Strategy in total dollars, some positions were 2 openings to 5 openings, on average about 3 openings , so about 70 pips today.Two trades were full lot trades of around $60 profit. My problem arises with doing big trades and full lot trades.I start doing million etc. I tried scalping yesterday and I blew up a demo account. File attached again.
You should have a strategy with a set of well-defined rules, which would not let you do something wrong and simply repeat your trades as they appear over and over again.
Also, if whatever activity makes you blow up (even demo) account in just one day, that's one big red flag meaning that something is wrong with your risk management.
When you are trading under stress and concentrating on the screens, you become your true self with your own characteristics and biases.Your natural instincts take over. Try removing a leopard's spots , it never loses them.
Ya, natural instincts are what does not let the most trade profitably. Control over your emotions while trading is probably even harder task than developing and using a decent strategy.
Our temperament, most of instincts and emotions cannot be entirely removed or completely changed, they are bricks of which our personality is built. But we can learn to control emotions, cut negative influences of them and develop those, which lead to positive influence on our trading.
+1 Thank you for an excellent and simple explanation. Your explanation gives the main reasons why discretionary traders (day traders, swing traders and position traders) struggle so much with their trading...they haven't learned or unable to learn how to - control emotions, cut negative influences of them and develop those, which lead to positive influence on our trading. Yeah, I understand it's extremely difficult for most which is why most would rather spend their time & energy tweaking their trade methods in hopes that it will magically allow them to - control emotions, cut negative influences of them and develop those, which lead to positive influence on our trading. Mark
I sent a message to a prospective trader recently, here's an excerpt: Trading is a career where there is no way to ensure "right" no matter how much you study price action and master the best patterns for positive expectancy. Trading is "sloppy". There are wins and losses, and being "wrong" is an important part of every successful trading day because it means you're trading all your setups and even the best setups fail. There aren't many careers where the ability to be "wrong" in a professional manner day after day is a major key to success. That's just one reason why success is so difficult. Following your plan and trading all valid setups are the keys to success. If (and it's a very big "if"), you have what it takes to be able to do this, you will very likely succeed in a big way. I've mentored some traders and can tell you that trading all valid setups and following one's own rules is often as difficult to do as climbing Mount Everest with no training and no assistance. You may believe you have it all together and then one day your first four trades are losses. Can you still follow your trading plan, or will start to deviate? Will you start to size up and trade without waiting for a valid setup so you can get back what you lost? Will you get angry and start trading the opposite of your standard setups assuming they don't work right today? Will you cheat and stop using protective stops and average down as a position runs against you? Will you cut your profitable trades short, trying to scalp back your losses? This is the reality of trading and this is what 95% of traders do. The professionals are the ones who eventually master the ability to carry out their plan, day after day, without fail and not allow one day's results to dictate changes in plan.