What's your greatest psychological challenge as a trader?

Hi @badpandafx, great thread. When I think about it, I have similar issues as @JoshRSA. Since I work on a Monday-Friday schedule it’s hard for me to catch the “right” market moment. I don’t have enough time to make a proper analysis and sometimes rush my trades so the results are not always quite good. And in the evening I’m a bit exhausted to gather my thoughts and trade efficiently but I am learning how to correct this. Here, I see many helpful tips.

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It’s the same boat for me at times. I work during the week as well, but I tend to just force myself to do my analysis and back testing after I get home from work.

My greatest challenge now is to have more faith in myself. I am very insecure about my trading, even when I know I am right.

Controlling the Emotional trading is the biggest challenge i faced… and FOMO… it made me take some bad impulsive trading decisions that almost ruined my exp. but now i guess i have overcome those fears and i am quite satisfied with my trading now.

Haha, nice. I think best way to avoid trading mistakes, including market revenge is to work on our psychological shortfalls. It also improves your own emotional state.

Perhaps focusing on a traders number one rule of protecting your capital will help.
Focusing your risk management rules and does a trade meet this rules will eliminate taken risky trades, over trading and gambling.

It will also provide a trader to cut losers short and allow winners to run.

Providing a trader with the best trade management and cash management.

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My biggest psychological challenge as a trader is, I think the “what if” question in my head. But i think every beginner faces this challenge.

yes admitting your mistakes avoiding them and improving trading in next plan is a challenge. As traders know where they were wrong but how to be right next time it is also a difficult task . It need full practice and experience to prove when they are going to be right with the tested methods.

It is a factoid that most traders enter a trade correctly but then screw it up in the trade-cash management of that trade.

Plan you trade and let it run win-lose or draw and then make your strategy adjustments with a post-mortem analysis.

So what’s your advice on determining correct exit points? Using S/R levels same like for entry points?

I’d also suggest an on-going battle I have with trading is over-thinking it. Trading doesn’t need to be complicated, TA is simple, chart structures are obvious or else they’re not really there, you don;t need to spend 10,000 hours learning economics to trade forex, an uptrend starts at the bottom left and goes up to the top right.

I usually place my exit point for my TP at 50-70% of the S&R targeted level, But if I am watching the trade I will grab the TP and move it up if the PA shows promise in strength. And I move my SL to breakeven at the same time. After that point, you can’t lose money because you have removed the risk.

That said I usually have at least two but not more than four of the same pair trades running simultaneously I will all close except one and move my SL way up like it’s a new trade.

I could just let them all close and re-enter but that is a waste of broker fees.

Excellent advice there - Excercise fulfils the Adrenaline demand for teh “Flight or fight” response - I often find that when a trade is getting traumatic, rather than just closing it, a brisk walk for around a half hour allows a return in a more logical frame of mind.

The same applies, if you have a scary meeting coming up, or have just received a difficult letter which needs a calm response.

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Unfortunately, I have only learned this trick recently. But better late than never!

Its really tough knowing the difference between a good strategy being traded at the wrong time (bad market considerations), compared to a flat out poor strategy.

I think it’s all about understanding the market structure your trading and limiting losses (learning lessons).

When I’m seeing losses, I just reflect on the logic of what I’m doing and if flawed, I look to make small measurable tweaks.

Be careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water.

_ frequently find my self quit out of fear and overtrade out of greed… This article here has helped me adopt the right mindset of a trader.

You have to test your strategy by doing much practice so that you prove it successful or failure for trading results. A trader can guess well where he is misfit with market . He can be wrong but will improve by admitting mistakes, his emotional elements involved in trading. As he will make a structure ,plan and follow it with discipline he can avoid many psychological factors that disturb trading.

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All traders have those problems, some more frequently than others. The best way to learn how to avoid them is to trade as much as you can. Note down what you did, how you did it, and what you should do to avoid it and refer to your notes frequently.

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couldn’t agree more! :+1:

The greatest psychology challenge in forex for me is about how to control greedy, sometimes very hard to keep discipline when the market looks like giving great opportunity to getting easy profit, sometimes leading me to open higher lot size with expectation will obtain higher profit at short time, I know this is a mistake, but sometimes I cannot stop it