Quote from NoDoji:
Trading for a living is not about feelings, it's about hard stats.
I can't emphasize enough that feelings have no place in trading. You do research, accrue knowledge, develop rules based on that knowledge, then hold your nose and buy or sell when (and only when) your rules tell you to.
From another perspective, if feelings are in the way, or corrupting, what you know you should do then you need to record how you feel, and any thoughts that triggered those emotions. Analyse why you might feel this way, and with reasoning, explore, examine, and challenge those thoughts and feelings. Identify the irrationality, or distortion. Then replace those thoughts and feelings , on paper, with a more accurate truth. This way you will (sometimes slowly, sometimes fast) take the emotional power away from the irrational/distorted feeling(s) that are limiting your progress.
These emotions are automatic and many go on in life never changing. They don't know how to change, and settle with giving up thinking they're just aren't cut out for it. It comes down to the choice, or choices, we've made.
We are motivated, take action, or not, based on emotions or a specific feeling that we experience. Do you have any habits you want to change in other areas in your life? (I am writing for everyone who reads this, but especially for mrnate22) It might be best to change something like smoking, drinking, eating well, exercising, etc. Anything to teach yourself that you have the power to take control and make necessary changes. Replace bad habits with good habits. Be more positive and loving toward others might be a good one. One small change gives you a sense of power and you go into the next small change with confidence. Get to know this feeling of confidence and apply it to what ever you want to accomplish. You'll start feeling mentally and emotionally stronger. With each change confidence builds.
Then come back to trading with a new, and stronger, mindset that you will make the changes necessary adapting to situations. When you have a chance, you can tell others that it is a matter of changing how you think and feel, and how to persist with the same mindset when dealing with uncertainty when things don't work out. This is how people accomplish things. They are able to adapt to the situation by acknowledging, and identifying what doesn't work for them, and changing to what does work for them. Choose to take control. It's not easy for most, but this is the main ingredient on how to do it. Second, is appropriate support.
Mr. Nate22: I suggest you might try working on other areas in your life (if you have something you want to do and need to change to do it), and consider that this might be what you need to do to build mental strength and confidence. The emotions you feel, which prompts you to choose getting in early, are likely coming from how you cope(d) with situations outside the trading arena. You may have learned how to deal with something in the past, but now is a different time, and a different environment, requiring a different way to deal with it.
When a situation does not provide you with the results you expect write down what happened and why? What were, and are, your thoughts and feelings? Did you assume what the truth was? Is there an alternative possibility, and a more accurate truth? What if this was the truth, and how would I feel about it? Would it be reasonable to think, and feel, differently if a situation like this comes up again? Wouldn't it be in your best interest to stay calm, and avoid jumping to an emotionally based conclusion without first considering other possible truths?
I wish you the best.
Jeffrey
PS So, many don't want to face the truth. Have you ever seen the show "Dragons Den"? The ones I'm talking about have persistence, but their thoughts and feelings are irrational.