Go to minimum leverage or CFDs or sim until you have a few consecutive winning days. Also read inspirational and motivational books. Doesn't have to be trading related.
Based on the fiction book "Il buio e il miele" and another old movie? Got to get the head right on what your goal is, OTT, tongue in cheek but useful speech:
there are only two situations when a person does not continue 1. when he can not continue 2. when he thinks he can not continue one has to decide which is his situation before he does not continue
Since today is Friday, you might want to take a pause from what your doing, especially since its not going in your favor. Try to set some time aside and write down everything you know about your trading plan on paper. After your done writing, go ahead and take a break for a day or two. When i say take a break i'm saying do not think one bit about trading. Go do something manual that switches your thinking from one side of your brain to another. Once your break is over, take a look at your trading plan with fresh eyes. Than determine if it has a solid structure or if it makes sense. If not ? since you've done this before, you know the process. Getting your confidence back requires you to have a solid approach. If your trading plan is wishy-washy than your in for a battle not worth winning.
Trading is difficult because: 1. You have to have a working strategy and money management. This is considerably hard to find, but not too hard. 2. You have to have a strong psychology to go through the losses in the process of learning and in the process of shaping your psychology to suit your trading style. It's painful, especially when you will not be seeing any profit probably for a few years, but you have to face it. There's no other way around this. It takes time for you to 'fix' your psychology. The longer it takes, the longer you will suffer. Best way to hasten this? meditation. In the process, because you are weak psychologically (not trying to be mean here), you will tend to change your trading strategies. Your trading strategy will change along with your psychology. Sometimes you will go back to your previous strategies, then you will ditch it, then you will go back again, and so on. When it is working you will be happy, when it starts to lose, you will ditch it, even though statistically it is a winning strategy. As time passes, your strategy as well as your psychology 'volatility' will reduce and it will start to stabilise. It's something converging. That's when you will start breaking even. It will come to a point, so narrow, that your strategy and psychology fluctuates very little and you will have a working strategy suited for your psychology which you have shaped along with it. Then you will be profitable. In conclusion, never give up if you really wanted to succeed. Also, always be observant, observe what works and what doesn't. The subconscious will take care of the rest. Most importantly, you have to be relaxed. Only when you are relaxed, your mind is clear, be indifferent. Let your subconscious do the rest. Being worried or sad will not help, they will worsen it. Maintain the momentum, do not leave trading for years and come back later. It's like diving towards the seabed, halfway through, you resurface and then dive again, and resurface again, and you will never reach the seabed. Good luck. never give up.
OP here is my opinion: Traders experience gut wrenching pain only when they take large, unexpected losses after not following their rules. I've done plenty of this, so I know what I am talking about. You must ask yourself a couple questions: -what is the maximum daily loss that I am comfortable taking? -how many trades do I plan on taking per day? If you are only comfortable losing $150 a day plus commissions and plan on taking 2 trades per day, that is fine. But then you must set your stop loss so you lose $75 per trade maximum, and after 2 losing trades you shut down the computer for the day and come back tomorrow. If you can religiously obey that self-imposed rule, then you will no longer feel victimized by the market, even if you lose 5 days in a row. From there, it would be helpful to start looking at profit targets as 1/2/3/4X of risk. You should aim for 2X targets - if you are risking $75, take $150 profits. You don't have to follow this plan exactly, but in my experience, adding this type of "structure" to your trading day will stop the feelings of victimization when trades go against you. Powerful quote: “Losing money is the least of my troubles. A loss never troubles me after I take it. I forget it overnight. But being wrong – not taking the loss – that is what does the damage to the pocket book and to the soul.” - Jesse Livermore