I've this problem. When I am not trading real money I almost have this ability to see into the close future of a stock. Example today. GotherLOct 8th, 8:15 am $CLDC Odds are very low this doesn't break aleast $2. Not in it thou.. I am not always accurate but I am way more times then not. As soon as I start trading real money my emotions take over. I am no longer calm and make the stupidest trades that always goes against me.
great progress. trading is showing you, who you really are start observing your self. realise when your heart starts beating faster. get to see as a third person, the full range of emotions. take a personality test to get to know your self. also much more emotional than norm. just by knowing this, improvement has come. did some activities to 'let go' of such emotions. starting from reflecting on the moment of death. all these don't matter. slowly adding out of comfort zone activities like bungee, solo off trail hikes, solo midnight hikes, & will soon meditate at midnight in cementaries. if you know you will be scared, do it learn to 'let go' even in the smallest of things. argument with family for eg. realise when you are starting to get upset/annoyed, & consciously 'let go'. everything does not matter when you are dying & looking back. hell, trading doesn't matter at all. the outcome doesn't matter at all, it's just some $, is all. putting on 1 grand in risk & getting a 10-fold return, will not mean anything as i die & reflect on life. if you can't put on some risk & eat losses, there are many other things to do. trading is just another way to live
In many cases, fear of loss, fear of being wrong, or fear of success is the root cause. You can see how these can cascade... wrong -> loss -> success avoidance. Many times, it is the last item of a cascade that is the root cause. I have no answer for you however. YOU must be own therapist. I will also point out the argument FOR sim trading (aside from learning platform specific machinations) is clearly dispelled by your post.
Your problem is likely that you do not have a well defined plan of how you will enter and exit trades. If these things are defined, then it is not a matter of "stupid" trades, but not following your plan. Once you have a well defined plan, your only job is to execute that plan.
QUOTE="GotherL, post: 4741223, member: 492307"]When I am not trading real money I almost have this ability to see into the close future of a stock.[/QUOTE] TOTAL HOGWASH. Stop deceiving yourself. NOBODY knows "what's coming next" in the markets. The best you can do is to understand that you are PROBABLY making the right play and you understand why (should be more than a "hope" and more than just a "guess"/"gamble")... and do so with a stop.
Make a plan, set your entry and stop-loss orders, TP order if you wish, sit back and let it happen. Plan out the chart changes that would cause you to get out manually if things were starting to go wrong but your stop hasn't been touched yet. Sometimes its long-term better to let something go wrong, then you can understand what happened and how it can be prevented from happening again. In this case, if your stop keeps getting hit, revise your plan.
Try this, make calls for 10 stocks, then roll dice, if the number is "odd"-you don't trade today and if "even" you record in a trade journal you took trades. It might take away the fears and since you never know when you can sim trade for three months, see how you do.
Same problem, but I CHANGE the plan...ADD shares, ADD more shares until the trade that should have lost only "x" amount has lost 500 times that
If I remember correctly, you blew up a $1K account in less than a week maxing out your buying power on penny stocks. You're never going to be able to control your emotions trading like that. Try risking no more than 1% of your account value in every trade.