Two things. #1. Stop being a pussy and actually trust my system. It was demoralizing to be continuously right about my market calls all the way down to the point of calling damn near top or bottom tick, only to talk myself into passing up the trade. #2. Let my profits run. After I stopped being a pussy, I would take profits way too prematurely. There were many trades in which I'd take, for instance, a $300 per contract profit when it should have been $1200 per contract. My analysis would have suggested that a market could go to this price but I'd jump ship way too soon. Yeah, it's money in the bank but it's also entirely too much money on the table.
Realizing that you're always in a position, even when you're in cash, so you might as well be in the position you feel has the most chance of success between now and the next time your thoughts are lucid. Realizing the trades are made by a multitude of entities with differing perspectives, who all want basically the same thing, and trying to understand which among them is about to be the most committed. Realizing the charts are illusory ...
In one way, at least, it's significantly different (this is a "way" that can easily make the difference between overall profit and overall loss): automated trailing stops, even though to some extent they can be volatility-related, are typically not "local support/resistance"-related. The effects of this can typically be seen by comparing the outcomes of a few hundred consecutive trades, taking the same entries, using each of (a) an automated trailing stop, and (b) a stop-loss manually trailed just above/below the most recently formed swings-high/low. I've done this myself, several times, and seen accounts of others' results from doing the same thing, on a variety of instruments, time-frames and entry-types, but I've never seen the automated trailing stop perform better, overall (and often it's performed significantly worse). It's not something I bother to test, any more: to me, it's "case closed".
Funny thing... I'm having this exact issue now, which is why I asked. Automatically figuring out the support/resistance is going to be a giant pain. I may just do something like keep it above/below 95th percentile of dollar volume in the last X time period as an approximation.
%% Good ones; not that charts are illusory.[They are simply price with a picture] But good points anyway
Learn how to Lose properly is more important than learning how to Win consistently. Becoming the defensive animal that learns to protect themselves while truly acknowledging ones weaknesses is more important than being the offensive animal that swings for the fences & the KO in every round.
it is to know myself realise the basket case that I am. kill my 'old self' that was full of fear greed anger, to be reborn with a new mindset
The last thing (actually the FIRST thing ) is to be mindful be in the present moment, and consciously think what you suppose to think.