The key to successful trading is emotional discipline.
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I practiced some charts this weekend, and a reoccurring problem that I have is entering a trade too early, which is the same as exiting the previous trade too early.
This is double trouble because I’m losing out on profits from the last trade, and I’m wasting money getting stopped out in the next trade.
I started holding a bit longer, and it’s nerve-wrecking. It’s just practice, and it’s still a challenge. When there are so many fakeouts to resist, and I have to hold, it makes me nervous. It’s a good thing I’m practicing.
The emotional aspect is a tough challenge.
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Since I returned to demo, my account has dropped 85%. It’s a good thing, I stopped trading live. My funds would have been gone.
I’ve mentioned this before, but my balance has been the most stable during the past few months. It went up for two months, then creeped down a little bit. But still, this is the most stable it’s ever been in years.
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When I first started practicing this strategy’s batch of S/R charts, it was horrible. Nothing but losses. Now, I’m starting to do a little bit better. But then, I had one chart that was tricky. It seemed bullish, but gave a bearish sign. I got so stuck on going bullish, that I ignored the bearish sign, and I missed my entry.
Perhaps what could be a good idea is to prepare a few charts that I save until the end of my practice. Like a final exam.
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I finished my trading, and I saw a couple trades I wanna take. But, I told myself to refrain from trading for right now.
My balance could use a profitable trade or two…
I just finished my trading. I see a few trades that I should have taken, but they weren’t even part of the strategy I’m practicing now. Besides, I’m not supposed to be taking any trades right now anyway. Just focus on practicing, because the trades I was taking the past few months were costing me a lot of losses and hurting my balance.
If I see these trades now, why didn’t I take such trades before and be in the green?
Lack of patience, is one reason. Another is just not understanding the conditions well. I didn’t prepare for these conditions.
So, I’m taking a bit of a break from taking more trades. For now, I just check the charts, put arrows on the candles I would’ve traded. Many of which were wrong…good thing I’m taking a break. But now, some of those arrows are right.
Anyway, onward and upward!
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I’ve been thinking about making a small change to my plan, the last couple days. There’s one more type of entry signal that I’d like to study more (even though I’m already a bit familiar with it), which will take me almost 4 weeks. The time to gather samples, gather charts, edit them, and practice them.
I really wanna get to the strategy after that one, which is more applicable than the previous strategies I’ve been studying.
This next one is where all my previous studying culminates. No more waiting. I’m gonna jump in.
Besides, another option could be that I give special attention to that particular signal when studying the next strategy.
In my experience (i.e. entirely personal) the most important aspect in trading is not the strategy, it is one’s confidence in the strategy.
We all know and accept that there are going to be both gains and losses. And it is important that we can let the strategy play itself out on each trade knowing with confidence that over multiple trades, the gains will exceed the losses.
Without confidence, one is constantly tempted to jump out early and take a quick profit now in case it might turn around any moment…
But confidence in one’s strategy is only gained through running it and recording the results. If one doesn’t let the strategy play out then one can never really know whether it works or not - and therefore no confidence…
You are trading demo - trade your strategy! Don’t try to intervene just because intuitively it doesn’t “feel like” its gonna work… Give it a chance to prove itself, or not.
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I’m practicing a particular setup, and by accident I slipped in a different kind of setup into my mix. There were two parts to the trade. The first trade was bullish, and the second one bearish.
I did just fine on the bullish trade, but then the bearish setup came, and I messed it up. I decided to hold and missed my entry.
I tried to blame it on the conditions. ¨I’m not practicing this condition yet. It’s next.¨
But the truth is that the price action got weird, and when I finally saw the bearish entry sign, I had no idea what to do, and I froze. The sign was there, but it looked strange.
I realized that no matter how many charts you study, the market will ALWAYS have more tricks up its sleeve. There will ALWAYS be something I don’t recognize, and that fact irks me.
This is something I have to be ready for.
Jeez Luise, I just started cruising the charts looking for samples for this next strategy. I’m looking at the charts, and I can’t help but wonder why I haven’t been nailing these trades.
It really baffles me. Probably because the chart is complete and there’s no waiting involved–the puzzle is already finished. But I see the signs for everything, and it almost makes my feel like I don’t need to study any further because what I’ve already learned should be enough to trade these particular setups.
But that’s not what’s been happening. In fact, it’s been the opposite. I wouldn’t be surprised if my main problem is impatience.
I’m gonna collect samples, and start analyzing…
Patience, young padawan.
Some of my problems:
impatience
confusion
fear
But where do these come from? Part of this is simply about being wrong and, not only getting stopped out, but also losing out on the potential profits.
