Thanks for all the good replys Thursday made one impulsive exit and one impulsive trade. First trade of the day was according to plan, bought support in uptrend. Stayed in control, didnt get sucked in before it reached my marked support. Second trade shorted the resistance at 1010. When I took the trade I acknowledged it was against the bigger trend and was gonna exit when it turned if it didnt show momentum. This leaving room for interpretation probably was the mistake. Watched every tick from there. Didnt exit when it turned and had satisfied my RR requirements. Instead started hoping for more. So got so hypnotized by the chart and didnt take any breaks that when it made a fake BO during lunch I immediately jumped on it. Against plan to enter trades during lunch. Well, maybe identifying the problem is a good step.
Still thinking more about this. Its like I have available 1 hour worth of chart-staring life per day. More than that and I start losing control. One scenario is that I get so fixated on the current situation that I dont think ahead and then something unexpected happens and I have an impulsive reaction. I use the chart I posted above and then a smaller 1-3min chart with vol plotted. One scenario is that this sentence nailed it. This stuff does not happen on sim. I think I will now have to focus on working around this issue by staying away from the chart and watching out the window and maybe some day I'll understand what is going on.
An impulse trade is not necessarily bad, if it looks good, why not take it. If you are always swift to take a small loss if the trade is acting 'right' then you need not worry about losing much money.
I too have at various times suffered from impulsive trades. For me, any impulsive trade is bad because it is a divergence from strategy. My only solution has been a 15 minute rule. If I have a loser I shut Sierra Chart for 15 minutes, write up the trade, think thru the trade, and what I should be looking for and doing next. Then 15 minutes later, emotion free, I trade well again.
It doesn't happen on sim? I couldn't even trade on the simulator because trading was boring and seemed pointless. Let me tell you - everything you are describing matches my experience 100%. The thing you said about getting hypnotized by staring at the chart for too long, and everything else. After trying in vain for 12 years, the only solution I found is automated trading. But even after implementing it, I cannot let myself stare at charts, nor at quotes. If I do, after a few minutes, I'll start making trades again, and lose as a consequence. For a few months I've been losing with discretionary trading what I was making with automated trading. The only solution therefore is to stay away from the computer, even though making money without doing anything at all makes me feel guilty. Unless you belong to that 1% or so of population who can keep calm and rational in situations where you playing with your life and future, like in trading, day trading will drive you insane. No one will go crazy, only because you'll lose all your money much sooner. The reason there's plenty of discretionary traders making money here and giving you advice is because the only ones who are sticking around are the ones who made it and who belong to that 1%. Instead, I belong to that majority of unprofitable discretionary traders, who are not here anymore, because they all quit. The only reason I am still here is that I also do automated trading, and that it works. But as a discretionary trader it is as if I quit. You see, the others also quit, but they didn't have the time/energy to implement automated trading. As a consequence, all you see here is successful discretionary traders, despite the fact that they belong to 1% of all traders (it's just a figure I made up, of course, but they're definitely a small minority).
Hmmm... reduced size just a little and problems went away. Could suddenly look detached and analyze for 1h on the charts. Continuing research, I will solve this somehow.
I setup using 2 trading doms side by side one live and the other in sim mode. The sim dom I will take impulse trades,setups that have slipped in performance or new setups. If I reach my goal or loss limit I will move over to sim mode.
I think if the chart doesn't jump off the screen at you right away it probably isn't that good.It should be clear as day.