What I did to solve that was to use software to control the trade once Iâve taken a position. The program sets and moves the stops and the targets. I pick the set up and enter the trade. I could then walk away and leave the program to monitor the trade, as it will follow my plan exactly. When I hear the bell I can come back and look for the next set up.
learn order flow its easy : NOT ! www.doobybrain.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/jackson-pollock-me.jpg
I have a similar problem and had a 90%+ win ratio with negative earnings due to taking winners way too soon and letting losers run to infinity while adding in. I trade ES, YM, and NQ. This may sound strange, but I finally found something that worked for me. Although I had a hard time getting out of losers, I didn't mind putting on new postions which ever direction just as long as I didn't feel stuck or helpless in a postion I was holding; so I put that to my advantage by starting with 1/2 one direction and 1/2 another direction or very slightly skewed if I had a bias (i.e. 4 ES long, 4 YM short). It started my mindset from guessing a direction at the start of the day, and I would "take profits" which ever way the market went. The market nearly always retraced enough to rebalance some - then I work around a new pivot point. I am now actually trading versus speculating, and I usually make about 40-60 total contracts a day. I know it costs more in commissions, but my account has greatly increased since I switched to doing this. Only a couple days in a month has the market not retraced enough, and I had a losing day which was twice the size of my winning days. The key was then to start over the next day and not hold overnight trying to making it back. I did that once and got killed. The thing that took it to the next level was that I try to wait for an inconsistency and buy which ever of the 3 is the lowest and sell whichever of the 3 (ES,YM,NQ) is the highest at about the same time giving myself a bit of a hedge as they usually rebalance with each other. I've only been trading this on small amounts ($12-$20K) before I move some profits - at least for now. This consisently makes me $600-$800/day on that amount with losing days at $1000-$1400. MY last 6 trading days have been extra strong and I took $12,000 to $19,600 (as of this posting time). Hope this makes sense and helps.
Get a program called Camtasia Studio. You can buy it/ DL it online here at http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp . for 299 Its a screen recording software... just like what people use to post stuff on youtube. Learn to use this, it aint hard at all, and get a headset w/ mic and talk as your trading. Your thoughts, entries, exits, lessons learned, and so on.... tip : just dont record for a long time, because it will take forever to render, and the file will be too big to share with anyone at the end of each day you can "watch" yourself trade, and pick up some mistakes you've made. cm
you have just said it yourself, "in backtesting". wouldnt you love to take out some volatility in your equity curve even if it could avoid some runups but also will let you avoid the drawdowns? it serves a psychological purpose to take at least some gain, and isnt this "psychological issue" exactly where your current problem is.