However, another problem I just found is switching from practice charts to real charts.
When I practice my charts, I’m trading a two-month swing in about 20 minutes. There’s no waiting. The live market is different, of course. One candle, wait an entire day. One candle, wait an entire day.
During practice, I may be uncertain, but it’s easier to follow the strategy because I get my result right away. There’s less room for distraction. Trading the live market is just one candle at a time, and everyday there’s time for a zillion different thoughts and distractions.
This shouldn’t matter, but it does have an effect on me. It gives my doubt enough room to wonder if the current candle is the sign or not. Then, after that, the anxiety/impatience comes in.
Practice D1 charts happen quickly. I click, and I move forward two weeks. But live is not like that. This is the part that’s really messing me up. I want to stay on D1. Switching to another time frame is not what I want at all.
I have to adapt to this or it will be my doom. It’s a matter of self-control. Learning this will be very good for me.
The schedule I wrote for myself allows me to start trading this strategy in demo soon. So, I’ll just take my time and focus on that one strategy.
Patience, young padawan
So, I found a trade I thought I wanted to take. I saw some conditions that I liked. But all the necessary conditions weren’t there. It was close, but not correct.
I was going back and forth about the decision to trade it, for about an hour. In the end, I decided not to take it. My conditions weren’t met–so, no trade.
I think that even though there was no trade, it was close. And my FOMO was trying to force an entry that wasn’t there.
I checked some chart samples for reference, and it still took me an hour to decide ¨no¨. And I STILL had doubts!
I NEVER took this long to decide when I’m practicing my charts. Not even once. 60 seconds, max. Why now it took me an hour? My FOMO is strong. I need to relax more, and just let the trades come to me.
I have to tell myself, ¨Relax, you’ll see it.¨
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I think there’s a battle going on in my brain. The anxious side, and the logical side. The anxious/FOMO side is trying to make up a sign that’s not there, and the logical side is saying ¨there is no sign, whatsoever¨ And I just end up going back and forth between the two.
And this is where strategy is the savior. Without strategy, I’ll end up listening to the FOMO side, and continue to trade haphazardly.
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I have some kind of disconnect between practicing charts and trading the live market. I can practice charts and have some confidence, then open a live chart and feel lost as if I didn’t just practice charts.
So, I have to figure out a way to close that gap. I have to think up different views or steps to help me.
If we are devoted to pursuing profits in trading, then in order to reach that level, every time there is a problem, we have to ask, ¨Ok, now what?¨ Then we have to come up with something. It can’t be just getting upset, then doing the same thing over and over.
Try this, try that. Change this, skip that. Remove this, start that over. Then it’s a matter of perseverance.
Patience, young padawan.
I’m just about finished collecting chart samples for practice. I may add one or two more fakeout charts.
For the past day or so I’ve been thinking about my problem of feeling lost when I look at a live chart.
If I practice this next strategy, I’ll still have this problem. I’m thinking of editing these charts, then pausing.
There’s a gap between when I look at a practice chart, then apply what I learned to a live chart. There’s no point practicing more strategies if I haven’t figured out a way to close this gap. I have to bridge my practice to real life. Somehow…
Patience, young padawan.
I played around with a random chart, and I started to realize that all I can do is label my chart, and trust my strategy.
This is a no-brainer, but I suppose I was expecting more answers than that. I’ll have to think about it some more.
I’ve made two mistakes as of late. I deleted a sell order because I was scared. Price bounced right where I put it, and turned bearish. I was wrong for that.
I was scared to take a trade that gave an entry sign. My focus is on this kind entry, and I lost sight of that the last two days.
I’m supposed to stay focused on this kind of trade, and I got distracted. I have to focus on being patient, and actually TAKING trades. I have to work through the fear and take trades when I see signals.
I avoid trades because I’m scared of the loss. But my not taking the trades, there are no profits. There’s no guarantee that every trade will result in a win. If I’m wrong twice, but catch the swing on the third try, then what’s the problem? But if I’m wrong twice, then get scared and miss the swing, those losses were in vain. That’s a bad way to trade.
My focus has to be about patience, then ACTING despite the fear.
Hi, I want to show you that losing trades is not mistake trades. This is a strategy curve which I shared with the community.
download from here Free EUR USD 9000001 Strategy
Live results are here https://go.profesorpips.com/9000001
As you can see, it was 11 losing trades in a row. I didn’t turn off this strategy after two losing trades because I know that situation could exist in the future, last trade cover half drawdown this strategy.
In results, If you have any doubts, open your trading journal and ask yourself “is this setup match to my strategy?” if yes, trade, if no check other chart. Regards Greg
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