Psychology Getting Started Disgruntled

The following situation happens quite often to many traders. Look it over and see if it has been happening to you:

You have been faithfully following your trading plan and the rules you've set for trading. By following them you are now in a trade that doesn't look so good. At the same time, by following your trading plan, you see that you've missed a beautiful move in a different market, one that could have made you a lot of money.

You are in a bad trade and you've missed out on a great trade. You become disgruntled. You think to yourself that your trading plan must not be so great. You think there must be a better methodology that you should use that will prevent this from happening. You think to yourself, "Yes! That's it, I'll change the way I do things." So you create a new rule or modify an old one so that such a rule would have let you capture the trade you missed and avoid the one you took. Have you been making this mistake?

Here's another way it can happen: You are in a trade, and your rules cause you to be stopped out with little or no profit. Shortly after you exit the trade according to plan, prices take off and move to where, had you stayed in, you would have made substantial profits. The move leaves you sitting there thinking you are stupid. You reason that there must be something wrong with the way you do things.

Your rules, your plan, or both must not be right. So you change what you are doing, or make a new rule so that the next time this happens, you won't be left behind.

You have just abandoned all of the hard work you've previously done that enabled you to successfully trade futures. You've abandoned your education and learning. You've abandoned the wisdom that will enable you to be consistently successful as a trader. You've just started trading history, and you are supposed to be trading on the future movement of prices. You are trading what happened, not what will happen. By not being willing to be left behind, you are setting yourself up for being left out.

If you've been having thoughts, or have been acting as we've just described, you have a terrible problem with greed. Why? Because greed can never get enough. You can't satisfy greed. Greed wants more, and yet more.

Not every trade is your trade. Not every trade has to work out for you. You have to be satisfied with getting a reasonable share of trades that fit your description of a good trade. Some of those trades will turn out to be great trades, others are good trades, and a certain percentage of your trades will be bad. There's no way around it.

Not every good trade will turn into a great trade. When you enter a trade according to your rules and trading plan, you have no idea whether or not it will turn out to be a good trade, much less a great trade. The reality of trading is that, try as you might, you cannot know the future.

Whenever we miss a big move and then try to find some pattern, indicator, rationale, or modification to make to what we are doing so that the next time we will not miss the "big" move, it is a part of the hunt for something magic - a continuation of our quest for the holy grail of trading.

What a terrible mistake to allow yourself to make. Winning as a trader consists of making some small profits and some larger profits on a regular basis. Obviously, there will be some losses. We regularly want to keep losses small, but there are times when a loss will get away from us and turn out to be bigger than desired.

If adversity causes you to become disgruntled, then you really need to examine your thinking and your approach to trading. Your trading plan must allow for disappointment and loss.

You've got to believe in what you are doing and be able to trade from the knowledge that when you follow your rules and your plan, you will make money from your trading.
When you become disgruntled and begin to change your plan, your rules, or both, you are setting yourself up for almost certain failure and the worst thing that can happen to a trader - you will lose the courage of your convictions. Without it you cannot trade with any level of confidence.

This is why we encourage you to write out the reasons and rationale for every trade you make, even if you have to do it after you have completed the trade. You must develop a keen recognition of the trades that are your trades. Write out your trading plan every day and for every trade you intend to make. If you did not have time to plan every trade, be sure to review those you did make without pre-planning. Then you can go back over your trading and be able to see why and when you are successful.

Reminder: Here are some steps to take before the market opens.

View major formations on the charts of those futures you intend to trade. View potential congestion areas, get the big picture from the longer term charts.

Write down all potential entries as you see them on the chart.

You need to go through this exercise every day that you trade. This takes discipline. However, doing so will help you develop the kinds of habits that will mold you into a great trader.

If you are too busy to be disciplined, then you are too busy to trade. If you don't discipline yourself, you will soon disappear from the trading scene.
 
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You've got to believe in what you are doing and be able to trade from the knowledge that when you follow your rules and your plan, you will make money from your trading.
When you become disgruntled and begin to change your plan, your rules, or both, you are setting yourself up for almost certain failure and the worst thing that can happen to a trader - you will lose the courage of your convictions. Without it you cannot trade with any level of confidence.

