OP: It is not impatience you have a problem with, it's the need to be 'right' that is causing your problems. Your ego and self image is attached to being 'right' and you are 'right' when you make money and 'wrong' when you lose money in your mind and feelings. You need to change this in being 'right' when you follow your tradingplan no matter what the money outcome is. You can be 'right' and lose money, as long you have done what you tradingplan has told you to do. And you can be 'wrong' and make money because you did'nt do what your tradingplan tell's you what to do. That the real issue you have to work on, changing your thought process of what is right and wrong in trading.
+1 for daniel OP, something I did that helped me immediately is to cover up the price ticker and the flashing red and green streaming quotes. If all I can see is the streaming chart and nothing else, then the very small changes + or - a penny are hardly visible and, therefore, cause much less feeling of losing. Each penny tick down makes me feel like a loser and, after several dozen of those, I just can't stand it anymore. But by covering it up, all I see is the price bars and the pattern that it is forming, which is what my decisions are based on anyway. At the risk of sounding wierd, I'm going to share some stuff that is working out for me extremely well in trading as well as all areas of m life. The longer-term solution to the issue of impulsive decision-making in trading is to reconcile with your "inner child." Your impulse to close due to a retracing price movement is coming from a subconscious belief about what is dangerous that you developed when you were very young. Read this. http://tradewithhumility.wordpress.com/2013/06/06/day-2-follow-up/ Most of us spend our lives suppressing this part of our psyche instead of sitting it down like a child and explaining how it's beliefs are no longer valid because "we are no longer 6 years old!" Every time you brush off this fearful kid inside you and ignore it's cries or suppress it's voice, it gets "louder" by becoming more agitated. Kids feel agitated when they feel uncared for or neglected, and this part of our psyche is no different. Promise it that you will protect it from whatever it's scared of and it will calm down. As you consistently address it each time it objects to a decision you want to make, it will learn to trust you, and will calm down allowing you to trade according to plan.
Great thread, I struggle with this too but what has helped me was to reduce my share size down to a level that felt right. I had to find a share size where I was completely board to have the position on and kept increasing the share size to a level where I was slightly uncomfortable. At that level I was still interested in my position but didn't feel the need to watch every tick and was able to hold through a normal pullback.
Impatience is a main cause of loss for most of the traders . They do not analyze market with patience . After open any position they are in hurry to get profits . Forex need patience to gain right position of market .
JJ, I found the same thing a big help for me as well. Great post (yours always are). Syntrade, great link. FOMO is a real demon, creeps in constantly and I have to talk to myself to keep in check.
=============== Jack Schwager Top Traders books helped a lot; + 7-10 years work helped a lot........................................Wisdom is profitable to direct
patience has price to pay. when to apply patience, when not to, all depends on the sitaution. paitence often creates greed.greed will make you stuck with a sitaution like the foolish duck hunter, 9 ducks already in, because he waits for the last 10th, one walks away, then he waits for this walked away one to go back, and on and on, at teh end, he neted nothing and wasted the whole day. it is a losing game. or he didnot plan well. his aim is hunt ducks,not wait for the walked away ones. to me, my plan for duck hunting is if some ducks in, and start to leave (for example left one), I pull and net those not have a chace to walk away. you plan is vague. not clear. if you see signs of mraket retracement, lock the profit and out, then buy back at the retracment support. specifically, you need say to yourself, ifyou see one red bar, out. put a stop loss and leave, play with your kids. that is self-sambotage. when you have a trade, better sit and monitor progress. at any time, it needs your attention to deal with new development. the ripe time (yur exitsignals or your targeted level) of the trade may be present at your absence.the market will not wait for you, and say "he, we need wait for XXX, he has a trade".