Been moving forward with my trading - posting decent returns with minimal losses. Overall progressing nicely. Then it happens; I refuse to give up on a trade that erases weeks of gains and destroys me mentally! I will never be successful until I learn to admit I am wrong and minimize a loss. Why do i do this??? I know the rules!!! Shame on me - maybe I am just not cut out for it. Any suggestions???
Talk me off the ledge!
cbadham
#2
What helped me was to not view successful trades in terms of profit/loss but in terms of follow the plan/not follow the plan. Since I do a lot of ITM/ATM binaries, it’s imperative I follow the plan or small losses can end up as catastrophic losses in a matter of minutes. Also, I view each individual trade as just one “play” in the overall game. As long as I follow the plan to the T, at worst, I’ll end up with minimal loss. For example, last week I had a day where following the plan only netted me $10. That barely covers a sixer of IPA. I was more ecstatic with that $10 than I have been on my $100+ days because I had to be disciplined and execute the “legs” of my strategy as planned even though I knew the day was more than likely going to be a loser day in terms of profit.
On the flip side, there was also a day last week where I DIDN’T follow the plan and instead of taking my profit as planned, I decided I’d wait il expiry. That has bitten me in the @$$ more often than not. Again, an ATM/ITM trade chasing that last $5 on expiry and dang near losing $75 because I ignored the signs price was going to reverse mid-day like the SP often does even though I was heavily in the black. Saved by the bell in literally the last 2 minutes and by 2 ticks. You know… the dark zone. I was out in my car at work during lunch chastising myself for lack of discipline and just turned off my phone and did the walk of shame. Got to my desk and pooped when I logged in and my balance was showing profit and not the loss I was expecting to see. Notice how I said “again”? Yeah… it wouldn’t have been the first time that’s happened. More often than not it doesn’t have the miracle finish I had last week.
Could have been worse… last Monday my co-worker took his $8k tax return and more or less bet on “black” buying ATM weekly SPY calls at the top only to watch it drop. Then averaging down into oblivion. Yeah… I’m glad I wasn’t that guy.
Tonight I left about $7 on the table but took profit deeeeeeep ITM on an AUDUSD 2hr Binary and little chance of losing but price was at the possible reversal area and only $2 shy of my take profit order. Not sexy at all. No high fives. Booked profit. Executed as planned. I’ll drink to that.
Anywho… marathon not a sprint, results over time, paid to exit properly not for entries, blah blah blah. happy trading. 