I keep cutting my winners

[Wide Tailz]

Guys I have a severe problem and it's driving me crazy.

As soon as I get a good entry and everything looks like it's about to explode, I can't stay in. I would be so rich by now if I could just set a trailing stop and turn off the computer.

Can anyone help me keep from sabotaging my own success?

Any tricks, special chairs or mouse wheel, anything to get my mind off those delicious (but small) profits I can't stand leaving open?

I think I got this bad habit learning to trade on long options and very volatile small cap stocks, that give you about 30 seconds of opportunity to get out alive......

What should I do?

 

[Sekiyo]

You let your winner run by not taking profit.

It’s that simple.

Use stop losses indeed,
Every trade is attached to a stop loss.
You trail your stop once the market advances.

Buddy … If you can’t control yourself,
You need to make it physically impossible.

Habits are learned through repetition.
That’s the only way to learn.
Repeat again.

There can be exceptions to the rule.
Like selling into strength.

But 95% of the time,
You need to stick to them.

Anything come with practice and consistency.

Fear the man who has practiced 10,000 times the same trick. Not the man who has practiced 10,000 tricks once.

You need consistency,
Either use some kind of volatility stops,
Or trail behind x candles or behind systematically defined lows or with a moving average …

You can’t just blindly, randomly do it.

Yeah … There’s always something between us and our millions.

The first thing to learn is to take small losses.
You take small profits because you fear the loss.

It doesn’t bother me to take a loss.
But taking small profits always bother me when it’s unjustified.

In Stop we Trust.

It also gives satisfaction to see the price tanking for days, weeks, months after we’ve been shaken out.

Your task as a fallible and discretionary trader is to squeeze every bytes of return as possible from your strategy.

Follow the rules.
Trust the process.

 

[maxinger]

you posted this in the appropriate Psychology session.

personally, I have to keep reminding myself to be mindful at all times.
While waiting for the signal, I have to be on high alert
and glue myself to the computer screens.

After I enter a trade, I don't want to be on high alert.
after setting the SL and TP, I normally go away from my computer screens
and do some small chores.

It took me many decades to address my horrific subconscious mind problem.

 

[deaddog]

What is your process?
How do you determine that it is time to take a profit?
Have you considered scaling out?

 

[easymon1]

Guys I have a severe problem and it's driving me crazy.

As soon as I get a good entry and everything looks like it's about to explode, I can't stay in. I would be so rich by now if I could just set a trailing stop and turn off the computer.

Can anyone help me keep from sabotaging my own success?

Any tricks, special chairs or mouse wheel, anything to get my mind off those delicious (but small) profits I can't stand leaving open?

I think I got this bad habit learning to trade on long options and very volatile small cap stocks, that give you about 30 seconds of opportunity to get out alive......

What should I do?

Some things that you might look into...
8 targets in trading
https://elitetrader.com/et/threads/...t-right-here-baby.335635/page-20#post-5358043

Bracket Orders - Could Your Trading Method use them?
https://elitetrader.com/et/threads/bracket-orders-could-your-trading-method-use-them.349950/

 

[Wide Tailz]

What is your process?
How do you determine that it is time to take a profit?
Have you considered scaling out?

The only exit process I have is a risk exit. This is the obvious problem.

I have studied my errors and the best thing I could do when I get the itch to exit is buy more, lots more!

 

[guest_trader_1]

First rule: Ignore whoever tells to let your winners run.
Second rule: Take profits by setting up trailing stops. Never ever close a trade by yourself.

 

[deaddog]

The only exit process I have is a risk exit. This is the obvious problem.

I have studied my errors and the best thing I could do when I get the itch to exit is buy more, lots more!

I don't know what a risk exit is.
If buying more is the answer then why are you not doing that.

 

[deaddog]

First rule: Ignore whoever tells to let your winners run.
Second rule: Take profits by setting up trailing stops. Never ever close a trade by yourself.

Isn't taking profits with a trailing stop a form of letting your winners run?

 

[Wide Tailz]

I don't know what a risk exit is.
If buying more is the answer then why are you not doing that.

I don't know!