when you see that there is no progress in work, then you need to use something new, find a new approach and strategy, you need to change the situation
- Accept responsibility: You made the loss; be sure to own it.
- Stop trading: Take a break to figure out what went wrong.
- Have a plan: Make a detailed action plan for future trades.
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Sometimes taking a break just to contemplate everything is what is needed
I try to sort out why there is no progress in trading and what do I do wrong. Actually these are the main questions which help to determine the vector of my strategy and it’s effectiveness. In most cases, eveyrthing is wrong with your strategy, rarely it can be connected with your mental health, like burning out and stuff like that. To my mind, we have to sort out what’s going on with our strategy, because makrte isn’t stable and it changes from day to day, hence we always have to create strategies which can be suitable for particular market conditions. No doubts, that by such steps we can get rid of regress, but also we can prevent it in future.
That is a very good analogy. I agreed with the fact that sometimes strategies can be wrong due to external factors influencing that, so sometimes it does not work out the way that we wanted it to in trading.
Whenever trading is not going right, I get frustrated and panicked easily, but now I keep trying to control my emotions and trade with a gut.
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This, right here. This is the struggle! Not trading and just waiting is really difficult.
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I take a break from trading to save myself from overtrading.
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Take a total break from trading and throw myself at something else. When I come back, write down what are my requirements for a strategy in terms of lifestyle, time allocation, level of patience etc. Then I start to piece it together from there.
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Agreed! This is what I do when I am unable to focus on trading, taking a break is normal and I often feel much well prepared when I come back.
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It is important for the mental aspect for sure. It is very easy to get inside your own head when trading so breaks are important to prevent that and remain focussed when you return. Personally that’s why I look to trade on very specific time windows. Anything outside of that I walk away.
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Then,its about time to start question everything.because shifting to another strategy is pure waste of time.the market beats me in evert possible way,it just dont seems like any hope out there.if you are this desparate at the moment,congrates,you have start approaching the right way.bexause,the answer is never the trading system itself.but the certainty aming all the randomness
There are such moments in every kind of activity, I guess. As for trading, the first thing I do is analyse my current trading strategy and look for some weak points. However, it is not always possible to find such spots. In this case I try to find a kind of inspiration or other ideas on the internet. They can provoke thinking and I may look at my decision making process under different angle.
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its all part of the journey
Analyse the data. What are your past trades telling you. There should be plenty of losing trades to inspect. Review your trade journal. You have one, right?
Agreed, @cashking86, the Mental aspect of trading is very important as well, and it’s actually a critical part of any trader’s success. If you lack the ability to keep going, no matter how hard things get, you’re not going to be able to keep your head in the game.
I am still in my learning phase, but whenever I feel like forex trading is hard, rather than quitting, I take a break for a day or two and then restart after rejuvenating myself.
Seems this thread has got some new life. I’ll give my opinion but not like it matters much or is even correct lol.
If you’re dealing with a strategy that doesn’t seem to fit you anymore start with some basic questions and some logic.
- How much time do you want to spend at the screen?
- What does your schedule allow?
- If you don’t have a lot of time to spend at the screen maybe think about trading off the Daily or 4HR.
- Do you like having indicators or are you intrigued by a naked chart with just price action(which is a “strategy” that doesn’t need to be changed as the market changes). Neither one is wrong just depends on how your brain is wired. I’ve tried both.
- Your account size doesn’t matter if you switch to a Daily, Weekly, or even 4HR just adjust your lot size for your stop loss to be comfortable. Cause at times a higher time frame may require a bigger stop.
- How much pain can you take, can you keep trades open for days, hours, or only minutes?
Just some simple questions to answer, but also be careful jumping strategies. You can burn yourself out trying to fight just that mental fight of which one fits. Fear and doubt keeps us from being successful in this game, just how our mind is wired. So if you like to start a new strategy just backtest it before going live, at minimum 6 months of backtesting(which is a small sample size but gives you an idea and some confidence in it).
And if you can’t back test, TradingView is only like $20.00 a month and will give you the ability to do chart rewind and test it truly without seeing whats coming up, cause being able to see what happens before where we would place a trade influences your backtesting data and keeps it from being totally subjective.
Also I believe demoing is a waste of time, there is no emotion(biggest single reason traders fail) or feelings in it. And working out the kinks in your system can be done through backtesting it up to present day.
There are plenty of successful strategies out there just got to find what fits you and sometimes that is quite the challenge. Then just hone it and prep your mind for the mental battle.
Agree. 
This is something I do now too. 
Haha. I used to be so scared of taking breaks cause I feel like I’d have to start from square one. But not anymore.
A man with a plan! Haha. I usually just take a break before rushing back in. 
But I’ll try out this method and see what difference it can do. Haha.
Definitely. Taking breaks really helps alleviate the anxiety that has piled up from all the missed trades and losses. 
That’s why I often take breaks. 