For the small story I’m from Paris but now I live in Montreal.

Discretionary trading is a word that most people use in the following sense: I do not have a very very clear system so I will rely on my feeling to take a trade.

If you rely on your feeling to take a trade 2 things will happen: you will fell like genius when it works or like a shit when it fails. Your mood will always be up and down (as your wallet). At the end you will leave this game emotionally exhausted and sometime financially exhausted as well.

My suggestion is: translate all your decisions in very clear language (like a programming language). Example if A happens I do B. At least you need 5 rules long entry, long exit, short entry, short exit and a money management one. If you are not able to translate the way you trade in 5 simple explicit and inflexible rules it means that you are relying on your feelings to trade and bad things will happens. With rules markets will test them of course but they will not test you (I use to think the following: it is my rules but they are not me and if they are not good enough nothing prevent me from designing new ones). You have to protect yourself from that kind of personal test if you want to survive both emotionally and economically.

(PS I’ve been a Pro for 10 years and trading is a very special kind of job, in a regular job if you’re not doing good the worst think that could happens is that you will be fire (and in most cases you won’t be fire but you won’t have any promotions). But in trading not only you are going to be fire but you will pay for that and on the top of that people will think that you are an idiot.)

Read or read again Market Wizards you may find interesting points of view.

"If you rely on your feeling to take a trade 2 things will happen: you will fell like genius when it works or like a shit when it fails. Your mood will always be up and down (as your wallet). At the end you will leave this game emotionally exhausted and sometime financially exhausted as well."

My suggestion is: translate all your decisions in very clear language (like a programming language). Example if A happens I do B. At least you need 5 rules long entry, long exit, short entry, short exit and a money management one. If you are not able to translate the way you trade in 5 simple explicit and inflexible rules it means that you are relying on your feelings to trade and bad things will happens. With rules markets will test them of course but they will not test you (I use to think the following: it is my rules but they are not me and if they are not good enough nothing prevent me from designing new ones). You have to protect yourself from that kind of personal test if you want to survive both emotionally and economically.