True.(y)
 
You've got to believe in what you are doing and be able to trade from the knowledge that when you follow your rules and your plan, you will make money from your trading.
When you become disgruntled and begin to change your plan, your rules, or both, you are setting yourself up for almost certain failure and the worst thing that can happen to a trader - you will lose the courage of your convictions. Without it you cannot trade with any level of confidence.

There is nothing worse than exitingearly, despite having a strong idea of where its heading, only to see it go into a big profit that you miss. Worst still is to then try to enter late on the next bar, and make a loss, having missed the profit. Worst still is taking the loss, then seeing price return to your entry level and go into another huge profit which you again miss.

This can become a viscious circle. Follwing your rules ALWAYS, gives you the confidence, stability, proven track record & profit cushion (assuming your rules works), and feeling of comfort to continue to execute correctly. Get into good habits.

Always follow the plan.

Fortune favours the brave.

Treat each trade as though it is your last - in terms of focus, commitment to following your rules, maximising profit potential. And earn the right to make another trade by proving that you have the discipline, will to succeed, and stomach for sticking to your guns and following your plan.

Do not trade on adreneline. Treat the imposters of success and failure the same.
 
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.....

The Rose

Some say love, it is a river
That drowns the tender reed
Some say love, it is a razor
That leaves your soul to bleed

Some say love, it is a hunger
An endless, aching need
I say love, it is a flower
And you, it's only seed

It's the heart, afraid of breaking
That never learns to dance
It's the dream, afraid of waking
That never takes the chance

It's the one who won't be taken
Who cannot seem to give
And the soul afraid of dyin'
That never learns to live

When the night has been too lonely
And the road has been too long
And you think that love is only
For the lucky and the strong

Just remember, in the winter
Far beneath the bitter snows
Lie the seed, that with the sun's love
In the spring, becomes the rose
 
Agree. Entering late and making a loss is definitely the worst.

The way to avoid this and install the proven track record of correct execution is to forbid oneself from entering late, missing the move altogether, IF you didn't get in at the very earliest opportunity. Entering late is perilous as you dont have the cushion of confidence of already been in profit in the move, and you may well feel extra pressure because you are now facing price risk. You have more information in front of you now as you can see that you were right, but with every pip that you miss in terms of profit potential, you face more pressure.

Get in at the very beginning, and if your SL is hit, pat yourself on the back. If your target is hit - pat yourself on the back, if you exit early & miss a profit, do the opposite.

Only by getting into good habbits can you succeed at something like trading. To get into the good habits and make them stick requires some encouragement/positive reinforcement (profits) to show you why they are a good habit. By sticking at it, the positive reinforcement should come, even if not first time, and then you can build your consistent use of your method based on this rugged & strong conviction of a foundation.
 
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Agreed - there has never been a trader who has a 100% strike rate!

Losses are part of the costs of trading - cut them quickly and move on.

Judging your trading skills based on one trade is absurd - same with making a huge return on one trade and thinking you are a genius! Judge your trading skills over time - I base my performance based on returns over a month - if you are picking more winners than losers and letting profits run but not losses, you should make a profitable living. Of course I know that is easy to say, much harder to do!
 
My last comment got truncated - if there is a character limit should not that be made clear?

My final sentence was just to say that what I am advising is easier to say that do - but not impossible all the same!
 
This reminds me of something I heard a professional golfer say about bad shots. He knows that in every round he will make 4-6 bad shots, so when he has his first bad shot he tells himself, "Good, I got that one out of the way and move on to more good shots." There is an awful lot in the way you look at things. Not just in trading, but in every thing you go through in life.
 
I'll give you disgruntled! Eight quid for fish and chips. EIGHT QUID! And I asked for Cod and got Haddock. Do I want salt and vinegar? I bet that's watered down too!
 
Hi , Joe, thanks for the article.
At some level I find it more of a ' welcome ' challenge to trade out of a failed trade . It's an objective exit still , but between the winners and losers dealing with a losing trade is more challenging.

Now I don't hope for losers or deliberately put myself in a negative position for the challenges sake, but hey, it a mindful test of a traders skill to manage the losing trades. I welcome it when it pops along !

All the best.
 
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