How to overcome the inability to accept small losses when wrong on trades?

_eug_ said:
I took a month and a half break from trading from mid April till early June but continued to follow and study the markets. I also had a bit of an existential crisis trying to figure out if its time to give up trading and move on to something else. This was a very though time I must admit. Started to smoke cigarettes. I worked though the issues and got back into trading in June.

I traded 4 stocks in June, 3 were losers which I was able to cut exactly where I planned to and one was a massive winner where I gained 30%. The trade management wasn't great on the winner because I left an additional 10% gain on the table by not closing on break of support but I still managed to make my biggest gain since starting to trade and it was on no leverage. I basically made back half of my losses from the last year and a half in 1 trade. This confirms for me that holding trades over night and trading with the trend is the way to go.

Something has changed in my mind now and the P&L has no effect on my emotions. Really strange feeling actually. I hope that I can continue this way.

There was also a mismanaged trade in the S&P in June which was profitable but I let it come back to the entry where I closed break even. I was expecting support to hold but it did not so I bailed.

Since the start of July I am sitting on a pretty good S&P long in a x2 leverage etf (not ready to trade ES until i prove myself) and will not let this come back against me.

Stopped day trading and trying to scalp rotations and things are looking good for now. Thanks everyone who participated in this thread.
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I'm beginning to suspect you're trading "without stops" and/or "without adjusting your stops into a trail stop when a trade moves your way.

That in itself alone will allow your emotions to 100% control your decision making process. To take a little of that control back...you gotta use stops & trail stops.

Another possibility, you have not backtested your trade method even as a discretionary chart reader. Backtesting can help greatly with not exceeding your limits or thresholds or whatever...that in itself prevents becoming an emotional discretionary trader.

You'll be able to accept a small loss and you'll know how much time it will take for you to recover from that loss in comparison to your recovery from a big loss allowing you to better manage your risks (risk management).

wrbtrader
 
You are right, I dont use hard stops or do any "backtesting" as in statistical analysis. I did spend lots of time studying historical charts as well as the live market to look for when the edge appears and how to trade it. I have mental stops and I am getting much better at sticking to them. That is how I prefer to trade.
 
wrbtrader said:
I'm beginning to suspect you're trading "without stops" and/or "without adjusting your stops into a trail stop when a trade moves your way.

That in itself alone will allow your emotions to 100% control your decision making process. To take a little of that control back...you gotta use stops & trail stops.

Another possibility, you have not backtested your trade method even as a discretionary chart reader. Backtesting can help greatly with not exceeding your limits or thresholds or whatever...that in itself prevents becoming an emotional discretionary trader.

You'll be able to accept a small loss and you'll know how much time it will take for you to recover from that loss in comparison to your recovery from a big loss allowing you to better manage your risks (risk management).

wrbtrader
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what does that 'new mean see screen shot follow the red arrow:the yellow box
new.png
 
padutrader said:
what does that 'new mean see screen shot follow the red arrow:the yellow boxView attachment 188297
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I've never seen it before. Maybe ET owner is trying some new coding or implemented a "new post" to the thread icon ???

Check to see if it's under the same for everyone else or if you only see it on new posts to any thread.

Edit: I see it now to on "new posts" in other threads. Must be something new that was recently coded in the forum considering I've been here awhile and have never seen it before until now or I just didn't notice it before.

I saw it on your post and the post by the Op )_eug_.

Oddly, it disappeared when I went into my "Alert". Therefore, must be an alert that tells you that there's new posts in the thread that you're reading.

wrbtrader
 
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Sebastian11 said:
You can not wait long on this market after realizing a mistake as you have to get yourself out of the scene as soon as possible with minimum loss.
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%%
True; part of the picture. But a noise small stop simply wastes money/ commissions/time.In other words NO such thing as a business -without expences.:cool::cool:
 
So I am now break even on my trading efforts. 1.5 years of digging a deeper and deeper hole and now I have finally climbed out. Two swing trades reimbursed me for hundreds of small wins and small / big day trading losses. My last trade was on July 19th, it was closing the swing trade. I've now been patiently waiting for a good r/r swing trade in the equity indexes that can be held for a few weeks.

We will see if my patience is not really hidden hesitation.
 
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