To learn to win, you have to learn to lose. This may be true in all areas of life, but nowhere is it as valid as in the field of trading, where losses and mistakes are as natural and common as water and air are present in life.
We know that we are going to suffer losses, so we must take the necessary precautions to minimize them. And here would enter the whole part of money management or monetary management. In general terms and in a very summary, what you have to achieve is to reduce your losses to short, before they are too big for your trading style, and do not try to be too fast to make a profit in a trend market.
I haven’t had exactly this kind of experience but it’s common especially for traders who have not made money consistently.
I strongly recommend you read the book trading in the zone by Mark Douglas. You’ll know that the right mentality is to know that every moment is the market is unique, unlike any other before it. This I sthe reason why a triple top will work one moment and not work the next moment. You’ll learn (not just know) various aspects of the market and acquire the right psychology fit for trading and hopefully this will never happen to you again.
Stop trading and read the book first, this is my recommendation…
Thanks to share your thoughts. Yes, somehow a sort of precise planning can make you guided here. Whenever you will try to evaluate your trading results, at the end of the day you will know how was your performance. Whether your learning is paying off or not.
“and didn’t have a stop loss” aside from not following your trading plan. I think that you gave yourself an answer what was wrong with your trading style. Go back to school and learn RM and MM techniques and try to apply them consistently during your trades and without any excuses
Totally agree yoga and meditation for great for trading mindset and overall mind body and soul health which again in turn is helping see the charts clearly
Time away from the charts is just as important as the time spent on them .
Meditation is something I’d like to try myself always good to a peaceful mindset
I’m just staring to fully understand the power of time away from the charts, I’m having a few weeks off and really finding the head space to be very be good, taking a step back is a great idea and I totally recommend it. #backstronger
Here is my experience too… You are not alone… I have a strategy working for me well, but it takes time for the formation to be completed, so, any time I try checking my chat to check if there are possible setups, I will see something that will just trigger my hand to trade, telling myself its just small risk, oh this looks promising… In the end most end as loss, and that is when I will now see 1001 reasons I shouldn’t have.
I checked my journal today saw that 95% of trades i lost were unplanned, Yet I can’t count the many times I have written in my journal never to trade without my plan. Infact when the trades are going against me, I feel terrible and will swear never to repeat such mistake, but that doesn’t last…
Please, I am worried this habbit seems too hard to let go. And if I’m not careful will destroy my trading skills, coz I seem to be on the same level, I use my strategy to make profit, then use my impulsive trading to wipe out profit. Its depressing, trades I lose via strategy doesn’t give me bad mood as this does.
Something that might help @benthony, create an online journal, maybe here on babypips and make it compulsory to update it each trade open and close even when it’s not according to plan. It’s easier to follow your plan that way. It gets harder to behave poorly when you make yourself accountable to people other than yourself.