Donât beat yourself up to much. In this business someone who is great one year goes out of business the next. Someone with a Harvard degree wins one year then goes bankrupt the next. The ones who survive are the ones who manage other peopleâs money and charge huge fees. They wont gamble with their money but will take wild bets with yours, and if they loose your money they still get their fees. Itâs these scum bums who win at this business. Are just invest for the long term and cost average in over time in an index. That is the best way to win, cost average into the SP500 over 40 years I bet you beat most of the hot shots.
Do what you love and fell happy, whether it's tough or not! Perhaps scale it down to a very minimum and do it part-time. Focusing on profits would never succeed.
I'm sorry but YOU didn't have a "plan". Admittedly I do not know you or any specifics, but based on what the OP posted (went from vague to semi-vague to highly-specific back to vague, etc. etc.) I think that is where you went wrong. You cannot be successful at this with too much variability. You've tried a few things...now take a step back do something else and it will come together for you - the plan! paysense
Create a journal starting next week. Do this by having a digital recorder next to you as you trade. As soon as you enter a trade, record exactly why you entered the trade or what was going through your mind. It should be short, just a couple sentences. Do the same for when you exit the trade. I would also suggest picking only one instument to trade. At the end of the day type out what you recorded and summarize your trading day, detailing what you did wrong and what you did right. After a few months, go back and read these summaries. You will probably find that there is either a pattern in your behavior that you need to change, or something in your trading plan needs to go, or both. I believe this is a good way to identify what it is you need to change, instead of tweaking your trading plan daily without any guidance. Keeping a journal may seem a like a chore at first, but after a while you become very proficient at it. And over time, your strategy/edge will move in the right direction. Right now you're spinning your wheels in the mud. If I were to guess, I would say the reason why you can't follow your plan after you enter a trade is because you lack the confidence needed. Changing your trading plan every day based on what you did wrong or right for that day does nothing for your confidence and consistency.
Many are offering the OP advice, but I don't see how they could without knowing his situation. To the OP: How old are you? What is your education? What were you trading? What is your trading capital? Do you have savings? Debt? Do you have non-trading income? What are your expenses? What is your living situation, marital status, have any dependents? Do you really want to give up on trading?
I agree with the people that you have to have an "edge" - but what that edge is is very dependent on you and your mindset/style/timeframe. This guy doesn't blog anymore, but he has some great insight that I think would benefit you. Read this post, as I think it addresses what you say you have done over the past year: http://traderx.blogspot.com/2006/09/chasing-success_16.html
50/50 (greater than, less than) is an illusion in the markets -- either you are right or you are wrong for any given trade. You can try to reduce any given opportunity into a game of probabilities, but most resort to that because they have nothing better. Sure, in retrospect you can say a good trader will have a greater "expectation" than a poor trader, but that has nothing to do with the probabilities of the next trade. I'm sure many will disagree. Take the reaction of crude oil after thursday's report -- where is the 50/50 in that? Buying the instant right after the report, or selling into the spike the followed: what entries, what targets, what pain thresholds constitute "greater than 50/50"? The point is, learning about what does work and what doesn't in the markets really never boils down to probabilities at all, but instead revolves around sound concepts and flat-out experience. It's those who focus on the rear-view derivative (aka TA), as opposed to the impetus behind market movement, who deal in terms of probabilities in general, because they find nothing else to analyze except the results of their own trades.
Trading is gambling when u are new,if a jockey said take the number 4 horse in the 5th,the other jockeys are gonna let me win,and u knew it was a sure thing u would place a bet and win,now u are at the track and there are 9 more races and u are up $2000,do u bet some more or go home? The first bet was a smart trade because there was a high probability that u would profit,staying for the next 9 races and giving it back is what a new trader would do. He has no idea what's going on and his jockey friend (the knowledge)has left the park. If you want to learn to trade,u have to wait for setups,when u r new u won't see them that often,if u trade anyway and lose ,then when u do see one u will only be recouping some of your losses, and still be net loss on your intial acct bal. The smart trader would have taken the $2000 and went home. The gambling side is very common,that euphoria from winning is a strong drug that compels u to keep playing,if you see this as a setup for dummies and resist being one u will keep yourself out of a lot of bad trades.
to OP: u has identified your mistakes next steps: dont repeat your mistakes quitting will not solve your problems, you just ignore it. take the bull by its horn