This is the lifelong issue I’ve always had and now it’s really biting me in the trading world. I’m at the point where I can spot good trades or think it’s too early to enter but the annoying part is, the trades I call, I ignore, and the trades other people call, I tend to enter more than my own trades even though it’s not a trade I would have originally entered.
I’m trying to learn to trust my instincts more and accept losses when they happen. I was part of trading groups and channels but I’ve decided to cut them all out and trade in a silo. But when I was trading on my own, I would hesitate too much and end up missing many good trades. At least when I was trading along with other trades I would execute. I just wish I would execute more of my own trades. But the voice in my head is so soft I often struggle to hear it.
Hi, use instincts to trade is really bad idea, how you check strategies on history data?. Try create strategies which you can backtest and draw conclusions. Regards Greg
You need a simple trading strategy that you have tested and can understand and manage. It needs simple rules you can follow and which allow for all the possible foreseeable circumstances - don’t worry, there aren’t many, there are only 4 - price goes up a little or up a lot, or price goes down a little or down a lot. Price is more important than anything else.
Once you have your strategy with your rules and your own trades, why would you listen to other people?
You are trading the wrong way. Trading with instinct is like playing Russian roulette. You need a trading plan. Get a strategy that gives you buy/sell signals. When you see the signal, go for it. The call is not yours to make, it depends on the strategy you use. Get that?
You could try trading on sim, but keep strict conditions like live where you are trading on the right edge of the chart. Where you need to test your method on sim enough times, perhaps taking stats and making a journal of each entry and outcome, until your mind subconsciously trusts your method so you can feel less anxiety when taking trades live, because you know it’s tested well. Then trading it live(starting at smallest leverage enough to be comfortable) and sticking to your method’s rules more until the live trade stats reaffirms your methods’ expectations with more outcome samples.
I think I was following too many people’s strategies and not focusing on my own. I wrote down every single part of my strategy including the position sizing and time to trade. For some reason, I was getting anxiety about a particular pair because I think I had some emotions attached to it. I think in the future, I’ll just look at what’s on paper so I can remove myself emotionally. And yes, I’ll keep backtesting.
You gotta get confident concerning your strategy. When you are a decent technical trader you will often oppose the masses because you have become the leader without recognizing it. Update your journal. Results over time will determine if you or the pack is most likely right. Ignore my comment if you are using fundamental analysis because confusion comes with the territory when using fundamental analysis as the primary driver of decisions.
Have been there. The main reason is deep down you don’t want to lose on a trade but remember loses are part of the game.
My suggestion:
Learn to trade with the trend (less resistance),
Find a trend trading strategy and back test it objectively,
Learn about multiple timeframe analysis.
On several occasions I took trades based on the signals of my system which were in contradiction with the expert’s views and they were wrong my system was right. Since that day my confidence in trading significantly grew as I found out nobody can guarantee where price is going to go so back test a system and have confidence in it.
I agree with what everyone here is saying - if you have a reliable strategy to work with then you wouldn’t be relying so much on other people and you also wouldn’t doubt yourself because you’re not “technically” relying on yourself but rather a system/strategy that’s working.
It seems we are all passing through the same pathway in our trading journey. Keep moving, beware of obstacles, observe the pathway, learn whatever you can, take some water when you feel you need rest, encourage others you see in your present pathway, keep pushing. We are at the other side waiting for you, just few kilometres more to meet up. There is a long journey ahead of us.
there’s a way to trade without making losing trades.
They need to know what will happen next to make money.
Winners know when whether the next trade will be a winner or a loser.
The reality however is different. Even with the best edge, there’s no way to know how the next trade will fare. All you have to do is follow your edge perfectly and if it works, then you’ll make profit over the next twenty trades.
Guess what, trading isn’t about the next five trades, let alone one trade. It’s about the next twenty or thirty trades, it’s about how diligently you’ll follow your system as you execute your next trades over the long haul.
As long as you know your system works, execute it diligently, cut your losses, keep your journal and maybe, you’ll make profit, or maybe not. But your chances of making a profit increase substantially if you follow your system.
YOU CAN’T CONTROL HOW THE MARKET WILL REACT BUT CAN CONTROL HOW AND WHEN YOU PULL THE TRIGGER.
Hi there. I had similar issues as you. But what I can suggest
Make a trading plan which is simple and robust. When placing trades work through the conditions i.e.
Is there a Fib Level / Moving average rejection?
Is there RSI diverengence in overbought / oversold?
Am I trading with the trend?
Etc etc……
With this you filter out the trades and fi they answer Yes to all 3 (or 4, 5, 6) then it’s worth trading. But always remember, the market does what it wants…Whilst your trade may answer all 3 YES, there may be some news…
Can I suggest that even if you have a great strategy the psychological problems will still cause lack of patience and discipline. You have to be in the zone. There are many books and videos about this and lots of expensive courses. But here is some suggestion. 1. Pay £7.99 for the financial trading at www.selfhypnosis.com. Hypnosis helps to be able to change your hissed beliefs. Then also undertake a daily meditation or mindfulness routine. You can start really simply and can google the health benefits but what this does is allow you to self check and hear the hidden voices that are screwing your trading up. If you can notice this then you can tell when NOT to trade and save your account. These together help you to have more patience and discipline to manage your system for the edge that it may have. Kind regards
You have to create your own strategy and if instinct work for you try that out. BUT watch it carefully because trading with emotions can mean big loss. Even if it is just instinct, there’s still a reason why you feel the trade will go the way you “feel” will go and when should you take profit or when should you cut hour lost when your instinct doesn’t go your way. Come up with simple rules.
You’re simply unconfident of yourself and your efforts. I dealt with the same problem like this:
Just choose some moeny you’re ready to lose and say yourself “I’m ready to lose them”. After this just trade as you want, as you’re ready to lose this money. That will help to overcome underconfidence and you will more trust yourself. Also, don’t listen other people, just restrict your communications with other traders!
Thanks for the replies. I mostly trade price action and I do have a strategy I like a lot. I think I am struggling with psychology the most at this point. One suggestion I heard was to “punish” yourself for breaking your rules. I wrote a list down of what not to do and for every rule I break, I donate $1 to a charity. Does anybody else use this “punish” system? If so, what other ways do you punish yourself for breaking a rule?
