Welcome to NexusFi: the best trading community on the planet, with over 150,000 members Sign Up Now for Free
Genuine reviews from real traders, not fake reviews from stealth vendors
Quality education from leading professional traders
We are a friendly, helpful, and positive community
We do not tolerate rude behavior, trolling, or vendors advertising in posts
We are here to help, just let us know what you need
You'll need to register in order to view the content of the threads and start contributing to our community. It's free for basic access, or support us by becoming an Elite Member -- see if you qualify for a discount below.
-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
(If you already have an account, login at the top of the page)
Indeed. They like to trade for average which encourages them to take small profits, and teaches them to maximize of the chance of gain, rather than to maximize the gain.
This is a gift you have give. Me. I e been going back and forth about my trading times. I e just recently made a commitment to not trade the open. I never trade the close and find that trading the EU time frame can be benefit but the best time is around 10.00 to 11am when the market has calmed down and retraced. You have confirmed my thoughts and I appreciate that very much. I’ll add it to my rules and stick to post market open or on occasion premarket and get out before the open. Masterful advise.
Most traders exit their winning trades too early because they trade for average and lack the discipline to watch their profits erode. Markets usually do go further than one thinks, however these excesses can evaporate quickly also.
For me at least, managing a losing trade isn't fraught with much angst. I don't overstay my welcome. I just get out! Paradoxically managing a winning trade is much more emotionally demanding and realizing a large winning trade can be more emotionally destabilizing than a losing trade.
I have found a fear of losing is a reason I keep jumping out of winners. Also, as Big Mike said, expand your stop a bit more. Simulate for a while and try to sit through what might be looking like a trade going against you. Lastly, if you use ninja trader, use the playback function and spend some time on market replay. playback the trades that you jumped out of for whatever reason and analyze or observe your feelings and your fears. A fear of losing was a big problem for me. Wanting to be right and not having a good reason of why I jumped into the market was a root cause as well. Of course I could be wrong but fear is always a reason we leave money on the table.
For me I think I just have to keep building discipline and judgment.
Judgment in the sense that when I have selected a questionable entry, exiting with a small profit eliminates many potential losing trades. But its a losing strategy when the price-action remains favorable once in the trade so I’m not pressing my winners which is very bad.
The discipline I need is to be able to watch the price-action once in a trade in a calm, detached manner so that I can learn to do things like add on to the trade at certainpoints or take partial-profits.
I can’t practice those things if I simply walk away from the screen so I force myself to try to grow past this but I sure flake out and close at the worst times. Just going to take more practice like anything else in trading.
You must have a strong conviction of why you entered the trade. If it is questionable you probably shouldn’t be in it. That would be a sure reason you would have the expectation of a losing trade. You must have a healthy understanding of when the buyers are jumping in and where to expect resistance. Jump in with the buyers and jump out before resistance is reached. Don’t overstay your welcome. This eliminates fear and builds confidence to stay through any minor down swing. Don’t take a trade just because it looks like it’s going up. Take trades that offer you a high probability of success with plenty of room to the next resistance level.
Lots of good ideas there. I guess I’m starting to see more and more “shades of gray” where the probabilities aren’t as clear but there is potential if that makes any sense. I used to not see these possibilities, so with more opportunities comes more questions I guess
Absolutely. This is a journey, not a destination. Everyday you will be tested. Just when you think you have acquired understanding, you will be faced with a new challenge. Best thing to do is to journal, which I’m sure you’ve heard many times. Write down what you think you did wrong and what you do not want to do again. What made you do it. How you felt before you did it. How you can overcome it, the action, the feeling etc. Express anger if you have to. Write it all down and go over your journal as often as you can and you will start forming new habits. Enjoy the journey, after all, trading should be fun and enjoyable. It’s your business. If you don’t learn to enjoy your business, success is difficult. I hope this helps.
My biggest challenge as a trader is in trying to figure out if the current trade I'm in is likely to be a winner or loser (LOL). I have experienced many instances in which a trade I surely thought was going to be a loser became a winner, and vice versa. It particularly sucks when a trade comes within mere points of my profit target and reverses to stop me out- but my philosophy now is "tough shit." I had an idea, I executed the trade, and I really don't know if it's going to work or not.. It's out of my hands. It either works or it doesn't. Thankfully I'm not too concerned with the outcome of one particular trade. I have faith that if I always stick to my stops and targets, I will come out positive eventually. Not to mention, it's a consistent approach and I never regret closing a trade too early. I can't stand that. There's evidence of it in my first journal.
This is not to say that I don't think that there's not valuable MGI that should be considered while in a trade, but this is more of a measure to compensate for my own poor judgement / psychology while in a trade. Right now I obviously have quite a black and white view of exits and it is subject to change as I grow, but nothing has taught me more to hold my winners than obeying my stop loss rule. I will stick to this rule until I realize that in all likelihood that what I'm doing won't pan out in the long run and that I need to be more flexible with my exits.. I will say, it's been very promising so far. It keeps me in trades.
Just thought I'd share this one last time. I share because it made a huge difference for me, but I acknowledge that it may not be well suited to you and you have your own way. Because I have this rule, my weakness is "overstaying my welcome." I did have a winning trade on my hands today, I just chose to hold out longer.
