Have just been reading through this thread again and a couple of thoughts spring to mind. I hope they're not too off topic....
Firstly, a very experienced trader friend of mine told me something he had, in turn, been told by another trader when he first started out and that was, as soon as you start hoping a trade is going to go your way, it more likely than not means it has gone wrong and you should close it straight away - I remind myself of this advice every time I am tempted to move a stop a few ticks!!!
Secondly, for exits and general trade management / discipline, I would highly recommend having a read of Trader Dante's method which starts here -
http://www.trade2win.com/boards/general-trading-chat/32991-potential-setups-513.html . This is working really well for me and has greatly improved my R:R and general peace of mind!! I trade 1H and above and, once a trade is running, simply come back and check the trade at the close of every hour to see if the stop needs moving. I still find it hard not to look at the screen in the intervening 59 minutes but it makes for a much less stressful life if I just walk away. Now I just take a walk down to the beach or read a book - the key for me is to get away from the screen and forget about the trade until the next bar closes. Let me reiterate that it is hard to do this but I am finding that, even if my stop has been hit and I've lost money, the whole experience is becomming less stressful and less emotional.
P.S. In terms of closing trades for profit, you'll see from his thread that this strategy never involves actually closing the trade as the last stop does that for you. Again, I think this is good as there is nothing more damaging to morale than closing a trade for, say, +50 ticks and then watch it immediately climb another 100 ticks in the next minute!!
