After I enter a trade, I do two things: 1. When the trade goes in my favor, I grab the small profit and exit. 2. When the trade goes against me, I wait until it comes back into profit. If it doesn't come back, I suffer a heavy loss. I wonder if I am alone. I looked at the blotters of some traders on ET, and noticed they trade many times a day and seem to have no problem in exiting a losing trade. Why is it so hard for me to exit a losing trade? (I have rules, they don't help).
Read this until you get it. http://www.traderslibrary.com/moreinfo.asp?item=2121&SID=&lc=gurus_homepage
when in doubt get out, the less hesitant you are to take a loss the better you'll be, my game has gone up tremendously recently cause of this.
Is this book similar to Trading in the Zone? I have a copy of the latter. It doesn't help me take a loss.
The reason you have this problem is because you have not accepted reality. The reality is that no trader, not one person in the entire world, can ever predict with certainty where every single trade is going to go. Even the best trader that has ever lived is going to often put on trades that are wrong. He/she will put on trades that he THINKS will go in one direction, but in fact end up going in the other. This is reality. It is obvious. You have not accepted this obvious reality on a core level. You are mistakenly thinking on some gut level that if you just get good enough, you will be able to determine with 100% accuracy whether a given instrument will go up or down. This is an obvious fallacy, and when you truly accept that you cannot possibly predict the outcome of any one trade with any kind of certainty, you will no longer consider yourself as being "wrong" when a trade goes against you. It's just a trade that went the other way. There will be lots of them. When you accept that fully, you will learn how to get out with a small loss. Keep thinking about it until you get it. And don't trade any more real money until you get over this problem.
Finally, if you keep trying to get over this and can't, consider giving up. It's the right option for 90% of the world, because 90% of traders will never make consistent money. You may be one of them - not everyone is meant to be a trader. Think about how much you really want it before you continue wasting money.
You're screwed unless you adjust your thinking and your method. IOWs, you are so very very far from where you need to be. It's ok though, you hold your own destiny in your hands and can turn it around. But you have to be willing to work at it and to look in the mirror and say I know nothing but am willing to learn from my mistakes.
I would guess you either think you are right and the market is wrong, or more probably, you equate taking a loss with failure, and you are trying desperately to avoid failure by holding on and hoping the trade will turn around. You mention having rules. What are they? Do you have a firm stop/I'm wrong about this trade exit point established before you enter a trade? If so, do you just ignore it?