I often feel nervous after entering into a trade, even though I felt confident that I am betting the right direction. What would you guys do to overcome this?
I believe every trader is basically nervous as f*ck, ...the moment they place their bet and wait to see how things magically unfold, all in due time, That nervous feeling essentially will never go away. for as long as you trade. -- it's a part of the game, Not betting huge or crazy or without thought helps a tiny bit in managing those emotions. "confident" is kind of an ugly and dangerous word to use in trading...you should never feel confident or too confident in your convictions; Your mind and brain should be very loose and nimble and malleable still for potentially anything, Every minute and second of watching the market...you take in data and perceptions and variables...and those constantly change, in varying degrees, in affecting your future outlook, May the Farce be With You, extraterrestrials
Yes I have been using a relatively small size, I just hope by accumulating winning experience I would be bolder to place bets.... May be wearing one of these shirts helps https://www.redbubble.com/people/stevot/works/27896035-jesse-livermore-reborn https://www.redbubble.com/people/me...0a5-8051-4452-bc20-7dcb994ed1a7&ref=shop_grid
If you're nervous, you're not trading small enough. You can almost trade as small as you like, having as wide stop-loss as you're most comfortable with. Your largest loss will be almost certain, thus no reason to be anxious. So first trade small and widen stop-loss, even if just to feel how trading feels then. This gives great freedom as you release more and more mental shackles and limitations. Second, backtest till you puke. Do this 10-20 times. Then some more, maybe let's say 10-100x that, all the while improving quality of the backtesting process. If your system don't backtest, how can you be even sure it works at all? There are reasons why bad feelings come. Often it's because we're being wrong in some way. Road to instant riches this is not.
I overcame this via changing the times of my workout routine from evening to the 1.5 hours just before the trading day begin. Also, I often do "relaxing techniques" during the trading day and sometimes in the middle of a trade.
As suggested by some of the others here, Trade Small. Also, staring at the screen throughout the trading day will cause more anxiety. If you are frustrated by any of the trades you are in, either coz of a lack of movement or too much movement(depending on strategy), enter another trade to take your mind off that one. If your directional trade isn't going to plan, take a non-directional/neutral trade next.