Dont go to bed with a price tag on your head- dont do it ! In other words, dont turn a day trade that goes bad into an overnight trade thinking you will sell at the open if the futures are up. Or, dont convince yourself its a good long term investment. Its a bad move.
I know and I agree but have difficulty taking the small loss. What to do? That’s why I don’t trade ATM anymore, only OTM options trading.
Speaking from experience? Anyone hoping shouldn’t be allowed to call themself a trader. Happy Christmas
Stop loss on every trade. Cant get yourself to set a stop loss, then quit trading. Finding yourself moving your stop loss away, then quit trading. For day trades that hit neither your stop loss or profit target by close, close them out at the close. Get your day trading platform to liquidate all open positions at the close. Typically end up holding day trading losses overnight if there was no stop loss or if it the stop loss was pulled and the loss wasn't big enough at the close to the point you would have puked it out manually.
When you go overnight is when you officially are a BAD day trader*, by definition. It is the same as using a short time frame, and when it goes against you, you switch to a larger time frame. E.g. 5 min to 30 minute. You will always find some timeframe that can give you justification, aka "hope". * just admit you suck wind, and stop it, and then figure out how to get better.
If you are a daytrader that means you trade by the day. Close all your trades by the end of day. After all, tomorrow is another day!! Especially after the holiday, it's another year!!! A WHOLE new year of more profit!!! You do NOT want to carry your losses into the new year unless you are doing it for tax purposes. Better to start the new year with profits.