That dog don’t hunt for me no more! Drinking beer with my limited knowledge would be disastrous. It probably calms you down Cas, with all that knowledge running around your head.
By the way, i’m not looking for sympathy, this ol’ dog been here before a few times. This is the best job around, and before to long i will be one of the 5%ers, no doubt, always have been top dog, only takes a little time.
Anyhow this thread was supposed to be about how you control your emotions.
I disagree. A lot of traders follow the “cut your losses short and let your winners run” school of though. Walking away doesn’t let you do this…
I routinely move my stoploss up to lock in profits, and move my takeprofit up and down as the trade forms. Walking away is only good advice for certain trading systems and styles. 
Hi,
Try “forgetting” it is a live account. Treat the money like it is not real. If you did well in the demo, it should do the job.
Of course, if it doesn’t help don’t let your account vanish- decide now how much you are ready to lose, and try treating the account as a demo until you lose this amount. I hope you will not lose it all in a row�
I disagree.
“Forgetting” does not work nor does treating like is not real. What you are trying to do here is fooling yourself with constructing an illusion.
All what will happen is the capital will be destroyed and lost.
And that’s when reality set’s back in and the constructed illusion is no more.
i think it is not “fooling yourself”, if you do it when you are fully aware of the reasons to do it: if the fact is that on the demo something in the way you think work right and you earn profits, then your goal is to be able to think the same with real account. that is why you treat it as a demo, not because you foolishly believe that immaginning things are great will actually make it so.
Have a system and learn that system so well that you know what to expect from it and that you can trust it. Then trust your system.
Always know your risk when entering a trade. Always. Be prepared for taking the loss. Accept the fact that losing trades are an inherent part of this business. Find out what a losing streak can do for your account.
Do not think your account balance as money but rather as a score.
Do not make revenge trades after losing. Do not make charity trades after winning. Concentrate on what you are doing.
Lose a fair amount of your first account so that you get the experience before you are putting much bigger money on stake. Study your reactions. Step back from trading and have another thought whether this is for you or not. If you hesitate, quit. If you can learn from the experience, go on.
Read books about the psychology of trading.
Study Zen.
& Practice Zen.
well, by having a R/R ratio of < 1 you already cut your losses “shorter” than your winning. I agree that moving SLs and TPs can make sense.
However, not if you do that based on emotions and the OP mentioned (s)he would like to control his/ her emotions during the trade. So my recommendation was suggesting to use a system that lets you walk away from the screen (and make money)
Hi,
If you want to be able to leave the screen, consider using robots. Finding ones that actually work is not easy, but when you find (or create one), you will be free from staring the screen all day. You will still have to keep an eye on it, and search for knew and good ones from time to time (as a robot works well only for a limited time), but it is not like sitting all day staring.
As one who has yet to go live, I agree with you. I plan to continue demo trading for a while because I want my methodogy to become second nature to me. So that it does not matter whether I am using a demo or live account my actions and behavior are the same.
Maybe looking at a live account as “tuition” could take some of the stress out of it. Just make sure that you pick a school you can afford:p.
I would not recommend leaving the monitor during a trade on the shorter time charts.
If you have a ‘real job’ or require sleep! Perhaps trading the longer time charts would help. Consider the 4 hour chart. With the correct entry and a suitable stop a trade can be left to run… sometimes for several days, with the occasional look in just to see how the trade is progressing. The only caveat would be to set your lot size accordingly… say 0.5% to 1% of account balance.
Hi,
I basically agree with you.
But this is the reason robots exist- they can watch the screen for you!
I agree, though, that even with robots it has a certain risk, but that is exactly the art of robot managing, to know when to use them and when not to. There are certainly times that if you can’t sit in front of the screen, you better stay out of position.
hi, friend, I am new in babypips.com. let me ask you this, how long did you win on your demo account? if it last 2 to 3 months, you are good to go on real account. emotional people should not do scalping, it’s too easy to loss, I did that before, have to give up scalping, that’s the only way to avoid big loss. trade well!
Speaking of robots and automated software, I have an account with Alpari, on Systematic platform. It’s a collection of strategies you can choose by their performance results, and they execute trades to your account.
In the past I used to be angry with myself after closing losing positions that turned out to be winning in the end of the day. Traders who have the ability to leave emotions aside, are more experienced I believe.
Tradency is the one stands behind Systematic, their platform available also at FXCM, FXDD and Ava fX, maybe some more smaller brokers.
I don’t think 2-3 months is enough. Some traders say if you win for a half of the yesr or even a year on demo, if you have your own strategy, then you’re ready to deal with real money. I personally think that the more you learn, the more successful you’ll be.
Hi,
The more the better, but you can learn forever. One day you have to decide you are good enough to start trading live, and the question is how can you know the time has come.
I think 3 months is long enough, in most normal conditions.
I think the key here is not to measure your rediness in terms of months but to use a demo account until you have found a system that you are comfortable with. It may take a month or even a year to find it adapt and tweak it. When you are totally happy with it and your ability to use it then go live and not before.
Agreed.
At the same time however, I still beleive one should go live sooner than later, even a small amount. Reason being in a demo, the money is fake. No matter how serious you take it, the money is not real and you know that. As soon as you’re too complacent with that fact, going from fake money to risking your real dollars is a psychological change everyone must transition into.
I just think that if someone gets too used to demo trading, as soon as it hits that it’s real money on the line, that psychological change may be harder to overcome. That’s where you see people deviating from their plans and trading strategies.
I agree with the last three posts. Readiness is unique to each individual, but sooner or later you gotta jump in. I think if you can become [U]consistently[/U] profitable on a demo account over a period of several months, then it’s time to start thinking about going live. I agree that there is no substitute for a live account in facing the psychological issues that one will face. That is why it is probably wise to start with an amount that you can afford to lose but not so small that it becomes meaningless. That amount will vary with each person.