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How to maintain a positive attitude when trading?


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How to maintain a positive attitude when trading?

  #1 (permalink)
 
dario1's Avatar
 dario1 
Ontario, Canada
 
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Ok, Feeling good about the market.
Entering position.
It's going my way -- Feeling upbeat
Bit retrace -still positive why not... it will come back
Wow -- what the hell just happened? Am I seeing this correct?
I've lost again - grrr...

How to maintain a positive attitude when trading?

Mike, I've searched the topic and I couldn't find similar thread. If I missed something please accept my apology and move the post to the appropriate thread. Thx

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 Big Mike 
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dario1 View Post
Ok, Feeling good about the market.
Entering position.
It's going my way -- Feeling upbeat
Bit retrace -still positive why not... it will come back
Wow -- what the hell just happened? Am I seeing this correct?
I've lost again - grrr...

How to maintain a positive attitude when trading?

Mike, I've searched the topic and I couldn't find similar thread. If I missed something please accept my apology and move the post to the appropriate thread. Thx

If you are having that emotion, it sounds like you are gambling. Trading involves making decisions, some of which are "gut feelings" but most of which are based on sound experience aka wisdom.

If you don't feel confident about your trading decisions, even those that lose, then you are just trading from the hip and without a well thought out plan.

If you don't have confidence in the plan you have, it's probably because the plan makes no sense, or has no true edge.

Mike

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dario1's Avatar
 dario1 
Ontario, Canada
 
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Big Mike View Post
If you are having that emotion, it sounds like you are gambling. Trading involves making decisions, some of which are "gut feelings" but most of which are based on sound experience aka wisdom.

yes, I had a year ago
--started this thread to help other traders with this emotion

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  #5 (permalink)
 Itchymoku 
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Definitely have a daily loss limit. I started just making one trade a day in the beginning. I still only make a few trades. I realized my losses were usually grouped together, so I'd just stop trading and wait for he market to give me a fresh new market state with a different day. So, I maintained a positive attitude because If I missed three trades in a day I'd just shut off the software. This is how I prevented a bad day from turning into a train-wreck. After that, It's just a matter of being comfortable with being slightly uncomfortable.

R.I.P. Joseph Bach (Itchymoku), 1987-2018.
Please visit this thread for more information.
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  #6 (permalink)
StayOnTarget
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Itchymoku View Post
If I missed three trades in a day I'd just shut off the software.

Every time I do this, the next trade that appears turns out to be a real good one.

But of course, if i carry on trading I carry on getting smashed to bits.

I've decided that a lot of it is down to the big players deliberately pushing the price to where people are likley to have placed stops for good risk/reward, it doesn't seem to matter what time frame you trade on.

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 dario1 
Ontario, Canada
 
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StayOnTarget View Post

I've decided that a lot of it is down to the big players deliberately pushing the price to where people are likley to have placed stops for good risk/reward, it doesn't seem to matter what time frame you trade on.

Yes, I think you’re slowly but surely getting to know the game

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  #8 (permalink)
pfabcTrader
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StayOnTarget View Post
Every time I do this, the next trade that appears turns out to be a real good one.

I've decided that a lot of it is down to the big players deliberately pushing the price to where people are likley to have placed stops for good risk/reward, it doesn't seem to matter what time frame you trade on.

I've decided being patient and money management is the most important part of trading.
If you look at the attached picture of the EURUSD 4hr chart
there is structure.

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  #9 (permalink)
bradyk2
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StayOnTarget View Post
Every time I do this, the next trade that appears turns out to be a real good one.

this is a common psychological problem. If you get emotional about losses, you will begin to justify any number of trades, no matter how invalid they are. if you are having a bad day and you let it affect you emotionally, you will continue to make bad trades.

If you stop trading you will look back - in hindsight - and see the winning trades, because you can operate under the assumption that, "I would've taken that trade." The reality, though, is that you likely would not have taken the trade because you are scared following the losers. Instead, you would most likely have taken "panic trades" that you talked yourself into.

There is no one way to avoid emotion while trading, but I suggest A) reading trading psychology books, and B) spending at least as much (I think much more) time working on your mental game as you spend studying markets, trends, indicators, etc.

One thing that has helped me is to put emotion stoppers in my trading plan. I am far from mastering how to avoid emotion in trading, but my trading plan says explicitly that I will not trade if I am feeling emotional, that I will not celebrate winners or get angry over losers, and that I will not swear.

the first step in avoiding being emotional, is to step away from the market at the first feeling of it.

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  #10 (permalink)
MJ888
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If emotions did not play a role, we would all be super successful traders. Understanding and then doing your best to control your emotions is the biggest issue that all traders must deal with before they can truly become successful.

Also, doing a memory wipe of all your winners and losers and the could've, would've, and should've trades will do wonders for everyone's trading.

It is very very hard to just simply follow your trading plan no matter what. The human nature in all us makes us want to win and fear losing. If somehow we can shut this part down, it would be easy to trade!

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Last Updated on September 9, 2012


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