Quote from Gabe2004:
What would you suggest one modifies in his/her behavior with regards to trading?
Before anything else, one needs a blueprint. I call this blueprint a trading plan, or business plan, if you will.
This ensures that you end up building up what your thorough analysis indicates you should. I call the realization of the blueprint "profit"
Now, comes the hard part.
I know traders who've done the work and have a plan that's concise enough to trade without confusion. Yet most of them struggle with following the rules. They hesitate, chase, micro-manage (move stops/targets), jump the gun, and put on trades without a signal in sight. I've done it all, multiple times, to the point of almost giving up, in fact.
All the books, seminars, deeper market analysis, indicators, psychologists, and hypnotists in the world will not magically result in new behavior.
The way to break through these issues is to welcome the discomfort you feel as you begin to do the opposite of the negative behaviors you've been engaged in.
You see a valid setup and it signals a trade.
As soon as you see the signal, ask yourself, "Would I log this as a valid trade on a spreadsheet if I was analyzing the chart at the end of the day?"
If you answer "Yes" then immediately place your order and then sit on your hands until the trade plays out or a valid opposing setup appears and signals a new trade.
It will feel wrong for quite a while because when you're addicted to doing the wrong things, doing the right things feels wrong.
By pushing through your negative behaviors with positive behaviors, your trading results become positive (again, assuming you have a positive expectancy plan).
Then there comes a day when you realize that it all feels quite relaxing. You're alert when a valid setup signals and you look forward to jumping on a raft in the market's river of opportunity. You have no concerns about taking a loss because you know another raft will come by, taking you that much closer to the net positive outcome your business plan provides.
I put on trades every day that would've seemed absolutely perplexing and impossible to me in the past. I'm now totally comfortable because I acted my way into believing that the results I saw in my end of day analyses of price action were attainable in real time if I trusted myself.
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