How do you stop the nervous feeling or anxiety created by having the positions fluctuate? Or do you not really experience those emotions. Everytime I have a good trade going, I try not exit so quickly. I tell myself work with the 5 min chart. Yet, I always get out early due to wanting to end that emotional feeling of nervousness. Once the position is closed, I am not nervous anymore. I am thinking about changing my stops to trailing stops, so they move along with the profit, but I have never used these before. -Joshua
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I think the unhelpful feelings you have when you put on a trade have to do with thinking about money too much. Yes I know this business is about making money but the trick is to think about the application of your edge and trading plan/system instead. Remain ambivalent about the trade you are in.
Any one single trade simply is not important. Whether you win or lose on that single trade is not important. Being right or wrong on that single trade is not important. What is important is sticking to your trading plan so that your edge (you must have an edge that works) can manifest itself through the endless stream of probabilities that present themselves during the day, weeks, and months. When you have nothing riding on the outcome of a trade it is easy to let it go to wherever it’s going to go and trade it accordingly. Like flipping a coin.
You might say that is easy to write and hard to put into practice, but the reality is that when you make a fundamental shift in your thinking so that you can view your trading as purely taking advantage of probabilities via your edge with complete disinterest in any individual outcome then you will have an easy time of it.
To me it comes down to mental preparation. Rehearsing in my mind what steps I need to take to implement my edge/system/plan before the day begins. Control what I can control – risk/losses with stop levels – I can control nothing else market related. Everything else though is taken care of by putting my system into practice exactly as I visualized and rehearsed it regardless of rising or falling markets. This singleness of purpose doesn’t have room to let any other emotions intrude. It is what it is. The charts tell the story. There is no room for hoping, wishing, fear, greed. Only the application of the system.
Start working with the market instead of viewing it as an adversary. It will tell you when to buy and when to sell. It provides you with the opportunities. The money that you gain or lose is only a byproduct of your edge and the proficiency of your application of it.
On a side note, are there any trading questions out there as I’ve about run out of things to write about on this blog and by now my system of trading is plain to see and getting to be a bit of a bore posting the same charts.
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