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What helped me was to change my focus from being right or wrong to following my trading plan.
I found if I wrote the plan down, actually put it on paper, that I was more likely to follow it.
Don't judge your trade by whether it was a profitable trade but by whether you followed your plan. A trade that loses money can be a good trade with a bad outcome!
"The days when I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations, I have really good days" RW Hubbard
Maybe these TWO solutions will help you:
WE can't get away from losing, its part of the game. Add in breaking rules, lack of emotional control and we are are screwed. It doesn't go away just requires MGMT.
SOLUTION 1: Question Power In the moment you realize you're in trouble ASK a compelling question that stops you, to take a different action. The goal is to break the bad pattern. Why does this work? Questions are very powerful. They will snap the brain out of the present daze and free your thoughts up forcing the brain to stop and find the answers. Questions must be compelling enough for you to stop. Examples: Is this trade working? Am I losing too much? Am I going with the trend? Am I in control? Your questions need to STOP you, and are personal to you.
Solution 2 The Trading Game- "3 Strikes Your Out":Stopping/Control/Rules: After 2 losing trades, you get to take 1 more trade. If it's a loser you MUST stop go to SIM or stop for the day (your call). A winner after 2 losers allows you to continue live trading but the remainder of trades MUST be winners or go to SIM. If you went to SIM after the 3 losers you need 3 winners in SIM to you earn your way back to live trading PLUS you MUST examine all losers and FIND the errors and make the corrections.
Try it it works....any questions let me know. Hope this will be a fun way to gain your control. Great Trading! Robin
You are by far not alone.
A little toughness - my apologies, but in your best interest:
The harsh truth is that this is not a behavior you "can not" get rid of, it's a problem you "DO NOT WANT" to get rid of.
What do I mean? Of course you want to change it at the conscious level, but at the subconscious level - that "autopilot" level that actually runs the show, you are GAINING SOMETHING from this behavior. And the sooner you figure out what it is, the sooner you can turn the situation around.
This phenomenon is a lot more common than you would think, and is professionally termed "secondary gain": There is an obviously negative behavior, but it in fact gives the person a "secondary" gain, often a subconscious one, which is so great that he continues the behavior. What is seemingly "against good reason" is in fact in perfect support of a deep, unrecongnized need.
This is not a trading-specific phenomenon - we all have multiple secondary gains, in all areas of life, which are at the root of almost everything we "wish we could change" but don't. More often than not, this is not a "discipline" issue but something very real, that needs to be resolved at the root. And the only way to get rid of secondary gain-related issues is by addressing the gain directly: Identifying the gain, and reframing the situation so that a better action is more desirable. There are different ways to do this (no, not easy to do by yourself as it is often subconscious, and it often requires external help, unless you are very self aware). Once the subconscious conflict is resolved and reframed - the problem often disappears quickly.
The root conflict is very individual so I won't attempt giving a "textbook" approach - there simply is none.
I'll give just one example of a trader I've seen, in a nutshell and without the details, of course: He just couldn't stick to his daily loss limits. He'd tried discipline, rules, affirmations, scheduled breaks, and even the "mechanical" tricks (app to lock out of the system after daily limit etc.) but nothing worked.
As he was trying to identify his secondary gains from the situation, he realized he only started having fun once "the rules were broken". His deep rebellious side, that was an important part of his identity, had been repressed in real life. He'd also been taught to "separate fun from trading", so his everyday trading felt "hollow". Only when all rules were broken, was there an opportunity for all these missing feelings to come to life act out.
Once everything was identified and reframed (again, I'll skip the technical details here), the problem virtually disappeared.
could not be more true. friend forwarded me something yesterday that was sililar .. you can have 4 outcomes to any trades. good winning trades, bad winning trades , good losing trades and bad losing trades. The goal is to have good winning trades and good losing trades. hope that makes sense. if i ever find that video i was sent again, ill post it.
Yes too many traders believe that a profitable trade is a good trade. The market has a way of rewarding bad behavior, then slapping you silly for the same behavior.
"The days when I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations, I have really good days" RW Hubbard
