

The market is like a mirror and will show you what you need to change and what you need to improve on.

I always advocate trading on a demo account until you have proven yourself to be consistently profitable over the long-term.

Your education can be as cheap or as expensive as you want it to be.

-Most people eventually give up. Trading is not easy. That said, if you stick with it and learn to master it, it can change your life.

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5

Thank you for your kind words.

It’s the “not following the plan” that is holding me back.

6

Thank you for your recommendation.

I will definitely give it a shot.

7

make a plane, write down the rules and don’t vague, when to (trigger) when to exhit (win, lose or draw can be too much time in the trade)

Then keep a record. so when you make an adjustment you know what you did right or wrong.

Someone above mentioned discipline, stick to the rules.

As the saying goes, plan the trade and trade the plan
Failure to plan is a plan to fail.

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So I am still a newb and on demo, but I made up this A5 sheet that I print out and have to fill in before every trade - yes with a real pen!
One, it gives me a record of “what (on earth) was I thinking?” but two it is a pause for thought and I am not allowed to skip any parts.
On at least one occasion I have changed my mind about making a trade because “why” turned out to be “because I’m bored”, on another when I wrote my exit reason it was far too vague so I! went back to the charts and refined it. Might help you, might not…

Trade Questions
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9

whether this decision from your heart? or are you still hesitant in addressing these problems.

10

its really hard not to over trade, i suffer from that especially when i’m not being mentally strong…its all the mindset for me meditation helps my trading big time

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I’ve always wanted to incorporate meditation as a part of my “mindset building” but I don’t really know how to start.

Do you have specific exercises for traders?

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Self-discipline is mandatory for a successful trader. Just make a plan and follow it to the letter and you will realize a lot of improvement. Self-sabotage is not a problem unique to one person as it affects many traders, but those who learn from their mistakes are the survivors who eventually make it big and rock the Forex market.

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13

I have discovered so much about my self learning trade.
Most likely the biggest thing for me to stop self sabotage is learning enough patience to follow my rules and once entered leave the trade alone.

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Exactly, always learn to stick to your plans even if you want to try something new stick with the old one. All you can do is make an upgrade.

15

If you want to try something new, do it in a sandbox

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I don’t think making a plane will help in this endeavour, but thanks @midwest for your contribution

image

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17

I went through this experience. I did not fix it. Anyone can make a mistake and unreasonably open an order with a very large lot. Is that what I now bring to the trading account less money. This is enough for one or two orders. Therefore, I will not be able to risk too much money, even if I want. Stop out my risk manager.

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18

Hast makes waste and I do not check the spell checker,

Thx for pointing my the error of my ways.

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Thx for pointing out the error of my ways :wink:

Have a lovely weekend

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Look at “no nonsense forex”. I am taking a break from forex for a similar reason and following that person so I can have a complete winning strategy.

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