I've been honing a list of rules based on a long running analysis of my losing trades/losing days. Though I often have losing trades, I rarely have losing days. In reviewing my losing days over the past year and working on my basic rules over time, I've found that EVERY losing day came down to a violation of one or more of these rules:
1. Picking and choosing trades instead of trading all valid signals.
2. Trading lukewarm setups or chasing entry deep into a move in an attempt to "get back" a move that was missed because of not trading all valid signals without hesitation. (This one directly relates to #1.)
3. Having a bias based on news or S/R levels instead of trading the price action itself. (This often leads to either counter-trend trading or missing the best moves because the bias makes you think price is going the "wrong" way and will reverse at some point.)
4. Cutting winners before target is reached while letting losers go all the way to the stop loss.
5. Counter-trend trading without waiting for a valid reversal signal
6. Not placing stops at the price where the trade would be invalidated (basically placing wide stops that I believe will never be hit).
Since every losing day was a result of violating these rules, I'm assuming that if I never violate these rules, I'll never have a losing day (except in the case of a system/platform failure, or a news event causing a halt or gap against a position).
At this point in my trading career, the rules I still consistently violate are #1 and #3.
Outside of totally automating one's strategy, have any discretionary traders here managed to overcome these issues and simply trade like a machine, following rules for entry, stop and target on every valid signal?
1. Picking and choosing trades instead of trading all valid signals.
2. Trading lukewarm setups or chasing entry deep into a move in an attempt to "get back" a move that was missed because of not trading all valid signals without hesitation. (This one directly relates to #1.)
3. Having a bias based on news or S/R levels instead of trading the price action itself. (This often leads to either counter-trend trading or missing the best moves because the bias makes you think price is going the "wrong" way and will reverse at some point.)
4. Cutting winners before target is reached while letting losers go all the way to the stop loss.
5. Counter-trend trading without waiting for a valid reversal signal
6. Not placing stops at the price where the trade would be invalidated (basically placing wide stops that I believe will never be hit).
Since every losing day was a result of violating these rules, I'm assuming that if I never violate these rules, I'll never have a losing day (except in the case of a system/platform failure, or a news event causing a halt or gap against a position).
At this point in my trading career, the rules I still consistently violate are #1 and #3.
Outside of totally automating one's strategy, have any discretionary traders here managed to overcome these issues and simply trade like a machine, following rules for entry, stop and target on every valid signal?
