A simple check list might help. Don't take a trade until all items on the list have been checked off.
Thank you for this suggestion, I agree. BUT, I had one written up on Thursday night (a shortened version of my well-written plan) and didn't follow it on Friday. At the top it says, "I must not blow my account by trading stupid." Next it gives a daily loss amount. Next is says I must habitually make choices to not revenge trade. Next is says trades will be correctly taken in alignment with....and gives very specific set up detail. I had the checklist. I broke nearly every thing on the list. It's not a hard checklist to follow. I take the setups all the time in demo. I like the set ups. They are how I want to take trades. However, whether in demo or live trading I struggle to stick to just those set ups or to even take them when they occur, if I don't feel confident that the trade will work. I'm hoping this journal will help me to focus on trading the pre-determined plan that I have. It's really ridiculous that I am struggling as a trader over such a small issue. If I lose money, I'd rather be able to say that I followed my plan and the plan didn't work. But knowing that is my goal hasn't been helping. What I want to do is have the same look, the same time frames and the same set ups every day, always, but I keep fiddling with everything. This journal should also help with getting me to recognize that changing too much is something that throws me off. The accountability of reporting each day on how well I followed rules should result in actually following my rules. If not....I don't know what.....I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.
Thanks. Maybe it would help if I make several copies and have to physically check a box before taking a trade. On Friday I was only mentally checking the boxes...wait, I actually didn't check them mentally, since I didn't follow the plan. I only planned on mentally checking them. Could such a simple thing as physically checking a box make much of a difference? I'll try it tomorrow.
It seems to be quite a common problem; I know what I should do but I can't make myself do it. I wonder if that's why there are so few successful traders.
My advice... Think about what you are thinking about. Think about what you are thinking about as you prepare to check the box. Think about what you are thinking about as you are checking the box. Think about what you are thinking about after you have checked the box. Then, think about what you are thinking about. The more senses involved, the better!
Well worth the read. You have to figure out what it is that you are afraid of that prevents you from doing what you know you should. A trader has to know and be honest with himself.
You have a good eye for the charts. You'll do fine. The question is, when. If you want to be a rules based trader, then read on. If not, no problemo. Skip to next. If you want to try something that could make it easier than you expect to glide out of this morass, get a sidebook and a pencil. Got one already? Good. No not on your computer. Set that steno pad next to your mousepad. This week when you act on something from your chart in a way that you want to do more of - jot down what you did. Forget the screw-ups for next week. Catch yourself doing good. Next weekend boil that section down and summarize it into a prototype set of rules. Then comes the fun part. Week after, start your error log in the same steno pad. When you do something that you want to do less of, then jot that down in your sidebook. Weekend after next boil that section down and summarize it into a prototype set of bad habits. Give your errors short names at the boil down session so in the future you can just jot down ... late entry, missed entry, did not enter, made up a trade MUT - which means entered for reasons that are not defendable or are unsupported by a track record at this time. Eventually you might be ranking these errors according to how much they cost you or how they rate by number of occurances per month. Break a leg!
You have to simply automate your strategy to avoid this issues. If you follow any pattern to get a signal for a trade, then it's feasible. However if every trading setup is unique, for example you read lots of news and try to predict next developments and bet on your guess, then you can't avoid manual trading and best you can do is set trading stops according to your risk management plan.