Quote from no_agenda:
I'm guilty of breaking my trading rules today as well.
I shorted SNDK at 48.96 at 1:06 PM as it had again broken down through the previous close. My mental stop was at 49.10 and my target was 48.60-48.50.
It wiggled and wiggled, and came close to hitting my stop but didn't.
Then, for some reason, I got nervous and exited at 1:26 at the same price I'd shorted it at.
What happened next? You guessed it - it fell 45 cents over the next 10 minutes and I could've/should've/would've made my target profit.
Sometimes it's difficult to stick to one's rules.
And obviously you feel like the entire market was watching your trading finger for it to press the button to exit so it could go on down...?
If I had a $ for every time that has happened to me I would be a very rich woman indeed, but I grew out of it, as will you, and the only way to grow out of it is to have the courage to leave it alone.
Cathy made a good point in another thread about the market's wiggle, and ES especially does wiggle a lot, trying to shake out all the weaker players ahead of a good move.
Have you ever noticed how when things start to really motor, there is usually a fairly sharp pull back and then it motors some more even faster? It's the same in the slower times, but because it happens much more slowly and over a longer timeframe, the quick retracements catch more players out.
It's easy to get phased by a very quick and sudden move in the opposite direction that only just moves back to equilibrium and very slowly and then kinda pauses there. That's the very time, when there needs to be most confidence in your system and the analysis of overall direction, because even though there has been a quick shakeout, the direction hasn't changed much.
In around 70% of days, half of those are a single direction day with the odd shakeout move for good measure, the larger proportion of the remainder have a pullback that trends for a reasonable distance and time and then reverts to original direction ( making a pseudo single directional day), and the remainder of that chunk are 2 directional i.e. a strongish trend in one direction follow by a reversal to the other.
If you are with the flow, it still takes courage to stay in, but re-affirming that may well help, and when a few that you have stayed in turn into winners, then it will slowly get easier to ride the wave...
The remainder ofthe days are divided into range days that bounce back and forth a few times, and those that have a sideways direction and basically just drift.
I have no idea if any of that will help. Hope so
Best
Natalie
