I am a scalper and decided it would be a good idea to go back to swing trading even though I suck at it
The fix: stick to my proven plan. I think the reason so many traders get away from their trading plan is that we hit a dry spell in our setups. Instead of waiting a bit longer than usual, we “try something different until that set-up comes along.” That’s what happened to me this week and I paid for it.
Not letting the trade run enough. There are times when you just have to get out. Often times these screw up your psychology to where now you’re over-managing all trades. That wasn’t really my biggest problem this week, but there were a few that I might have let that profit trigger on its own.
Since I did not stick to my normal plan, it spawns an even uglier problem: Position size inconsistency. I notice now that sometimes my risk targets were off by as my as 20%
Always healthy to look back over what went right and what went wrong. The basic strategy should be left to stand but specific tactics can and should be profitably adjusted.
I had the same problem last week as your No.2 - not letting the trades run long enough. I manually closed several trend-following trades which had TA looking increasingly weak. But I realise that the trends were already weak. In fact some people might have said they were in upwards or downwards sloping ranges. So my usual tactic of cutting losers early as trends weaken were inapplicable and I had set myself up for series of repeated small losses. Which is what happened. Have revised my rules for this now.
Man , if there is anyone out there who understands it’s you. Your replies are always very helpful and encouraging. Thanks so much. Hope we both have profitable weeks.
Steve, thank you for sharing your experiences on this forum. I hope that it will be very useful for other new traders to take into account possible mistakes which could be made. I hope that your new strategy with swing trading will be successful