I am relatively new to forex. Having about 8 Months of watching and trading the forex. Eur/USD is my favorite pair. My trading style is more or less like scalping. I keep watching market on 15 min chart and when my system rules are met, I put a trade. Some times I lose, some times I win. Just like any other trader. BUT, I am facing a real problem, and I am sure that many of the other traders would have faced in past, will be facing right now AND will keep facing in future. I often freak out when price moves my way and exit trade at a very low gain, instead of watching and waiting for the price to move and hit my TP which I put originally. It seems like another force has taken over me :16: and forces me to close the winning trade so early. And it is worth mentioning here that after closing trade, price often do move in my way.
Surprisingly, It does not happen when trade go against me, it always hits my SL. I never get freaked out then.
So I am asking for help. I do know that i should keep trade running, but fear of losing my profits takes over. Unfortunately, my trading style does not allow to close half my trade on initial gain of some pips, because I know that price will retrace a little and moving my SL on the winning side will surely get hit. So I have to put SL in such a way that it is either a win or a lose. No thing between.
Sounds to me like you have a lack of confidence in your strategy - which i suspect is quite common. It is also quite understandable with a 15 timeframe as the price movement can be very erratic. It is always difficult to watch a trade on this timeframe gain say 5 or 6 pips and then to immediately retrace back to break-even and beyond and then still return to continue the trade direction.
I think this is symptomatic of watching the price too intensely and focussing on the pip values and forgetting to watch your strategy markers (MA’s or whatever).
I think there are two ways you can try and regain your trust in your strategy - which you obviously still believe in theorectically:
Return to demo trading for a period of months and see how your strategy works out.
Place your trades on a “set and forget” basis. You use target and stop levels so if your strategy’s profit/loss ratio is set right then you can let your trades sort themselves out while you go and rake the garden or have a cup of tea :). If you feel uncomfortable that your targets might get just missed then perhaps shave a pip or two off your usual target levels.
agree with manxx, good advices he gave you.
what i did back then is simple: i forced myself. you realy have to force yourself. like really forcing.
you have to tell yourself after you entered a trade that there are only 2 ways out of the trade:
- stop loss getting hit
- TP getting hit
and stick to that rule no matter what. force yourself to stick to it. after a while and a dozen trades you forced yourself into that rule you will see that your trading is more profitable then it was before and then you will have more confidence and stick easier to your trades.
you can aswell reduce your trading size. nervocity usually comes when people trade too risky (too much $ per pip)
self control is the hardest thing you have to learn when trading.
Agree with Manxx and Turbo!