Trading is certainly not easy, but this is great to see everyone insights... its definitely something which requires patience and discipline !
THIS! Focus on just one stock, people don't realize that each stock or index has a personality, if you can figure it out you can be way more consistent than as if you were looking at 10 stocks
Well, my failures are founded on 2 main traits that I still have trouble controlling even after 5 years of trading. One is Not taking profits when I have them because of greed, the other is not cutting a loss in hopes of it returning because I can't take a loss. I have let lucrative profits turn to losses because I didn't sell at the exact highs of day, and I have let a small loss turn into a big one because it seems like I expect every trade to be profitable right away. Making money trading for me is the easy part, I know how to make money on a consistent basis focusing on just a few names. What I can't control is my damn greed and it ALWAYS leads me to step 1 all over again.
Approach it as would a recovering alcoholic.....one day at a time. Each day say "Today I will take my profits as my system dictates and I will not move my stops away from my targets or add to losses". After a period of time vowing daily to observe your rules, it becomes habit and habits are hard to break. Most of us learned how to trade well before we learned how to behave.
Great advice, I think I read something regarding forming a new habit is as easy as just repeating it for 21 days straight and after that it'll be ingrained in you. I'll take your advice and apply it starting Monday. Thank you.
Did those "lucrative profits" already reached the designated profit target and you then stayed in the trade because of greed (you wanted more beyond the profit target) and then they reversed later to become losses or had the "lucrative profits" not reached their profit target and then they reversed later to become losses ??? Also, you don't know what is going to be the "exact highs or lows" for the day until after the fact (hindsight).
I never have a profit target while trading options. When it goes in my favor a few hundred bucks lets say $680 I'd like to close it out but don't, wanting more, then it dips back down to lets say $370, now I'm pissed that I didn't close out at $680 profit and keep holding thinking it'll go back up, then it dips to $140 profit, now I'm really pissed and hold it per spite not giving a damn anymore because I could've just made a weeks salary for me in 15 minutes but didn't take it. Now that $140 profit turns negative and I'm down -$200, then -$300 then -$400 and then before I know it I just lost a weeks salary in that single trade because I didn't take gains when I should have! This is my biggest problem.