It's called behavioral finance for a reason. We get emotional and stop following the system we made. That's exactly when liquidity sucks and things are likely to swing causing greater decay and losses than ever. I don't know if I believe there are big money market movers preying on emotions through pulling tickers through specific time and price windows directly - but they at least prey on us like turkeys indirectly. Every time you do this, realize you are a turkey, unfit to hold the trigger button, unfit the manage the accounts, letting down your family and dreams, and what you know is best. Of course all of us do this or we aren't humans. Trading psychology is a weird blend of being aggressive and patient, it almost feels like becoming a psychopath at first but then you will eventually find a calm/zen balance of being emotionless (first to a fault) then gaining confidence in advantageous opportunities. Above all it sounds like you would benefit from cutting your trade sizing. You are probably too invested. You need to get unemotional so you can hold and not fuck around during movement. Have a plan and stick to it, trade based on research and optimal sizing analysis helps. I'm only just getting hang of this after years to the point that I don't loose anymore or these self sabotage incidents get smaller and less frequent. Like learning to drive a car and having few to no close calls due to safe planning, keeping your distance, keeping the car well maintained, understanding impacts or the weather, leaving an out position in both lanes, etc.
We set goals, then get in our own way. Sometimes it's fear of failure, other times it’s a lack of self-confidence. Recognizing the pattern is the first step. Surrounding yourself with supportive people and breaking tasks into smaller, manageable pieces can help overcome it. You're not alone in this!
my self sabotage caught up to me after 3 weeks of paper trading. this shit is like a toxic ex girlfriend stalking you. you re not even dating and she still outside your door waiting. i switched to paper trading. and made around 12k in less than 2 weeks trading same way as i did in my real account but every trade i made was green. until i saw that i was making money and thats when i sabotage kicked in with paper trading and i started losing massive amounts on every fuckn trade like a switch flipped and im not unable to make any trades green. i lost 5k in last 3 days literally every trade is red right away. i try to trade same exact way bit somehow i end up buying stocks that flush down every time when in the begining i bought stocks what seems to be same but they went up instead
One of the things I've noticed is that we often get the reason for everything wrong. What you call self sabotage is likely not so bad. If the trade turned out great, you would probably categorize it differently. Also, just because each trade during your winning streak turned out to be a winner, you assume that you did everything right. But I think so often we look for reasons why some trades work and some trades don't, and our conclusion and analysis is completely unrelated. If a person obviously engages in revenge trading, it should be easy to stop. But often I think revenge trading is simply taking the opposite side of the trade after a losing trade, which sometimes is the right thing to do. Also, increasing size can be beneficial in some contexts as well. We think of it as revenge trading, but it could likely be your brain actually trying to help in a positive way to get back on track. Obviously blowing an account is dumb, but I really do think that most of what we do in the markets is somewhat random. So all we can really do is try and figure out which way the tide is going, and jump on board for the ride. If its going the wrong way, then we need to reevaluate and figure out the next step.
no i assume that i did something different. its not random trades of good and bad for me its sreaks of trades that are good. and then only when i see that im making good money and i feel like im doing good thats when self sabotage starts and literally the next day i flush all the profits i made to the toilet. and i cant figure out what it is. because from my perspective im trading exactly same but every trade is negative. therefore i can only assume that im sabotaging myself on purpose if everything seems the same to me but the result is opposite
Sometimes I get angry when I lose on a trade or get stopped out right before the market heading in my direction, or sometimes letting myself get maxed stopped out for the day instead of just taking a small loss and trying another day because I want to win the next trade without waiting for a premium setup. So yes, those are times when I self sabotage. Tonight was better, I was looking to trade long on CL before I openned the charts due to more fighting in the middle east. Once I openned my charts I did confirm positive price action based on my PA analysis. I then waited until I actually saw price begin to move in my direction. Now in this situation the main support was too far away from my target area of resistance so it was not worth putting the stop below this level due to the reward would have been much lower than the risk. So instead I used more of a standard stop under the minor support level that price was respecting. Then I just did something else and just let the trade play out. Finally target did get hit. I do not make my living off of trading which I think also helps, but would not mind one day getting good enough to do that. Instead I spend 2 hours per day driving back and forth from work and then 9 hours per day at work which includes a 1 hour lunch.
I think that such situations have happened to every trader. Therefore, in addition to technical preparation, psychological preparation, self-control and discipline are also important. Without this, no trading strategy will help to earn money when a trader is in a hurry, is greedy and trades with passion.