Staying with a trade is one of the hardest things to learn. I suggest a mechanical exit of some sort. A target, a trailing stop, whatever, then just let it run its course. Sitting there and watching those bars turn red and green after you're in the trade will drive you bananas.
Amen to that rider... the hardest thing for me to learn thus far is to set that badboy on automate, make sure that it entered the trade, walk away, and check once per bar interval or two (60 minutes)...
I did not trade yesterday. I was busy with endless meetings all day about the same old problems that seem to have different solutions every week!!! Easyrider: that's exactly what I'm experiencing for a long time now. I don't seem to find a solution. I put a trade I walk away, then I come back 5 or 10 minutes later to see how things turn out; 80% of the time that's where I close the trade. The other 20% the stop is hit already. Starting next week, here is my strategy for managing trades: I look for a win/loss ratio of 2:1. I put a trade, I walk away and come back 20 minutes later. If the price has moved favorably by my initial risk, I'll tighten the stop by half of initial risk (risking only half). Then, I walk away and come back 30 mns later at least. We'll see if I can stick to this.
Because you are trading on a longer time frame, I assume it is easy for you to manage, cause you can't decide unless you see at least another bar forming and that's an hour later. Probably, longer time frames help you to be patient. For me I can't trade on those time frames for multiple reasons. When trading on 5 minutes bars, you get more signals and you are tempted to reassess your trade very often. Usually you'll always find a reason to justify closing the trade, particularly if there is one or two points to take. You know how weird and selective the brain is!!
Today, three scratch trades for one point gain. Total: 6.75 pts loss Number trades: 31 Largest Win: 2 pts Largest Loss: 3 pts
Today, I made three trades for a 2.25 pts profit. I managed to hold two trades for more than 25 minutes. I did not use my strategy, there were no signals. I tried something on Market Profile, together with a resistance at 1286.5-1288.5. Total: 4.5 pts loss Number trades: 34 Largest Win: 2 pts Largest Loss: 3 pts