When I say insane, what I mean is there is not a day that goes by that I don't tell myself, "you could have made money if you were a better trader (or had held/had taken that trade)" Stats aren't really important because I know what's killing me from studying my trades. I'm dying to classic trader issues - long bias, not holding and over trading. All my losing days are due to the things you mentioned; skipping trades, or not holding ones that I should. If I could just fix the holding issue, I'd make a living trading 100%. I am taking too many trades on a small tick chart that don't result in any meaningful move. Watching a larger time scale will encourage holding longer because you don't have every other bar making you think you're wrong.
That thought will keep giving you the manifestation of the emotions that you are feeling, the doubts that you have and the resulting un-timely action/non-action. The fastest way to adjust your VPOA (in the un-edited classic "Think and Grow Rich") is to meditate and quiet your mind.
Every trader can and often does say that. But it can sometimes be a deceptive practice filled with selective perception.
It sounds to me like there are too many factors going on here, and you want to change them all at once, and you think that once you change them all, then problems will be fixed. If you said your problem is not holding trades, then it would be fairly easy to just look back at your past 100 trades and see what would happen if you held for 1 more point, or 2 more points, and see how this affected the overall PnL. Some trades would hit the bigger target, but some might not hit the target now and go all the way back to your entry. But as you're talking about holding longer, you also say you're over trading, so you're taking too many trades. Well, how do you know which ones you should be skipping? Same thing with having a long bias. If you were to say you're only going to trade in one direction, that would be fine, one less variable, but you seem to be complaining about having an only long bias, which means you want to go long and short, and trust me, this really opens up lots of problems. So often you will take a long, and stop out, then take a short, and stop out. Switching to a longer time frame is also a tough cookie to crack because now your stops will maybe have to change, and then the question is if you can stomach that bigger stop, while also holding for the bigger target. You talking about having to change a few things is actually quite tough because then you don't really know what is working and what isn't. Best to isolate one variable at a time.
That is over analysis and mostly mental masturbation - like most of this forum. Trading is not that complicated. Over trading and holding longer can both be fixed by watching a larger time scale. You will see less trades and see the larger turning points. It's that simple.
My post was intended as a donation of FACTS to the OP, not as a discussion of OPINIONS with traders with inferior understanding. Since you brought me down to the mud, let's wrestle (with the only purpose of humiliating you): Your opinion of 'no targets' is a particular case of my general point 4, i.e.: target 0 for a short and infinite for a long, is a particular case of my point 4. I hope I have dumbed down my English low enough for your understanding. Since you posted that garbage, it also means that you are either a very rich trust fund baby, experimenting with trading, or a paper/sim trader with no expenses. As Rodney Dangerfield said: "I have enough money for the rest of my life, unless I buy something". No need to reply, but you are welcome to make a bigger fool of yourself. You've been erased.
It may be the way some people are wired. It may be that you are wired to avoid pain. Some people want to win mainly because the pain of defeat is so bad. To lose hurts more than it feels satisfying to win. When you lose your ego is crushed so not losing is more important than winning. So your not trying to win your trying not to lose. And your very good at it, your strategy is excellent, don't trade. Winning is not your goal. Your ego is on the line with each trade. Some people have the opposite problem, they want to win so bad and losing does not bother them as much. These people trade too often looking for the high of the win while you fail to trade to avoid the pain of losing. How to change? Changing deep seated neuronal channels is incredibly simple. Change your behaviour. And this is incredibly difficult and painful like overcoming an addiction.
You listed these reasons as your main weaknesses to work on. Were these determined solely by looking at your losing days? or did you use any other method/approach to come up with your list? And, just to get a good view of your experience, are you into any types of meditation or "spirituality" type of stuff?