you might want to check out a webinar that's happening in about half hour by Dr. Andrew Menaker, a trading psychologist who also trades and deals with this stuff all the time. I don't have the link handy, I'm sure you can find it on your own.
It's human nature to avoid pain, and in trading that can be the pain of losing money or the pain of being "wrong". In a sim account you excel because your focus is on trading your setups. There's nothing "real" at risk and so you see your setup and you trade it. You're probably not afraid to hold through price wiggles, in fact you may hold winners much longer than you've ever held a live position. Once you switch to real money, your vision becomes filtered by fear - fear of losing money, fear of being wrong. When you see the price action environment as "glass half empty", you notice things that have nothing to do with your setups and trade management plan. So you hesitate to take a position on a valid setup, then the position is working and you're not in it, so you may chase an entry which can ruin an edge. Or you take a trade and as soon as price runs a bit in your favor, you move the stop to break even because it's very comfortable to be in a situation where you can't lose money on the trade (but I'll bet you NEVER immediately cut short a trade that runs a few ticks against you; heck no we hold for the full loss!) Your b/e stop is hit and price starts running back in your favor and you chase back in, again diluting your edge. And so on. There's no easy way to cultivate a trader's mindset once you've indulged in bad habits. It's a long process that involves feeling stress and discomfort over and over again, until the joy of consistent profits finally convinces you to just shrug your shoulders, hold your nose at the hard right edge, say "Here we go..." and jump. Leap and the net will appear!
When you have lost all confindence and all trades you didnt trade look better that the ones you did or are trading then .............stay out of the market let the "successfull" trades pass by . Tomorrow is another day .
Thats the beauty of his system, you don't need a stop. He is a scientist and possibly even on speaking terms with W.D. Gann. Come on girl, get with it.
Something to think about, if you never give it a chance then the dream is still possible. The fear could be what if you can't make it work. That could be a reality you don't want to face. Whats going on with all the wonderful fatherly advice, how much damage is done. Oopps, sorry I wasn't being politically correct I am sure mothers also screw up their kids. There everyone feel better know. How many times have we heard, No, you can't, stupid, you are not smart enough, etc.... probably more than the magic number 10,000.
I'm about half way through Rande's book. So far good stuff. He has free articles and webinars that all address the traders psych issues. The book is cheap, imo and might be of interest to you. http://www.tradersstateofmind.com/mindful_trading.html
Place it 3 points and if you see it come back than remember to buy it back, because the move may just be beginning to shine. I mean that is if you think or do get stop out. On this this you should be fine and 3x ETF moves 300% more than avg, so in a volatile environment let it get to work.
yes, nodji nailed it. every serious price action trader strives to trade as robotic as humanly possible. that is the goal. BUT, it takes a lot of freaking time to get there. you need to get very comfortable with your setups, understand the nuances, and just take the trade and manage it ROBOTICALLY. this takes a lot of time and a lot of effort.