you feel this way because you don't have a well defined trading plan and so your entries and exit are not clearly defined. Your feeling uncomfortable/anxious is your subconscious telling you that you don't know how to deal with a losing trade. A smaller trade size or trading with money you can lose will not make you comfortable. You need to "nut up" as RN would say and work on developing a detailed trading plan with well defined targets and stop loss. When you do that your anxiety will disappear because you'll simply let the price hit your stop loss or profit target. Unfortunately there are no short cuts. Its time to nut up and grind it out.
just forget about money. do not look at market, and associate the move with loss and gain. just descibe the market as it is. for example, I see the market is trending down, I get to sell the market is rallying in a trend, I get to buy at the support the market is stuck in a range, I get to walk away with directless indecisive market do not describe the market like that: the market is going up, I want to sell since market will go down the market is going down, I think it will bounce, I may buy the market is in a range, I think it will break up, so I get to do it before others so I can get the cheapest the market is manipulating, non sense, I get to fight with be objective. the latter method will easily lead to revenge trading, feel smart if right, feel betrayed if wrong, ... do not look at the market too frequently, even each tick/quote. that will create nervousness. when I read those quotes from my program, I found most are just bogus information, though changed too quick, but actually the trades are not executed. I look at 3minute EMA,chart pattern, for long term, I look at 50days EMA and do through fundemental research. I ignore those little ups/downs. that helps, though soemtimes lost a little bit profit, and enter a little late, but that really helps. I do not look at money. I look at how much changed, the %. you will feel it is pretty slow. just sit and enjoy the riding. if stopped out. do be mad. thisnk that is just a tickt fee. mental practice helps too. dream you are trading, just like playing a game. visualize yourself doing trading without any fear, you develop a idea, design a entry and exit plan, what to look, what to ignore... it is a loop, evolution. after regious practice, you feel better. but some days, you will find you may come back to old ways: hesitate, fear because of several minor setups from judgement errors or stopped out with a loss. or paper trade, several months, get a good habit (remove fear). though I do not like paper trading. some people paper trade for testing startegy, that is waste of time IMO, but craft a trader, make you have a habit to think, act in prof.trader way, it is a good start. I mentally trade after the market closes. I see myself flawless execute my plan, it actully works.
are u a profitable trader? If not, don't give advice. You only hurt people. Not good. I also advocated in other threads that non-traders should declare their status so that people know where their comments come from. For example, a broker will always laugh at day traders: "small traders lose, they just lose." Sometimes, these non-traders deliberately mislead others by pointing out their registration time on ET and telling others how long they have survived this game. Not good.
i will go here with JH. if you dont like losses have to be dicretionary. Find method that has proven over years to distile winners only and then it is just matter of scaling up. So you go in only when you know the market. yes, there are 100 of hurdles on this but there is no odds. if you know will win.
But how do you let your profits run, if you with a well defined target exit? Yes, I can cut my losses, but how do I let my profits run, if I need to have a fixed exit.
The profit target is the minimum profit that you expect to make. One strategy can be to define the minimum profit target as the previous high or low. You can ultimately hold the position for a breakout of that previous high/low and target or move to either a) the next S/R in line to be tested, or b) a measured move if indicated. If price doesn't quite make it to the previous high/low, hits it and fails to break out, or breaks out very weakly, then you can look to take profits and possibly reverse to the other side. Defining the profit target is an integral part of your trading plan. That's why you need to clearly define setups, entry and exit strategy. Thing is no one can hand it down to you, you have to define your own and that's why learning to trade requires thousands of hours of hard work. You can do it if you have the tenacity, the passion and will to succeed.
I am currently in the same situation. Trading 1 lot isn't easy. One reason being is you can't scale out. Here are some ideas. 1. Take the trade and move your stop as market goes your way. The only way to get out is getting stopped out. 2. Trade as if your trading 2+ lots but only putting down 1. This will train yourself when you are ready for more lots. So profit on your first target and then paper trade the 2+ lots. 3. Take small profits be done with it. This is a scalpers strategy which requires very tight stops. Each option has its ups and downs. It is really dependant to your trading strategy. For me option 2 is what's working for my now. Building my account and emotional capital.
Your problem with emotional attachment requires that you have - and use - a system-based fixed target. Why? Because letting the trade run forces you to monitor the trade, which significantly increases your emotional involvement. Whereas taking a profit at a predefined target let's you set it and forget it...which is the only way to overcome your emotional attachment. After years of fighting my own major battles with this issue, the choice became clear. Either fully automate exits and get away from monitoring a trade in progress...or don't trade at all. Keep in mind that you will most always leave money on the table when exiting a trade. It's simply the nature of trading. The goal is not to nail every top or bottom, but to take your cut and move on without getting tied up in every little twitch of a chart.