You said "I'd like to close it out but don't, wanting more...". You should do some statistics work on similar like trades as you described to see the actual numbers and their impact on your performance curve. Sometimes when we see the actual statistics of those numbers, its either enough to encourage good trading habits or enough to stop bad trading habits. It took me a few years to understand something said by another ET member... Its common to see profitable traders go broke. It took me awhile (few years) to fully understand the above statement and its impact on profitability.
I feel like it definitely encourages me to keep going and work on my trading habit demons. Thanks for your advice, I lll see if there is a correlation.
Keep your eye on the trade, keep your eye off the money. I rarely look at profit and loss, I'm obsessed with what the signal of the trade is giving me. Look at it as if it's a game, play the game, not the money. Once you have the game right, money takes care of itself. It's a matter of you switching focus from money to strategy.
@Esko (and anyone else) Correct psychology is the key to successful trading. Three words. 1) equanimity 2) detachment 3) mindfulness These three items as important, if not no more important, than any system of trading you may have. You may now begin googling! ROFL
Almost half of all traders is winning before the expense(tax+comm). However, due to the hugh expense, 90% is losing eventually. For example, my friend told me he spent 20 years in stock market to find a loss of $500K. In fact, he is now winning IF there was NO expense. In average, he lost roughly $2K every month. (20Y=240M) Note that most spend 50 years in stock market, to spend expense more than $1M in cash. (from 30 to 80)
Neither does a good system without proper pyschology. A mediocre system with good psychology can be more profitable than a good finely honed system with poor psychology.